It's become something of a cliché on gun forums to talk about an old gun as "my new gun", but I'll do it anyway.

I came across this old war horse 1943 Remington Rand .45 semi-auto at an LGS a week or so ago. I thought the price was a bit high, so I left it alone. But I couldn't stop thinking about it. I kept worrying if someone else would buy it. So I returned a few days later and it was still there. I made a cash offer and it was accepted, although the discount was basically insignificant. I bought it.

I walked it right from the display case back to the range and ran two magazines through it. I was amazed. The action was so smooth in this seventy-one-year-old pistol, I actually shot better with it than with my newer Colt Mark IV Series 70. The target shown in the photo is 14 rounds at a bit over 15 yards, shot offhand. I don't need to shoot 2-inch groups with this pistol...it has combat accuracy. Eleven rounds inside a 5.5-inch circle at over 15 yards? That's center mass enough for me. I've now run over 300 rounds through it without one single malfunction out of this stone stock old pistol.

It shipped out in October of 1943 and headed off to the Big War. It may have gone to Europe. It may have gone ashore on D-Day. It may have seen action in Africa or Italy. Or it may have island-hopped from one Japanese-held island to another in the Pacific.

It survived the war and returned to the USA, ending up at the Rock Island Arsenal for a rebuild. You can see the RIA stamp on the right side of the frame, along with "FK" (Frank Krack), the RIA officer in charge of inspections. It also has the famous Flaming Bomb next to the right grips, along with the still visible crossed canon ordnance stamp. I have no idea how extensive the rebuild was. It does have a Colt barrel, but as anyone who knows about these pistols, Remington Rand bought parts from various sources. Barrels from Colt and High Standard, among others. Safeties and slide releases from Colt that were left over from WWI. About 250,000 of them.

I think the pistol went on to serve in Korea, carried by an officer. It came into the LGS with its original holster as part of an estate sale. The backstrap is checkered, rather than having the usual vertical grooves. It had the original bakelite grips on it, but the right one was cracked, so I replaced them with some vintage wooden grips until I can repair the original.

I like guns with character and a history. The worn finish shows it was used a lot. I like to think this pistol protected one or more G.I.s in battle against enemies of this country. I like to think it may have sent some of those enemies on their final journey off this planet. Who knows?

I've been a bit long-winded about this. I mentioned earlier I initially thought the gun was overpriced. Forget that. I'm actually looking for another one now. Maybe an Ithaca this time. I'll take one of these old war horses over the latest high-tech .45s any day.

Here are a few photos. Enjoy.

Congrats! Beautiful piece of history.

That beauty just radiates character.

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Oh well, what the hell.

How do you know it was an officer's gun? People always make claims like that: my granddad got this Luger off of a German officer, etc.

Chances are, this gun was sometimes carried by an enlisted machinegunner, MP, etc. I may have carried it, myself, as a USAF cop while we were transitioning to .38 revolvers and had some 1911A-1's left.

At a remote radar site in Newfoundland, we had ONLY these, as the contract with Canada called for them to get all gear when we left. The AF didn't want to "waste" new .38's on that base. We had maybe ten or a dozen .45's in my duty section. I swapped some parts to get what I think was an all-Colt gun, with checkered surfaces. Wide-spur hammer, too. But we sure had some of those Remington-Rands. I saw more of them than real Colts.

Great photos, and I'm glad for you that you're happy with those groups. I suspect that trying different ammo brands may improve accuracy a bit.

A well-used 1911 is simply MORE reliable than a new model.
The pattern can handle tens of thousands of rounds.
Hopefully you get around to posting velocity numbers at some point!

What I immediately noticed about this pistol is that my finger reaches the trigger easier. The trigger doesn't seem to be as "thick" front to back as on the newer Series 70 pistols. It sounds like a minor thing, but it's very noticeable to me, making the pistol easier to hold and shootl.

You mean like chronographing some loads? I doubt that'll happen. I'm only shooting factory hardball in it, and only a couple of brands...Remington and Federal 230 grain FMJ...and both of 'em are just standard loads.

Let's just say I'm satisfied with the story of the pistol as it was told to me, and leave it at that.

Thanks for the compliment on the photos.

Regarding accuracy improvement...there aren't too many varieties of .45 acp available around here, and stuff other than hardball is expensive. I'll be happy if I can achieve basically the same level of accuracy at 20 and 25 yards as I did at 15 or so. I'm just having fun with the old gun, and don't look at it as a target pistol. Every old pistol like this has its own quirks, and I'm not gonna fool with trying to adjust the rear sight. My goal with this pistol is simply to learn how it shoots and become competent with it at the range it was meant to be used. As I said, I don't need to shoot 2-inch groups with this pistol.

Every 1911 lover should have or at least get to shoot a standard issue G.I. pistol at some point. Only then can you understand and appreciate it for what it truely is.

Congrats on your new old war horse. Great post, too, well written and I enjoyed reading it. Nice pics, too.

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Don't kiss smiling dogs!

A real beauty!

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John
S&WCA Life Member

Character, yes. Lots of folks think it's silly to assign human traits to inanimate objects, but I do it all the time. As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, judging from the finish wear, this ol' pistol's seen a lot of use. The finish wear and the places it's worn give this pistol a feeling of having its own identity. This pistol has done things, and I feel the nature of those things has been transferred into the very metal the gun's made of, giving it that sense of character you see.

You'll get no argument from me, except that I don't think sensing the history of the piece constitutes assigning human attributes. I love old guns and knives and tools for the stories they could tell. Occasionally I think I can read parts of those stories from patterns of wear or just intangible stuff.

Maybe that means you and I are both crazy. I'm quite sure I am. Heaven knows I've been told that often enough.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Nothing wrong with some crazy. Helps me fit into this crazy ol' world we live in now.

Thanks for the comment and the compliment on the photographs. It's said that every picture tells a story, and that's true...but there's usually a backstory to go along with the photo, particularly in the case of firearms with some sort of history to them, or that are tied to events of historical importance such as WWII.

My old .45 is just one of hundreds of thousands produced by different companies for the war effort. Some of them had parts from WWI included in their build. After WWII, some of them...mine, for instance...went for rebuilds at different arsenals. It's documented on mine by the stampings in the metal. It's details like that that interest me...not to mention the fact that the pistol's a great old shooter.

Everyone worth knowing is at least a little crazy in some way,

Think about it: "normal" almost equates with "average", and who wants to be merely run-of-the-mill?

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Oh well, what the hell.

Nice 1911A1 and holster too! It surely must have an interesting history.
Shoots good too!
Now you are its caretaker.
Enjoy
Jim