[RUSSEL213]

i have been talking to a cousin of my mom's as of late, he found out that i prefer 1911 style pistols, he told me that he haqs some old barrels and slides and parts that he is going to give me. he said that he only has one 1911 complete pistol right now and he thinks its an old rem rand 1911A1. he didn't really say he was going to part with the pistol, but i expect he will at some point. he said he would want it to go to someone who would apreciate it like me.

i don't care much about value, as if i get it i will not get rid of it, but i was wondering what the people here thought of this brand of pistol, i have seen a couple but never shot one and they seem to be good basic 1911's

any input would be great on experiance with this brand of gun

thanks
russel the cop

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CHANCE FAVORS THE PREPARED MIND....

 

[dsk]

I own two of them. Remington Rand was a typewriter company that received a contract from the US government in 1942 to make M1911A1s for the war effort and suppliment Colt's production. Ithaca and Uninon Switch & Signal were the other two contractors, Singer having had made only 500 before US entry into the war.

By the end of the war Remington Rand had made over 800,000 M1911A1s, more than even Colt. Quality was excellent, but remember these guns were only built for shooting an enemy soldier and not to win a beauty contest. Both of my Rem-Rands display heavy tooling marks and other consmetic anomalies, but they both work 100% anyway. One of my pistols quite literally looks like it was cut out of a block of steel using a dull bandsaw!

The very early Rem-Rands did indeed have problems, primarily failure of their guns to meet parts interchangeability tests. Production was shut down for a few months in 1943 while the problems were sorted out, then by the time production resumed Remington Rand was once again turning out a quality product. These early Rem-Rands are identified by a slide logo that reads "Syracuse, New York" as opposed to the later ones with "Syracuse NY USA".

More good stuff about these guns can be found on my Website:
http://www.geocities.com/M1911_M1911A1

as well as Ty M.'s Website:
http://www.coolgunsite.com

 

[Redzone]

DSK have you ever fired your 1917 Commercial. I fired my 1916 when I bought it. Here's what I noticed. The first round nosedived(probably a weak mag spring), but cleared easily with a slide tug. The trigger pull was extremely heavy. The accuracy was fair 8" at 15 yrds(probably attributable to heavy pull). Also it is very difficult to remove slide stop. Does yours have similar functions. Or is my favorite old man a basket case? Ty told me it was probably a WWII magazine. But that everything else was correct. It also is only a 1% less example than your 17 judging by the picture.

 

[Redzone]

dsk the gun of yours I was refering to is a military. I missed the USP markings on my run through of your indentification section. I hope I have'nt failed the test. As it does look identical exept with eyes open.

 

[dsk]

Redzone-
Actually, I've never fired my old Colt. It's in such nice shape that I don't want to risk it, although the thought of running just one box of ammo through it just to say it works has crossed my mind. I would say your problem is most certainly magazine-related. An old 1911 should be 100% reliable with ball ammo.

 

[Ty]

Missed this post, I carried a RR in the Navy and own two today (a 1944 and 1945) love them both. In WWII RR made more 1911A1s then Colt and Ithaca combined, so it was kind of the "official US side arm" of WWII.
Enjoy,
Cheers
Ty

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Visit my 1911 site www.CoolGunSite.com