WWII Remington Rand 1911 A1 Pistol

[cyanghost]

I recently acquired a 1943 Remington Rand 1911 pistol. It is fully original and was used in WWII by a US G.I., likely carried in the Pacific and/or Europe. This is yet another one of those cases where I wish inanimate objects could talk and share their stories because I'd really like to know the story behind it.

When I purchased it, it smelled like an old library book (it still does, to a certain degree, but not as much since I cleaned it with Hoppe's 9). The person who sold it to me said that it was in a widow's attic, who was married to a WWII vet that brought it back from the war. The pistol was covered in dust before it was sold to me. There is some minor rusting on the outside and internally where the magazine goes. I strongly hope it doesn't get worse over time.

The pistol did come with the original magazine, however it was a bit rusted and hard to put the ammo in. I initially tried loading the .45 ACP ammo in it and couldn't get the seventh round to fit in it. I tried later on and was able to, but I don't want to wear the magazine out. So, I ultimately decided I wasn't going to use it and decided to store it away as a part of the collection. I went down to a local gun store and purchased a brand new Colt 1911 magazine and it has worked flawlessly! I first went to Sportsman's Warehouse (a large sporting goods chain) and they tried to sell me Kimber branded magazines. Being somewhat of a purist, I wanted to purchase something as close to the "real thing" as possible. Since Colt was also contracted to produce 1911's during WWII, I decided I wanted one of their magazines to go with it. Luckily, Colt still produces 1911 pistols and accessories to this day.

Based on my research, Colt was the first company contracted to produce the 1911 pistols in the early 1910's for the US government, but they actually fell behind in production numbers during WWII. Remington Rand produced considerably more during that time. I know there are many 1911 pistols still being produced, but with so many things being outsourced to underdeveloped countries, I don't know how much of it is truly American made. It just feels nice to shoot an all American piece that likely has a storied history behind it.

It's a fantastic pistol! I put 50 rounds of American Eagle .45 ACP 230 grain ammo through it so far. I'm amazed at how accurate and easy to shoot it is! In comparison, my Glock 23 (chambered in .40 S&W) requires a little more practice if you've never fired it before. But it is just a collector gun with all the original parts from 1943 and I plan to shoot it very seldomly, keep it clean, lubricated and stored in a gun sock when it's not being used. As a part of my small WWII collection, I have it stored next to an unopened circa 1944 or 1945 K Ration and a box of 1944 GI issue .45 ACP ammo in my gun safe. I plan to take care of the pistol so that it outlives me!

[gunnertwo]

Nice Remington. For more info this site is excellent:

http://www.coolgunsite.com

The directory on the left side of the page will send you to the 1911 info.

You may be surprised at the value of that K ration, I've seen some sell for around $200. Don't open it, it will lower the value (and it doesn't taste good).

:-)

G2

[m1903a3]

I have the Remington Rand 1911a1 my father carried throughout his time in the Pacific during the war. I wish he was around to tell me about it. It's been more than 50 years since he died, and when he was still alive he would never talk about the war other than anecdotes about R&R in new Caledonia, New Zealand or Australia.

[mrerick]

If you see any active rust going on, it's important to remove it before it leads to pitting.

The best way to do this is with well oiled 0000 steel or bronze wool on a well oiled surface. Lightly rub the surface and it should remove the iron oxide without affecting the bluing. Don't rub too hard or too concentrated in one place.

When finished, spray it with RemOil or a similar preserving gun oil.

The bluing is magnetite (another phase of iron oxide) and is harder than the rust which is why it stays on the surface and the rust comes off. It is possible to do damage with too intensive use of steel wool since under the very thin magnetite bluing layer it's still just steel.

[cyanghost]

Thanks for the advice. The good news is that the rust is taken care of now. There's wasn't a whole lot to begin with. It was mostly on the slide serrations and underneath the grips. I used a q-tip and Hoppe's 9 bore cleaner and lightly went over it a few times until it was gone. Then I applied Hoppe's 9 lubricant almost everywhere I could to prevent it from getting worse. Now it looks great!

I'm surprised it was rusting to begin with. I was told by the seller that the widower's grand daughters discovered the 1911 in the attic and they had no idea it was even there.* Unless there was moisture in the attic, I don't know how it started to rust. I'm just glad I got a hold of it before it got worse.

* I tried to see if I could get in touch with them to ask about the pistol. But they went through an attorney to get the gun transferred to the FFL dealer and he had no way to get a hold of them. Oh well, like I said on my Luger post, it's good to leave it to the imagination.

[mrerick]

All steel that old will start to form some iron oxide. This is, in fact, a way you can determine if the finish and steel surface is old or recently redone.

You use a surface microscope with a bright light, and look at the grain of the metal. Old blued finishes will show some red iron oxide.

[DonVoigt]

"I'm surprised it was rusting to begin with. I was told by the seller that the widower's grand daughters discovered the 1911 in the attic and they had no idea it was even there.* Unless there was moisture in the attic, I don't know how it started to rust. I'm just glad I got a hold of it before it got worse."

There is moisture everywhere! Time and moisture = oxidation= rust on steel- just as merick said.

[Edward Tinker]

In WW1 that was Remington UMC - not related except very distantly to Remington Rand. Colt was contracted, but remember, they were the inventors original company (John Browning) and then Colts received an original contract and later war contracts.

In WW1 (1911) Colt and Springfield armory, Rem UMC only made about 12,000 of them
In WW11 (1911a1) Colt and then Remington Rand made them, along with others (Ithaca, Singer made a handful).

Here is my CMP Remington Rand

[ithacaartist]

What a great find! Too bad it's not an Ithaca, but Syracuse ain't that far up the road!

Originally Posted by gunnertwo

...You may be surprised at the value of that K ration, I've seen some sell for around $200. Don't open it, it will lower the value (and it doesn't taste good).

:-)

G2

YouTube is full of videos of guys opening, tasting (sometimes not) and reviewing old military rations. The longevity of some items can be as amazing as the effect time has on most of it.

I tend to agree that this is collectible, although absorbing a $200 loss in exchange for the experience of solving the mystery might still be fun.

[gunnertwo]

I'd hold off. Food poisoning could be the prize of solving the mystery. I saw a complete set of the three meals sell for around $900. If you had all three it probably wouldn't pay for the ER bill.

:-)

See, I'm still smiling.

G2

[WWII Luger]

Several years ago, On one of my trips home from Iraq, I went down to a buddies house the next state over. He was looking for a buyer for an ORIGINAL Colt 1911 that was built in 1913. I offered him $500 sight unseen and he accepted. With finding the correct slide release, 2 original 2 tone mags, (1) with a lanyard loop, the correct 15 double diamond grips and a mag full of 1917 .45 ACP ammo, I now have a $2500 firearm.

[Mister Sunshine]

In the early 1960s me and all my shooting friends were getting three guns Thru the DCM. The 1911 pistol, the M1 Carbine and the 03A3 Springfield. My 1911 was a WWI Colt and it was in excellent condition. It shot very well too. My carbine was made by GM and the A3 was by Remington. Sadly I didn't hang on to any of them.

[wlyon]

I remember well when these were offered by DCM. I really wanted a carbine but I believe they were $13. I did not have an extra $13 back then. I bought one a few years later but it was $70 with a case of ammo. Traded it later for a Broom handle. Bill

[Sergio Natali]

Very nice REMRAND.

I hope not to break any rules of this forum, in case the Moderators can delete my post, but I would take the liberty of directing you to this forum:
https://www.1911forum.com/
where you will find many knowleadgeable people happy to share their knowledge with you.

Regards