A WWII Rebuilt 1911 Found a Home

[Glashaus]

I was on one of my favorite GB vendors site last weekend and saw that they had just put up a WWII Augusta Arsenal 1911 rebuild for sale. It is a 1918 Colt frame with a Remington Rand slide, description had it in good shape. This seller almost always only puts up two pictures, right side and left side. I have bought from them before and their descriptions are usually pretty good. Ever since I had divested myself of most my old C&R collection, including several 1911's I had been wanting to get another GI 1911 or 1911A1 but it seems like the prices have just gone nuts on these over the last few years. I have a 1973 Colt Combat Commander and a newish 1991 Govt Model that I really enjoy shooting but there is something in the old ones that will always interest me. I had my first 1911A1 when I was 17, wish that I had kept it.

The starting bid was $695 and it stayed there for awhile until one guy opened it and another followed it to $755. I got on an hour before the auction closed and debated bidding, I had just got the Beretta 1301 Tactical LE and I was going to wait a bit before I bought another firearm. I decided to bid and see where it would take me. I chased the bid and then topped it at $872. There were 20 minutes left in the auction and I thought that someone else would jump in, nobody did and it was mine. It came with two Govt contract magazines, a Bianchi M66 holster and a pistol rug.

I picked it up today and am very happy with it.



It needs to be cleaned and oiled up also needs to be aired out, it is very musty smelling, like it was in a trunk in somebodies basement.




Augusta Arsenal rebuild mark.





It had a tag on it that it was a consignment, so not a police trade in or confiscation, that is what this vendor deals in a lot.

I believe that this one may have been a Lend Lease gun, but more research on that is needed.

British proofs



The barrel has proof marks from the 1955 proof rules, put on when exporting out of the country



These old 1911's are great guns, I think that I am keeping this one for a while.

[damienph]

I think that you got one heck of a good deal on that one!

[trbomax]

I have a Korean Conflict bring-back that I bought in 1967 from the bring-backee for $75.It is a beautiful Reminton-Rand but unfortuneatly he had it reblued,thus makeing it about worthless now.At the time I bought it I just wanted a shooter so I didnt even know!

edit) He was an MP and in addition to the gun,I got the holster and belt he carried it with.

[DWalt]

"I have a Korean Conflict bring-back that I bought in 1967 from the bring-backee for $75.It is a beautiful Reminton-Rand but unfortuneatly he had it reblued,thus makeing it about worthless now."

No shootable 1911 is worthless.

[tndrfttom]

Here is another Augusta Arsenal rebuild – but not near as nice as the one “Glashaus” has. This one has an A.J. Savage slide on a Colt frame. This one was in nice shape except it had been rebuilt/refinished so many times that the roll marks are getting thin and the barrel was damaged from corrosive ammo. I put in a used commercial barrel and it shoots fine except every other empty cartridge case hits me in the forehead.

[trbomax]

Originally Posted by DWalt

"I have a Korean Conflict bring-back that I bought in 1967 from the bring-backee for $75.It is a beautiful Reminton-Rand but unfortuneatly he had it reblued,thus makeing it about worthless now."

No shootable 1911 is worthless.

Yeah your right. I shoud have said "worthless as a collector piece" !Its a great shooter.

[4barrel]

Originally Posted by tndrfttom

Here is another Augusta Arsenal rebuild – but not near as nice as the one “Glashaus” has. This one has an A.J. Savage slide on a Colt frame. This one was in nice shape except it had been rebuilt/refinished so many times that the roll marks are getting thin and the barrel was damaged from corrosive ammo. I put in a used commercial barrel and it shoots fine except every other empty cartridge case hits me in the forehead.

Extractor will cure the brass thing.

[DWalt]

Originally Posted by tndrfttom

Here is another Augusta Arsenal rebuild – but not near as nice as the one “Glashaus” has. This one has an A.J. Savage slide on a Colt frame. This one was in nice shape except it had been rebuilt/refinished so many times that the roll marks are getting thin and the barrel was damaged from corrosive ammo. I put in a used commercial barrel and it shoots fine except every other empty cartridge case hits me in the forehead.

Even in that condition, an A. J. Savage slide is a rarity. Very little is known except that A. J. Savage (no known connection to Savage Arms Co.) of San Diego was awarded a WWI government contract for manufacture of 100,000 M1911 pistols, but it is likely they never got any further than producing a small number of slides. And it is unknown if A. J. Savage even produced those slides itself or had someone else make them. Aside from pictures in books, I have never personally seen an A. J. Savage slide. It's possible that A. J. Savage may also have manufactured some .45 ACP ammunition or components but I have not seen any mentions of A. J. Savage-made .45 ammunition in any of my reference sources.

[SPEEDGUNNER]

Actually the marks on the barrel are from when the Brits exported it BACK into the country...our country. Commonly found on Lend-Lease guns, those markings along with the AA August rebuild proof gives that pistol the "been there, done that" stamp of approval in my book.

[Glashaus]

Originally Posted by SPEEDGUNNER

Actually the marks on the barrel are from when the Brits exported it BACK into the country...our country. Commonly found on Lend-Lease guns, those markings along with the AA August rebuild proof gives that pistol the "been there, done that" stamp of approval in my book.

That was my meaning that the British marked the barrel on the way out of England back to the States, sometime after 1955. The marks on the rear of the slide and the frame were marked on the way into Britain during the Lend Lease program during the war.

[4barrel]

Originally Posted by Glashaus

That was my meaning that the British marked the barrel on the way out of England back to the States, sometime after 1955. The marks on the rear of the slide and the frame were marked on the way into Britain during the Lend Lease program during the war.

Here are a couple of import stamps.

[Watchdog]

Originally Posted by Glashaus

A WWII Rebuilt 1911 Found a Home.

I believe that this one may have been a Lend Lease gun, but more research on that is needed. The barrel has proof marks from the 1955 proof rules, put on when exporting out of the country

These old 1911's are great guns, I think that I am keeping this one for a while.

Bravo! The more of these old G.I. .45s find a home and a new life, the better I like it.

A lot of purists look down their noses at the arsenal rebuilt pistols. They don't fit into their collector's mindset, they aren't "original". And to a degree, that's true, they aren't original.

But they are still of historical value. They've still "been there, done that", and thanks to arsenal rebuilding, they kept going there and doing that.

They're great old pistols...the surviving ones are coming up on seventy-five years of age now, some of them coming up on one hundred years of age! And older. Some of them have been through a lot...but far as I'm concerned, they're as good as current production models.

With proper care and respect, these old pistols are good for another seventy-five to one hundred years.

[Glashaus]

I put 200 rounds down range with my new Augusta Arsenal rebuilt 1911 today, it was flawless and right on target! I wish that I could say the same of my rescue Combat Commander, still have work to do there!