Hi, guys,
Excerpted from Mexican Military Arms, by James B. Hughes, Jr.:
On July 5(!), 1934, Sr. Alejandro Obregon of Mexico City was granted Mexican patent 35,053 for improvements in autoloading firearms. He received U.S. patent 2,115,041 on April 26, 1938, for the same design.
The pistol, Sistema Obregon, was put into production at the Mexican National Arms Factory. The Obregon pistol resembles the M1911A1 Colt externally but is of different internal structure. It has fewer parts and is simpler in construction than the Colt. Production was limited. [Production quantity not given, but another source says 1000.]
The locking design, together with the slide stop-safety is very different from the Colt product. In the Obregon, the barrel rotates to lock and unlock; there is no vertical movement as in the Colt design.
The slide stop also functions as the manual safety [one lever] and serves to compress the recoil spring in field stripping the piece. The slide stop/safety replaces several parts in the Colt design.
As made by the Mexican National Arms Factory, the pistol is blue with checkered walnut grips.
Caliber is .45 ACP; the guns are actually marked 11.25mm, the metric designation.
Slides are marked "FABRICA NACIONAL DE ARMAS, MEXICO, D.F." on the right and "Sistema Obregon"/"Calibre 11.35" on the left.
End of excerpt.
The slide is rounded from the muzzle to about 2 1/2 inches back, when it becomes flat. It does not resemble any Beretta except in the most general way (they are both auto pistols) and I have no idea how Cooper or anyone else could say that. It doesn't resemble the Steyr M1911 except in the rotating barrel; the lugs are not even in the same position and, of course, the Steyr does not have the slide stop/safety.
The Obregon is unique, and appears to be quite a good design. I have no idea why it failed, except that Mexican arms laws probably prevented many civilian sales and the military was happy with the Colt pistols obtained from the U.S. It was never adopted by the Mexican armed forces, though Sr. Obregon probably had hopes of adoption. Production at the government factory may have been for military trials, though I have seen nothing specific saying so. The two examples I have seen are well made and fitted, but pretty well used. Current value is probably at least $5000 in top condition.
With its rotating barrel doing away with the link and vertical barrel movement, it would seem to have excellent accuracy potential and could have a place in the current market if anyone was willing to finance the tooling.
(Whether Sr. Alejandro Obregon was related to the late president I don't know, but the gun was certainly named for him, not for any other person of that name, which is not too uncommon in Mexico.)
Jim