Our 1911A1 Remington Rand .45ACP pistol has a unique history. During an auction in Auckland, my uncle intended to bid on a BAR, but my grandmother was drawn to the pristine 1911A1 on display. She successfully bid for it, adding it to our collection since Australian gun laws were stricter than New Zealand’s. The pistol stayed with my uncle in New Zealand until we managed the paperwork to import it to Australia, possibly firing its first rounds during a visit before joining our collection.

The United States adopted the M1911 pistol just in time for the First World War. Between Colt and Springfield Armory, roughly 643,000 pistols were produced by the end of 1918. As the war went on, and through the pistol’s service in France, a number of practical improvements were identified. These changes were eventually rolled into a batch of 10,000 pistols ordered from Colt in 1924, though they wouldn’t receive an official designation until years later. A second order of 10,000 followed in 1938. These pistols became the first officially designated M1911A1s. The updates focused on improving handling, including reshaped mainspring housing, larger sights, a longer grip tang, and a shorter trigger reach.

In 1939, the U.S. government issued contracts for what were known as M1911A1 “educational” pistols. These contracts called for just 500 pistols each and were intended to fund the creation of complete production tooling, which would then be stored for potential future use. Similar contracts were issued for rifles and machine guns. Two companies received these contracts: Harrington & Richardson, and the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Singers successfully completed its pistols but soon shifted to higher-priority wartime production such as artillery sights. H&R, on the other hand, was unable to complete its contract, which was ultimately cancelled in the spring of 1942.

Once the United States entered the war, demand for pistols increased dramatically. Three additional manufacturers were brought on to produce the M1911A1: Remington-Rand, Ithaca, and Union Switch & Signal. Alongside existing production at Colt and Springfield, these companies produced roughly 1.9 million pistols during the Second World War—enough to equip all branches of the U.S. military until the platform was finally replaced by the Beretta 92 in 1985.

The example being discussed here is a Remington-Rand pistol manufactured in April 1945. Remington-Rand received its first contract in May 1942 and delivered its final pistols in July 1945. Over that period, the company produced a total of 877,751 pistols, falling within the following serial number blocks:

916405 – 1041404

1279699 – 1441430

1471431 – 1609528

1743847 – 1816641

1890504 – 2075103

2164404 – 2244803

2380014 – 2619013 (with the final pistol numbered 2465139)

Our 1911 has the serial Number of 1474846 which means it was manufactured in 1943 and is part of the 3^rd batch Remington Rand produced.

It is a common misconception that these pistols were made by the well-known firearms company Remington. You can see why but in fact Remington rand was a typewriter company based in Syracuse, New York, USA. Who was just one of the companies that were given a educational contracts for the 1911A1.

I hope you enjoyed a close look at our 1911A1 Remington Rand!