Need help identifying this 1911!

[GMANtt]

This is my girlfriends grandfather's gun said he bought it a while ago when it was a piece of junk had all the internals replaced with national match. The trigger feels like its 2lbs its amazingly smooth. Just wondering how much this would be appraised id never sell it though. I determined it was a 1943 WW2 from the serial but I'm sure I'm wrong. Also what is that flaming bomb above the mag release? Also the slide is stamped 5056 which I'm sure is the steel used? Still learning about 1911s.






Oh and Happy Easter! I should be shooting this dream soon after my Colt 1911 XSE comes in.

[oneeyebear]

That's a sexy looking piece of hardware =D

Can't tell you anything about it that you don't already know, but nice gun.

[GMANtt]

Well I think that from what I've researched through the interwebs the serial is a 1912 Colt frame and the slide is from 1943. Need some 1911 experts.

[Plisk]

The frame appears to be a 1915 manufactured 1911 frame done by Springfield. The slide is a Remington Rand replacement frame, most likely during an Arsenal re-fit during WW2. Barrel appears to be a a Colt National Matched barrel. Trigger appears to be a period correct Springfield trigger. Without seeing further details, I can't identify the remaining parts.

With the obvious aftermarket modifications, such as the sights and trigger/action work. Modifications such as those do significantly hurt the collectors value, it's down to pure shooters value at that point.

[GMANtt]

Ahhh that clears it all up. He said everything was done by a Navy gunsmith when he gave it to his nephew for tuning work since his nephew was in competitive shooting and also in the Navy.

[Plisk]

Sounds about right, you see a lot of the NM parts come from military Armorers doing National Matched weapons.

[redhemi]

Try the 1911 forum I'm sure you will get all the info you need.

[wash]

The frame is old, not an A1, you can tell by the lack of cuts behind the trigger hole. I can't see 100% but it looks like the front strap might be stippled or checkered which kind of kills collector value. The mainspring housing is an arched type which is A1 style, doesn't match your frame. It looks like there is a magazine well funnel also.

Remington Rand made 1911s during WWII so the slide is not matched to the frame. The target sights are not original but it looks like the front is not dovetailed which means the slide might not be cut which would preserve it's collector value but if it shoots nice as-is, that doesn't really matter because you would spend more fitting a new slide than selling the old.

If I were you, I would figure out exactly who did the accuracy work and do as much documentation as possible. The value is as a shooter and kind of a retro race gun. As-is nearly all collector value is gone and as a shooter the value is low because people usually don't do things that way any more. You can get some of that back with the documentation, creating a snapshot in time of old school 1911 tuning.

[VegasND]

That is a very cool old 1911.

There's a lot of old Colts out there that were worked on to make them fit the wishes of their owners. It's kind've a shame they're looked down on by some.

I'd love to find a pistol like that at a decent price; I'd take it shooting ... often.

[GMANtt]

Wash, the front is stippled. It sucks that the collector value went down it just has so much sentimental value. I cannot wait to shoot this ill post back here with what I thought of it hopefully soon. Thank you for all your responses he was very happy with what I found out. Made a retired Command Master Chief smile today haha. Thanks again guys!

[wash]

Lots of 1911s ended up like that or much much worse.

Probably the slide/frame mismatch happened when it was owned by Uncle Sam and that single change is responsible for most of the collector value loss, it's not like a correct and matching Singer or first year Colt got worked over, it was already a re-arsenaled mix.

The value in a re-arsenaled mix is to part it out to un-mix a few other mixed up 1911s, once the parts get smithed, they are just parts (unless the smith is well known).

Don't feel too bad about it, I'm sure in 20 years lots of people will ***** about the things we do to common guns today.