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NRA stamp

838 Views 12 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  Sweet556, 
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I found this 1911 for sale and it has an NRA stamp next to the serial number. I did some research and im pretty sure that this is a fake, but can anyone confirm? It's outside the serial number range that these were done in and the year is off. Thanks for any info

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Michael W Cuber
Have you checked to see if its also an abbreviation for an Arsenal—there were a lot of them!
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Michael W Cuber said:
Have you checked to see if its also an abbreviation for an Arsenal—there were a lot of them!
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Oh I had no idea that that was a possibility! There's no info given on the stamp, so maybe?
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Earth Pig
National Recovery Act?
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dsk
It has to be a fake. NRA-marked pistols didn't appear until 1915 and that is a 1913 specimen. It also has the wrong rear sight.
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It is lower than any I've recorded but it is possible. Unfortunately, there is no way (I think) of knowing for sure.
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Michael W Cuber
Learn something new everyday!
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Michael W Cuber said:
Learn something new everyday!
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Me, too. That's one of the benefits of this forum.
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dsk said:
It has to be a fake. NRA-marked pistols didn't appear until 1915 and that is a 1913 specimen. It also has the wrong rear sight.
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As far as I know and this is based on conversations with Clawson and Meadows, the NRA pistols were chosen at random from pistols in stores at Springfield. The inventory control at Springfield at that time may have been similar to the inventory at a grocery store where they try and sell the oldest items first (First in and first out.) but since the pistols did not go bad as does a head of lettuce, there was no apparent need to control inventory beyond basic stock rotation. None of the history was written down beyond the above magazine clip, as to when the pistol were dispatched to NRA members.
If the pistol program started in 1912 as indicated in the article, a pistol with a 1913 date would have been expected, but if the shipments did not start until later, say 1915 for example, it is still possible that a 1913 pistol which had hung around in the Springfield stores due to lax inventory control became one of the original group. The highest known serial numbers are from 1916 or early 1917 when the country went to war, and the program was terminated. Today we have only a vague idea of how many 1911 pistols were originally marked with the NRA marking. About all we know is that the program started with the "100 pistols" allocation, but since at least 100 NRA pistols have been recorded by collectors, it is likely that that number was increased at some later time. Some good high resolution pictures of the markings would be a big help in determining the authenticity of the marking.
Best Karl
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kxk said:
As far as I know and this is based on conversations with Clawson and Meadows, the NRA pistols were chosen at random from pistols in stores at Springfield. The inventory control at Springfield at that time may have been similar to the inventory at a grocery store where they try and sell the oldest items first (First in and first out.) but since the pistols did not go bad as does a head of lettuce, there was no apparent need to control inventory beyond basic stock rotation. None of the history was written down beyond the above magazine clip, as to when the pistol were dispatched to NRA members.
If the pistol program started in 1912 as indicated in the article, a pistol with a 1913 date would have been expected, but if the shipments did not start until later, say 1915 for example, it is still possible that a 1913 pistol which had hung around in the Springfield stores due to lax inventory control became one of the original group. The highest known serial numbers are from 1916 or early 1917 when the country went to war, and the program was terminated. Today we have only a vague idea of how many 1911 pistols were originally marked with the NRA marking. About all we know is that the program started with the "100 pistols" allocation, but since at least 100 NRA pistols have been recorded by collectors, it is likely that that number was increased at some later time. Some good high resolution pictures of the markings would be a big help in determining the authenticity of the marking.
Best Karl
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Very interesting. So this pistol technically could be original. Could it be authenticated with a letter from colt? The ad offers no info on it or paperwork and thats about as high res as i can get.
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K
Could it be authenticated with a letter from colt?
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No, unfortunately. A Colt Archives letter will only show that it shipped to the Ordnance Department, probably Springfield Armory.
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Puffnstuff said:
Very interesting. So this pistol technically could be original. Could it be authenticated with a letter from colt? The ad offers no info on it or paperwork and thats about as high res as i can get.
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If you can get in a lot closer and stay in focus it would help a lot.
Best Karl
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It sold yesterday. Did you win it? $3027

The finish looks splotchy. The pictures do the seller no justice (or they are trying to hide something.) The seller mentioned nothing about NRA in the title or ad. So either ignorant, not knowing, or knew the NRA didn’t belong being marked there.

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