The korean markings are 부진제. 부진(Pujin) could possibly be short for 부산진(Pusanjin), which is the former name of Pusan(부산). Pusan was in South Korean territory all along, so DPRK flag is an error
It's 부산진 조병창(Busan-jin Armory) according to namuwiki. Also, Dasan Machineries manufactures a licensed variant of the M1911 called DHP45(formerly DSP1911)/DHP40/DHP9, the latter two being variants that use .40 S&W and 9x19mm.
+Vegas Cycling Freak That wouldn't surprise me either, I doubt brazing is strong enough to hold those pieces together when spewing rounds at some ridiculous rate.
why many foreign people jealous to vietnamese historical great things?imagine that you just had a hand saw,a piece of metal,a water pipe and some fucking gas stove in hand.what can you do to copy an 1911?those handmade guns were severing good to win the civil wars,French,japan and usa war.of course they have a lot of nice guns but that's a war,not something that you even can imagine in movies and it's nothing to do with death wish,it should be called cheat death.So shut up idiots.
Holy cow...I served in korean armored unit and used 1911 when I was a sgt.Amongst troops, 1911s with korean markings were considered legends and interesting story...until now
I've heard the same thing from a vet that belonged to the same VFW as my grandfather. I don't remember much except him saying it was the only 1911 he could keep. He got it of course from a dead Chinese officer he killed during an attack on their FP. He also told me that after his buddy was hit he then single handedly killed 3 platoons (or a few shy of a company) of Chinese after they armttacked the FP. Now I honestly don't know if he was serious or drunk,he maybe meant killed them by artillery he called in I don't know I was just a kid.
Ian, I was an Army civilian in Korea in the 1980s and knew some sergeants who were finding receivers in street markets, then were ordering all the rest from that publication back stateside. They put together some truly interesting pieces.
@@filthymolotovite probably because the gun was manufactured by the viet cong. the north vietnamese had all kinds of chinese and russian guns, but the viet cong couldn't always get ahold of that kind of stuff
Korea was much more industrialized at the time than the Viet Mihn guerrilla in the south One was literally a standard army with factories and cities under it's territory and the other was a bunch of dudes in the forest with files
ㅂㅜ ㅈㅣㄴㅈㅓㅣ mean made in Busan Jin steelworks. After Korean war truce. This steelworks made lots of gun for South Korea army. In 1973, president Park order to move this arsenal Pusan to Changwon. This new arsenal made M16A1(licensed) and K series guns. Then the arsenal was selled Deawoo. in end of 1990s Deawoo company bankrupted, the arsenal part was separated by government and then change name S&T motiv
There is a big chance that Pusan Iron Works used the same approach at gunmaking during the Korean War that the Polish resistance and the Israeli Haganah used. They took one original gun as a template, made a reasonable number of copies from it and than put one original part in each one of the copies in a "Ship of Theseus" kind of way to ensure the clearances were right.
'Busan Iron Works' was the first armory of ROK and it is now called S&T Motiv, the largest firearm manufacture in the country. The company is still at the city of Busan. This 1911 is the very first step of all history of Korean modern firearms.
Congratulations. You're the first person i've seen that's pointed this out without reading the description. Why does it even exist if no one is going to read it.
The Korean characters on the gun-side read ‘부진제(Bujinje)’, which is abbreviation for '부산진제철소(Busanjin jecholso)’i.e. BusanJinJecholso. Busanjin Iron Works. Busanjin(=Pusanjin) is now a district of Busan(=Pusan) city of Republic of Korea(South Korea). So, it is necessary to replace the flag in thumbnail.
Other examples of using salvaged items discarded by US GIs in Korean war: 1. Kitchen pots that were literally hand hammered out from 105mm shell casings. 2. Budae-jjigae (Army Base Stew) - popular Korean stew invented during Korean war, main ingredients included spam etc. At the height of the Korean war, literally half eaten cans of food dumped by GIs at trash dump were picked up and cooked for food.
+Pi C I have a beautiful serving platter and what I believe to be a 4 piece wine glass set made in Korea from hand hammered brass recovered shell casings that I inherited from my uncle. He bought the set from a local shop when he served there and sent it back home to my grandmother. It is still in the box and has never been used.
For the Korean characters 부진제 (Bujinje) my best guess is that it's short for 부산진 제철소 (Busanjin jecheolso), literally Busanjin Iron Works (Busanjin is the central district of Busan). I'm not totally sure but that's what a quick google dug up for me.
as to the quality and service life for this "1911" I would definitely carry it in my holster as a backup gun, if I were a South Korean soldier. It is not meant to be a IPSC gun, for shooting thousands of shots. It was meant to fire but a few in combat. If any at all.
Ngl that 1911 was pretty close to a real 1911, if they had a but more knowledge and better materials and stuff they'd make some pretty damn good copies tbh
The Korean letters '부진제(ㅂ ㅜ ㅈ ㅣ ㄴ ㅈ ㅔ)', pronunces as 'PU-JIN-JE' means PUsan-JIN -Factory(부산진제작소). 'Pusan' is the second largest city in Korea and 'PUsan-JIN' is a name of a town in Pusan. The last word 'JE' maybe came from Japanese. Korea was a coloney of Japan for 36 years, and in Japanese, a factory is 'SEISHAKUSHO(製作所)", the Korean pronunciation is JE-jak-so. After the second world war, United States took over South Korea till 1948, and Pusanjin factory may be one of the small factories which made steel parts or small firearms for japanese military during war. U.S. military advisory group tried to use this factory to modify japanese 7.7mm rifles to U.S. 30Cal.(7.62mm) for newly established Korean army, and after 1948, several factories merged to become an armory for Korean military. Northern part of Korea.... It's not even a nation or country....the head of notorious dictatorship Kim Jeong Eun is a grand son of a Korean war criminal Kim IL Sung, with that war, nearly three hundred thousand people became the victims of the war, thirty six thousand U.S. Army killed. This Korean made M1911 was used to protect freedom and peace against evil, definitely not related with North.. A good piece of history...
Hello Ian! I am always enjoying your video, watching all kinds of rare firearms which we can never see or shoot in Korea. Nice to see that you commented the mistake!! I was bit worried because I saw the title with Pusan but it actually had DRPK's flag on the video. Actually I was quite surprised because Pusan was the Maginot line for South Korea! Pusan was never occupied by the North Koreans. It is amazing to see guns made in Korea outside of Korea. I hope one day you review the guns from Korea in a chronological order!! P.S. Hope the flag changes to RoK's flag.
Also, the writing on it looks like it is written not in a typical because we place consonants under the vowel. So it should be like 부진제, but it is written like ㅂㅜㅈㅣㄴㅈㅔ. I also believe there are two possible analysis in this abbreviation. First, it can be abbreviation for 부산진 제련소, which means pusanjin ironworks. The next possibility is 부산진 제; 부산진 means pusanjin, and "제" in that case means it is made from a place. So it will mean that this pistol is made from pusanjin. Hope this helped!
Great work Ian. Lol for the mistaken flag. Some here said N Korean troops came near Busan during Korean War. That is incorrect. However, North Korean military leadership did have a plan to conquer/destroy Busan (essentially its port) and came within 20 miles to accomplish their goal. On 1st night of the Korean War (June 25/26, 1950), a patrol craft of South Korean navy by chance stumbled into a 1,000 ton freighter 20 miles from port of Busan. The freighter was packed with 600 to 1000 North Korean troops. Their mission was to land in Busan port and either occupy/destroy it. Considering lack of South Korean troops there, North Korean troops easily could've succeeded only if they landed. They were stopped only by this chance encounter with the small 280 ton patrol craft from South Korea. Machine gun fire from freighter killed few sailors on the patrol craft but a 3inch main gun on the patrol craft did sink the freighter with all N Korean troops killed/drowned. The sub chaser was originally launched in 1944 as USS PC-823. It was donated to South Korean navy in 1949 and renamed to ROKS Baekdusan (PC-701). I read somewhere that when she was donated, a 3inch gun was installed in Pearl Harbor (pic of this is available online) as the ship was being ferried from continental US. Along with the main gun, 100 shells were included. No replacement was expected and S Korean govt had no fund to replenish. So the sailors simply drilled shooting it but never fired a live round until the very engagement on that fateful night.
This is the level of manufacture anyone in dire need of a firearm is more than pleased with. Basic, bit rough and yet fully functional (it's not build to last forever, but will be capable of handling more than what average front line soldier life expectancy is).
Maybe they all had korean barrels but then, since it was the part most prone to failing after some shooting, it was also the one part that subsequent owners replaced. Maybe their barrels systematically fail very quickly while the other parts only rarely fail and rarely need replacement. Or more probably I'm wrong and the factory did use american parts from the beginning on.
interesting!!I'm guessing this might have started as simply a repair operation making a few parts till some one decided "Well lets just knock the whole thing off."
Seems to be pretty well made considering it's a shop built, almost certainly worse grade metal, and fit and finish is rough, but functionally not terrible.
It's 부진제 [Bujinje] (The Korean characters were put inline on the arm). Most likely, the company's name was 부진 [Bujin], as 제 [Je] usually refers to a production company.
I've heard the same thing from a vet that belonged to the same VFW as my grandfather. I don't remember much except him saying it was the only 1911 he could keep. He got it of course from a dead Chinese officer he killed during an attack on their FP. He also told me that after his buddy was hit he then single handedly killed 3 platoons (or a few shy of a company) of Chinese after they armttacked the FP. Now I honestly don't know if he was serious or drunk,he maybe meant killed them by artillery he called in I don't know I was just a kid
[Names and Places] * "Boo-Jin-Jae" is one of markings for Busanjin Armory (Busanjin Jo-Byung-Charng: Armory at Busanjin) in early 1950's. * This Armory was a WWII era Japanese armory that US Military took over after 1945. Two separate entities later became the new BA, but at least during the time this gun was manufactured, there were BA (Government Owned) and "Busan Iron Works" (Private company). * Boo-Jin-Jae": "Boo-Jin" is a shortened marking for Busanjin (Iron Works). "Jae" means "Manufactured". * BA and BIW both were in Busanjin (Fort Busan) area in Busan. [Speculation] * When Allies occupied Germany in WWII, the French troops captured Walther factory in Germany. Then, some French-made P-38 were made with similar insufficient parts and less-than-standard finish to arm French domestic security units. It is possible that this BIW 1911 was made under the same notion by Busan government (that was under US military influence then). A little bit of circumstantial speculation here. It is possible that this gun was made just before the Korean war (6/25/1950) for domestic security purpose. It may not be for the war, and US parts were possibly made available to BIW under US military supervision. [Lineage for Korean Small Arms] * The BA and BIW later merged. The (new) BA later manufactured M-16 under Colt's license in the 70's for ROK Army. * BA was later sold to S&T Daewoo (Now S&T Motiv). * S&T Motiv is the manufacturer for Korean K1 SMG, K2 rifle, K3 LMG, K4 (Mk. 19 equiv.), K12 MPMG, USAS-12, and many other arms for ROK Army. So, bring this gun to S&T motiv, and they might say "Grandpa!" ;D.
Any weapon can malfunction. All it takes is for one little thing to go wrong. The 1911 was and still is a dependable firearm that is built around the world now but it wasn't always to this maker my hat's off to ya for making a copy of one of the world's best Simi auto handguns there is.
My guess is that this was a local ROK government initiative to issue pistols to the ROK National Police and Army during the Korean War or just shortly thereafter. While the USG armed the ROK Armed Forces, there weren't enough small arms during the war, so ROK Constabulary (predecessor to the ROK Army) and police forces were still using Japanese Army weapons and equipment (helmets and load gear) surrendered by the Japanese Army of Korea in the early part of the war. It also makes sense that the pistol would be made in Pusan (Busan) since it was the only major city not to fall to the commies and was an industrial city with a large port. The use of American parts also suggests the expediency of producing these guns for the on-going war out-weighed any cosmetic aesthetics.
@@maxischew514 Yes, I am aware, Ian released said video last year. I asked the question over three years ago, though. Thanks for trying to let me know anyway :)
The Korean marking on the gun should be hard to translate for non Korean speakers(even for native speakers) Because it's one of the old form of Korean. Korean language has changed and redefined a lot around 1920~1960. i think it basically means "Made in Busan" or "Busan made".
That's it! you've exhausted your allowable number of 'forgetting to take the magazine out before disassembly' ticket! One more, and we have to take you to the woodshed! LOL!
Ian! Love all the vids and inrange tv. I was just wondering if the Korean made barrel is rifled? If it was then it shows they at least had a few tools, some expertise, knowledge and this wasn't made in a 2-6 man shop (bicycle shop? Etc...) I was just wondering. 🤔
That frame looks like it's made of die-cast or pot metal. Probably works well, but I'd be apprehensive to fire this. Reminds me of that Iraqi copy of the Beretta M9 that you showed a while back.
one gun has loaned a barrel, other gun had a missing a slide, another one is missing the trigger parts. but instead of one american gun, u have 3 korean ==)
I have an idea why all those guns have one or two original American made parts inside. Probably they started with a captured American Colt 1911, showed it during a presentation in a classroom. Then they disassembled the gun while showing previously made or captured technical drawings of what all the different parts look like etc. Then they would hand out the parts to the students and instructed them. Here's an original part. Study the drawings. Make a complete gun.
have you handled or seen any of the indonesian made firearms? i have seen and handled an old m16a1 with a colt upper and a manually machined lower. all the internals and parts are factory colt. didnt get the chance to shoot it though. that rifle was the army's very2 old inventory, was probably due to a broken lower that resulted in that combination.
1911 seems to be a favorite clone gun from this era, does that mean in another 30-50 years we'll be getting craft made Beretta 92s, and Glock 17s turning up?
There's a ship-of-Theseus quality to these particular guns: How many parts can be interchanged before it "becomes" an American made 1911? How many Pusan parts need to be in there for it to be considered an "original"?
Dora K 14 hours ago That mark on right side on gun seems like Pu-Jin-Je (부 진 제), and I think it means "Made in (or 'by') Pujin" But I couldn't find any region called Pujin in Korea, since in Korean language, Pujin means 'slump', and because of it, all I found was sport news, economy news, health-related news. maybe it could just factory's name or person who copied it or factory's owner simply had a name "Pujin", or like WW2-era German firearms companies did, it could be some kind of manufacturer code. And company named Pusan Iron Works locate at near Pusan Port, so similar named region called Pusanjin doesn't make sense to it, unless it's completely a different company or company just moved on. Urgh, even after hours of searching and I couldn't find anything... good god. :( Greetings from (South) Korea btw. Referencing this person above. Made in Pujin, Pujin, like they said, means slum, or slums almost, or even poor man. Well, the latter as a slang term. Considering this, the markings may have been slapped on there for a few reason. A) It was a veiled reference to Pusan Iron Works, so that the NKA didn't exactly know where the guns were being made. And B) They may assume it was being made in the slums by poor man somehow. C)It also could be a poke at the gun's overall quality to American made 1911s. "The Poor Man's/Slum's 1911" by the factory workers.
Would have liked to have seen whether the grips had bushings. I have seen copies where the grips were screwed straight to the frame, which led to the grips shifting around, until the owner overtightenened and stripped the holes in the frame. Not cool.
The letters are not aranged in the way they are in korean so I can only guess that this might mean 부진제 and according to the Naver online dictionary: Results of translation 부진제 - A slump
I would think this most likely was in use primarily with south korean forces who were having their weapons industry boosted by american technology, and it is probably as Ian said, they used american parts when they could and locally produced the rest, and I'd take it one step further in that what they probably did was split the initial shipments of 1911s into the ones that were to be fielded and then the ones to be used as parts replacements and at some point the number of worn out/malfunctioned/damaged/lost 1911s started outstripping replacements/parts supply so they began building locally produced copies and then spread out their remaining initial stock of american parts to aid in speeding up production... This is just an estimated assumption based on probability and observation of what other countries have done with foreign weapon tech when attempting to replicate it locally...
So this was basically Korean version of PPS. North Koreans were literally only few kilos away from Busan and they were so desparate that they couldn't even finish the parts right. Really interesting piece of history
And there is really *no* known example without *any* imported (American) part? Seems strange if they were able to make everything and used only a few varying imported components in each gun. Assuming random mixing of parts, you would expect some Korean-only ones.
So I'm watching these videos about 1911 copies, and at first I thought I heard John Browning turning in his grave and crying, but then I realised he's quietly quoting that Monsters Inc character voiced by Billy Crystal, "I can't believe it! They copied my design!"
Ian, I don't think Pusan was ever captured by the North since it's at the very South of the peninsula. So, these were probably made for the South Korean military. I also doubt the North would have had the tooling necessary to make them. PS. Or, this was a different Pusan maybe (located in the North)?
North Korea had better factory and tools than us before the war because Japan built factories in North Korean area to supply their troops in Manchuria and they also got technical assistance from Soviet Russia. I even saw a picture of Kim Il-sung holding ppsh41 produced in North Korea just before the war.
Busan-Jin Colt M1911A1 is the first pistol tried to made, republic of korea. it made 'The 1st arsenal' located in Busan, 1950 to 1952. the pistol you reviwed is most parts are handmade. but, some pistols are remain existed original WW2 U.S GI main parts mixed such as slide(Colt, Remington Rand, Ithaca, US&S made.), Grips, main movements.
I think this gun made in DPRK(North Korea) because South Korea arsenal has not produced 1911. They used 1911, but all of them imported from U.S. Moreover, South Korea doesn't stamp like ㅂㅜㅈㅣㄴㅈㅔ. (Boo Jin Je) You can see this type of stamping at the North Korean AK47. North Korea used to make M16A1 and 1911 for their spies. Finally, this gun is nothing related with PUSAN, South Korea.
Korea Ball because unlike alphabets, hangul has to be compiled (like ㅅ=sh, ㅣ=ii,ㄴ=nn to create 신=shin), which is very difficult to do with stamping tools. If a tool had to be made for every possible combination, it would be in thousands. To compensate, they used to stamp it like that until laser etching came to be.
