The obvious visible changes were:Īs WWII ramped up, other manufacturers began production of the 1911A1.
These changes resulted in the 1911 becoming the 1911A1 (roughly, from serial number 700,000 to the end of production). You may also see 1911’s from Springfield Armory (the government ordnance department’s armory) and, rarely, those produced by Remington Arms-UMC.Īfter WWI, the Army requested some changes be made to the 1911. This is the reason why the vast majority of pre-WWII 1911’s are Colts. After that time, the ordnance department’s production could not exceed 1/3 of the pistols the government needed. Colt’s contract allowed the government ordnance department to produce the 1911 only after it had purchased 50,000 pistols from Colt. The patent rights were subsequently purchased by Colt, and adopted by the U.S. These comments are not meant to be inclusive of 1911’s - just a starting point for those guys and gals that find themselves in possession of one of these pieces of history and would like more information.įirst, a little history about the pistol and how it likely ended up in your hands: My comments below are based on this research experience. I did, however, have 2 of these pistols passed down to me, and about a year ago, I got serious and did some research to determine what exactly I had. Let me start this little blog by stating that I am not an expert on the Model 1911/1911A1 Military pistol (from here on out, I’m just going to call them 1911’s so I don’t have to type as much - I know, I just started and I’m already getting lazy).
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