[Bryan 45]

Before the XSE line of 1911s, Colt put out the XS guns for about a year. I've seen stainless Governments, blued Governments, and LW Commanders in this model. Typically they had a mixture of CMC style thumb and grip safeties, some had the duckbill GS, and sights were either 3 dot Hardballer style or a non-typical low mount snag free rear sight.

Do these XS guns carry much of a premium over the XSE guns?

 

[dakota1911]

When I see them for sale in gun stores down here, no.

 

[gohunt]

Slight if any, although there is a school of thought that believes these were amongst the finest 1911s ever produced by Colt.

 

[RickB]

Typically they had a mixture of CMC style thumb and grip safeties, some had the duckbill GS, and sights were either 3 dot Hardballer style or a non-typical low mount snag free rear sight.

All XS model had proprietary thumb safeties and "Colt Competition" sights, and Caspian-sourced beavertails.
Duckbills, etc., were characteristic of the pre-XS enhanced, and post-XS XSE models.

 

[Vin63]

There is a niche collector market, but there are also many who did not like the features of the Enhanced Series, so it's kind of a push.

 

[Bryan 45]

Thanks for the info, gentlemen.

I have a stainless XS, which is as Rick describes- Caspian beavertail and "Competition" sights.

My 01980 blued gun, which I thought was also an XS, is actually a very early XSE. It had the duckbilled safety, and staked front sight, Hardballer type rear sight.

 

[Giddings]

The thing about Colt is...

they have made so many "low production" models, for probably many reasons.

What that means is that not many of the supposedly rarer models are really a "better" 1911, they're just a "rarer" 1911.
What I think a collector has to consider is that while there are variations that are not as common as others, the thing is, the number of variations turns out to be tremendous.

So now we're down to the bottom line that a "rare" Colt 1911 may itself be rare(er), but there seems to be a ton of "rare" 1911's, so finding a rare gun isn't so difficult because there are a LOT of rare guns. Hope that makes sense.

There are some that truly are rare for reasons other than just being made in lesser numbers, and those are the ones that become truly "collectable".

All of mine are as rare as can be because they're mine and no one else has them.

 

[wetidlerjr]