Gizamo,
Congratulations on finding that RR. I have one too (thanks to LB on this Forum for selling it to me several years ago) and I also learned some interesting history about RR and the production of those guns in WW II days.
During WW II times, there were many civilian product related companies that were under contract to the US Government to manufacture “war effort” related items.
Other companies that also made these for the Government were of course Colt, Ithaca, Union Switch & Signal, and Singer, who made only a very small quantity. An interesting fact about Remington Rands is that more than half the work force was women. They also produced the highest number of .45s at the lowest cost, and are thought by some to have been the best quality of all producers.
The barrels were under contract to different companies. The barrel in this gun was manufactured by High Standard as was commonly found in Remington Rands.
The magazines were also made under contract and normally Remington Rands came equipped with magazine made by General Shaver, which was a division of Remington Rand, and were marked with a “G”, as it is on this one.
In WW II there were many companies that were producing the badly needed items for the war effort. As a result. the US Government deemed certain industries as “essential industries” and the employees of the companies producing war effort related items were then draft exempt from the military service. I would certainly imagine this would have applied to the employees or Remington Rand during this time.
Remington Rand was a very aggressive company and at one time they were producing 50,000 pistols monthly. They also made strong efforts to improve manufacturing processes. As a result on some of their efforts to be better and faster, they developed the Austempering heat treating process that was perfected in the fall of 1944. I understand that process is still a standard today for many gun parts.
You will notice on the left side of the frame behind the trigger guard the Army Ordnance mark “FJA” which was for Colonel Frank J. Atwood.
