Reproduction vs original Colt 1911?

[Cowboy T]

Personally, I'd rather have a modern one. Technology, including metallurgy, has come a long way over the last 100-or-so years. We have better steels, much greater precision of manufacture, and lessons learned from 100+ years of having the 1911. For example, I like the somewhat extended beaver tail. The original GI sights were certainly functional, and today's hi-viz dots or fiber-optic or tritium or whatever are even better. Fit is better due to the aforementioned greater manufacturing precision. And best of all, the parts still pretty much all interchange.

[2shotjoe]

Actually I made a mistake in my earlier post. WWI and earlier slides were not hardened at all. Thus the relatively "soft" slide is easy to crack or break.

In WW2 they spot hardened the high stress areas -- front the slide, slide stop notch, etc.

Post WW2 they went with a fully hardened slide.

You are correct in that many guns became "mixmasters" in military armories. However guns rebuilt by the armories will carry the arsenal stamp -- which makes these "mixmasters" a legitimate collectible and worth more.

a intro the the different types of WW2 M1911A1 -- scroll down to my post.
http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/s...d.php?t=851102

my colt has the following, it does have a colt slide.

cross cannons and GHD marks.

41 on the right side of trigger guard, 8 on the other side with a upsidedown triangle icon thing. P on top of the slide and another P on the frame under the mag release.

slide has a greenish tint and the frame doesn't.