Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Colt 1918 WWI Military 1911

i think those are WWII handgrips, not WWI. my black army from the same time frame quoted has wood double diamond grips.
there should be a small SG eagle stamped right above the mag release button, and right in front of that button on the trigger guard on mine is 22. the slide release and safety button on mine has a checkerboard pattern, not lined.
the hammer spur looks a little different too.
not mentioning this stuff to be critical, but there are differences.
as the stocks were wood in WWI.

Yep, it was WWII issue that got the plastic grips. Wood before that.

LD Last time I sent you the pix via text and you posted them for me.

Oh yeah. I remember that. That was a while ago!

Yes. I'm going to shoot it. Maybe carry it.. some. Maybe. Kind of don't want to put it through this s*it my Glocks go through. lol

No offense taken.

LD If you send me a phone number I will get ya some pix

Will do!

Lonerider's 1916 Colt 1911

i like that long trigger on the 1911's, rather than the shorter trigger on the A1's.
good luck on replacing the sights.
i have one in the stash, i want to say late 43 or 44 remington just from memory.
it was bought originally throught the nra for about 18bucks.
the guy wanted it for bullseye, so he ditched the remington sights replacing the rear with an adjustible sight, and a higher front post.
i was able to find an original rear, but not the front. those are staked in, and on removal they just snap them off.
as i understand it, there is some minor variance in the width of the front sight blade.
anyhow, i was not able to find a new original front sight, so never changed out the rear.
the good part of the deal, is i got three extra military barrels with the gun.
the 1911 i have is a "black army" called that for the finish they were using for a few months.
the guy owning it before me thought it had been refinished for WWII, because of the small SG eagle stamp.
he didn't realize all of them were stamped that way on being accepted by the army.
if you can find a copy, i think his name is charles clawson. this amazon price for his book will choke you up.
there is a later editon that is reasonable in price.
https://www.amazon.com/Colt-45-service-pistols-1911A1/dp/0963397109

i gave a copy of that book to a friend of mine that worked in a lgs. few weeks later guy comes in wanting to sell this colt 1911a1. It was a "navy colt" rather rare, and only identifyable by the serial number. It was purchased for about 400bucks, and in reality about a 3000gun.
little knowlege goes a long ways.

i do believe those early holsters were all brown. Changed to black for the korean war.
a lot of the early ones were just recoated to black.

I was just gonna say - Yeee-ouch on the price of the book.

these things can be quite addictive. in additon to the firearm, finding a period holster, webbelt, web magazine carrier, carlyse bandage carrier, a couple of "dipped" magazines, the cleaning equipment, some boxes of original ammo, the list goes on.

i think the copies i bought some years ago were about 40bucks a piece. I figure they cost me nothin given the info i got to properly look at a pistol, and see what somebody else didn't see.

I've got a 1917 dated Remington manufactured one that is in similar condition to the pic in the first post. What is the general value for one like this? I know there can be nuances based on part content, condition, etc. Has the recent releases by the CMP driven the cost/value up or down?

I bought a new recoil spring for mine and intend to take it to the range when the weather gets better. Give the 102 yr old girl a light workout.

i don't think you can get an easy answer on price depending on where in the country located, and without tearing it down and referencing the books as to the parts. I know they aren't cheap anymore and hear stories about good condition WWII remingtons in the 1500range or higher.
some of the other companies that produced fewer are way up there now.
I do know i am using the cmp prices as a base for mine, not that i have any intent to sell them, but if i did it wouldn't be below that 1000marker.
one good idea is to buy a wolfe recoil spring to use as a marker. measure the ones in the old guns against that, if shorter, they should be replaced if shooting them. I did that one time on four or five WWII versions, ended up putting new springs in all of them saving the old springs to stay with the gun.
I have seen some union switch versions in the mid two's.
i for sure don't think the cmp releases have driven prices down.

Agreed, Ron. Don't see the CMP driving prices down at all. If anything, the other direction.

I think the slide stop should be checkered, but I'll have to dig an original from the back of the safe. I also think the original sights were smaller that the 1911A1, and the rear sight was rounded on the edges. The tang safety was also shorter, it is hard to tell from the pictures. Naturally the magazine should be two tone.
I have one of the last 1911 made in 1923 before they converted to the 1911A1. Mine is a commercial "C" marked. It is really a gem.

I've been doing a bit of research myself. My 1911 pictured in the OP was produced in 1918, as evidenced by the serial# 249xxx. That puts it in the first 300,000 guns produced, and prior to the Black Army period where the final polishing step before applying the finish was skipped to facilitate faster production. This accounts for some of the ~ 325,000 guns of the Black Army period (May 1918 - March 1919) exhibiting poor finish retention.

https://www.colt.com/serial-lookup

http://www.militaryfirearm.com/Forum/showthread.php?19126-1911-Guru-s-needed-!!-1918-Colt