I am gonna attempt to make a contribution on one of my favorite subjects--The Remington Rand 1911A1 pistol and it's evolution from late 1942 till mid 1945. I am not real happy with the pics but too bad of weather to give'em another try. Corrections, additions, clarifications, comments etc. are welcome.
When I first started collecting the US 1911 and 1911A1's more than twenty years ago I thought the Remington Rands to be common and boring. Then I discovered a Type 1 in DuLite blue and I was hooked.
Remington Rand made more M 1911A1's than all other makers in WW2, 877,751 per Charles Clawson(CC). He also says that their goal of making a high quality pistol in the most quantity and for the lowest cost was accomplished. They also contributed to improvements and manufacturing techniques.
The pistols began coming off the line in November 1942. The first ones were the large slide logo with New York spelled out and had a Dulite blue finish. This is referred to as the Type 1 and ran from about serial number 916,405 till about 931,???(Clawson says 935,000ish). Type 2 logos came in somewhere in the 925,000 range and each type can be found in this range with no distinct cutoff. Estimates of total Type one pistols run between 10,000-15,000 depending on who you ask. As seldom encountered as they are I lean toward the 10,000 number and when I asked Mr. Clawson his guess he said 10,000 was "about right".
All Type Ones had a DuLite Blue chemical blue which was approved by Ordnance as an acceptable substitute for Parkerizing until Parkerizing phosphate equiptment was obtained. They had checkered parts including the mainspring housing, slide stop, thumb safety, hammerand mag release. Most got early style milled triggers but some got later stamped triggers. Very early production guns can have parts provided by Colt(barrels, slide stops and grip and thumb safety) and Spring Armory field service parts(barrels and slide stops). High Standard provided barrels on many Type Ones but they were just getting geared up for production. They would provide most of the barrels for RR production and all were DuLite blue. All Type Ones apparently got early Keyes Grips lacking the reinforcement ring around the screw.
pictures;
1 and 2: My first Type One which spurred the interest, serial 921,543. Milled trigger.
3: The checkered parts typical of early Rem Rands on 926,270.
4: Milled trigger present on most Type Ones and in 3 of my 4.
5: The No prefix on early RR's, serial 926,402. This one has the stamped trigger which soon became the standard and a cost savings.
6 and 7: Battle damaged warrior serial number 925,088. Story is it was picked up on a Pacific island from an officier who no longer needed it and was carried by the Vet for the remainder of the war and then brought home.??
8: 926,270 with milled trigger and unusually thick trigger guard. M1911A1 US ARMY stamping dented the dust cover also.
9: Left side of number 926,402.
When I first started collecting the US 1911 and 1911A1's more than twenty years ago I thought the Remington Rands to be common and boring. Then I discovered a Type 1 in DuLite blue and I was hooked.
Remington Rand made more M 1911A1's than all other makers in WW2, 877,751 per Charles Clawson(CC). He also says that their goal of making a high quality pistol in the most quantity and for the lowest cost was accomplished. They also contributed to improvements and manufacturing techniques.
The pistols began coming off the line in November 1942. The first ones were the large slide logo with New York spelled out and had a Dulite blue finish. This is referred to as the Type 1 and ran from about serial number 916,405 till about 931,???(Clawson says 935,000ish). Type 2 logos came in somewhere in the 925,000 range and each type can be found in this range with no distinct cutoff. Estimates of total Type one pistols run between 10,000-15,000 depending on who you ask. As seldom encountered as they are I lean toward the 10,000 number and when I asked Mr. Clawson his guess he said 10,000 was "about right".
All Type Ones had a DuLite Blue chemical blue which was approved by Ordnance as an acceptable substitute for Parkerizing until Parkerizing phosphate equiptment was obtained. They had checkered parts including the mainspring housing, slide stop, thumb safety, hammerand mag release. Most got early style milled triggers but some got later stamped triggers. Very early production guns can have parts provided by Colt(barrels, slide stops and grip and thumb safety) and Spring Armory field service parts(barrels and slide stops). High Standard provided barrels on many Type Ones but they were just getting geared up for production. They would provide most of the barrels for RR production and all were DuLite blue. All Type Ones apparently got early Keyes Grips lacking the reinforcement ring around the screw.
pictures;
1 and 2: My first Type One which spurred the interest, serial 921,543. Milled trigger.
3: The checkered parts typical of early Rem Rands on 926,270.
4: Milled trigger present on most Type Ones and in 3 of my 4.
5: The No prefix on early RR's, serial 926,402. This one has the stamped trigger which soon became the standard and a cost savings.
6 and 7: Battle damaged warrior serial number 925,088. Story is it was picked up on a Pacific island from an officier who no longer needed it and was carried by the Vet for the remainder of the war and then brought home.??
8: 926,270 with milled trigger and unusually thick trigger guard. M1911A1 US ARMY stamping dented the dust cover also.
9: Left side of number 926,402.