I bought this WWII Colt 1911A1 reproduction of their 1942 contract pistol 10 years ago from a reputable dealer trading on Gun Broker. It has all the boxes, paperwork, etc. but had some small deep handling scratches on the frame in front of the grips. The dealer was upfront about that and I got a good price on it. I bought it to shoot as I also have a 1943 original Ithaca 1911A1 which I don't shoot very often. They were made in 2002 and as I understand it only around 2,500 were made with two sets of serial numbers. First half with the "WM" prefix and the second half with "WMK" prefix. Mine has the WMK prefix. Great piece and nice shooter.

My question is that if you have one is the parkerized finish somewhat dull on the slide to the point it is hard to see the pony logo on the left side? Also I wonder why Colt didn't make more of these? As I understand it the price new in 2002 was around $1,000. Could have been that.

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This is what i have.WW1 isssue.
Dick

I don't know the answer to your question about the finish.

As to why they didn't make more...Colt planned for a run of 4000 pistols, but ended up making only 2473. These were in two versions...the "WMK" and the "WM" versions.

The initials are those of retired USMC general William M. Keyes, who I believe was CEO of Colt at the time.

The WMK series had serial numbers of WMK01000 to 02525. I don't know why the serial number range doesn't coincide with the total number made. It's probably some hidden closely guarded Colt secret or something.

Colt stopped making this pistol in January of '03.

Not sure why Colt didn't do the full planned production run. Lack of demand, maybe...poor sales? But even in '02, $1000 would not have been a price deterrent for true Colt lovers. At least as far as I'm concerned. Wouldn't mind finding one for $1K today!

Great Information. From time to time I used to see one will come up on GB with a starting bid of around $1500. I paid less than $950 for mine 10 years ago and glad I got it.

Nice. I think Colt used some small parts from the 1911 repo on the 1911A1 repo as the trigger on them is the older style and not the design used in WWII models. The safety is also not parkerized but is a blued type finish.

I have one of those WWI ^^^^^^. Tried to get the blue version for awhile, never managed to get one for a reasonable price.

I bought the WWI edition not too long after they came out. I bought it NIB with paperwork and everything for around $800. It was one of Carbonia finished ones, which I think they changed about half way through production. That’s one I wish I had kept. But it would still be a safe queen, so I’m not too upset it’s gone.

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I always liked the WW1 version. Although I have no personal experience with it, to me, this was the best variant. (I own an original; had several over the years).

Best,
TH

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