What's the story on those Titanic revolvers. Couldn't find much on the web. Do they have any historical value. Were they made a long time ago.

IMO, if it was something made pre WW2, it should be preserved and saved, if not fired. After WW2, probably not worth a whole lot. Although, now that I think about it, aren't snubbies sort of a 1950s and newer thing? And I see what you mean about it looking like a garbage gun. I'm kind of curious about the history of those things.

As far as the 1911, very good find. I hope you do run the numbers to make sure they aren't stolen, but as mentioned before I'd avoid any police departments. You say that you have friends there, so maybe they can run the numbers off the grid, but my experience has been that certain police departments have an official policy of not returning guns when found or turned in, under any circumstances. They are usually melted down at regular intervals. That's the case with our Portland PD. Even if you reported your gun stolen and it was recovered, they will refuse to give it back to you and will melt it down.

Smaller departments tend to be a little better about it, but I guess it depends on the agency and the state you live in and how anti-gun they are. The fact that the guns aren't even yours to begin with...ie..they weren't officially transfered to you in a regular purchase, or whatever your local laws require, makes it even more unlikely that any police department would want to give them back.

Seems like you could probably run a serial number over the phone ananomously. I've had two guns stolen in my lifetime and I call the local police department every few years to see if they are still listed as stolen or if they were recovered. After I learned that the ultimate fate would be that I would never get them back no matter, I sort of stopped calling, but the point is, they never asked who I was or anything, just ran the number and said, yep, it's still stolen.