1911 Government Model

100th Anniversary Limited Edition

      

I have had a lot of questions on the form that have been answered here on this page, please read this page in its entirety, before you fill out the feedback form.

To celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the 1911 I am researching the feasibility of building 100 exact reproductions of an original military 1911 pistol that was built before serial number 3186.

To create an exact reproduction of this pistol requires the manufacture of many of the internal parts to specifically match the original parts used in that time frame of manufacture of the 1911. Many people are unaware that there were many slight changes in some of the internal parts as time went by.  As with any newly designed firearm, there were breakages of some of the internal parts as the number of rounds fired through the pistols increased.  So, Colt redesigned the parts that failed to increase their strength but still allow direct replacement of the original parts without other modifications of the pistol.

The most noticeable changes to the exterior of the pistol came in 1928 with the introduction of the 1911A1 pistol.  The visible changes were the changing of the flat mainspring housing to an arched mainspring housing, the grip safety tail was lengthened to stop hammer bite, the hammer spur was thinned and shortened, the slide stop checkering was changed to serrations, the thumb safety was changed from a small thumb piece to a longer style with serrations instead of checkering,  machining of the relief cuts behind the trigger guard to allow more finger access to the trigger, the front and rear sight changes for improved sight picture, the ejection port was enlarged downward,  and the lengthening of the of the cut under the slide nose on the recoil spring plug housing.  Another very subtle but significant external change was the magazine catch lock.  The very early magazine catch lock had a concave head instead of a screw slot.  The removal of the magazine catch lock required that the magazine catch be pushed to the right and then turned to unlatch the magazine catch lock.   The finish of the pistol was changed from a polished blue to a grit blasted parkerized finish. The wooden grips were also changed to the plastic grips for improved durability and less manufacturing costs.

The internal parts that were changed over the years were the firing pin stop, the trigger went from being machined from one piece of steel to two pieces, the recoil spring guide was strengthened, the barrel was changed externally to allow faster production, the disconnector cut in the slide was changed from a hole with relief angles to a ½ moon cut, and of course the inspectors marks changed as the inspectors changed. 

So, as you can see creating an actual reproduction of an original 1911 pistol will require quite a lot of work and expense for a small run of 100 pistols.  I am currently researching the costs to reproduce the pistol. 

The marking on the pistol will be slightly different as I cannot use the Colt name or the horse.  I will roll mark the slide with the same type style.  The patent dates will be the same.  The name will be changed to Cylinder & Slide.  The address will be changed to Fremont Ne.  The horse will be changed to an entwined CS in proper type style.  The manufacturer’s line on the frame will be changed to Cylinder & Slide Fremont Ne.  The US Property marking will be rolled on the left side of the dust cover of the frame in the large lettering.  The serial number will be put on the right hand side of the dust cover.

 

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The serial numbers will be 001 through 100.

Please fill out the questionnaire with your contact information.   I will not give your contact information to anyone else and I will not start bombarding you with emails.  I will send you an email when I get more information so I can keep you posted on the progress.  Once I have a firm price on the pistol I will send everyone an email offering you the chance to place your deposit of 50% of the purchase price.  The serial numbers will be issued on a first come first served basis.  Serial number 1 is mine so don’t even ask.

I hope that enough of you want a true reproduction that I can build these pistols.  The target for the completion of production will be Shot Show 2011 so I really have to get this project rolling to meet this schedule.

 

Click here to send me your information and have your name added to the list of people interested.  There is also a comment section you may add your suggestions, thoughts and comments.  Your input is greatly appreciated.

Bill Laughridge

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Update:  27 January 2010

 

Update on the 1911 reproduction project: 

I have decided to build a reproduction of the military issue 1911 pistol as produced by Colt until Serial Number 3000.  This pistol has several very unique parts.  The most notable part that was changed at SN#3188 was the magazine catch and magazine catch lock.  The original magazine catch lock had a concave head instead of a screw slot.  The removal of the magazine catch was quite difficult to do.  The sear spring had no turned down end on the left hand tine.  The change to the turned down end on the sear spring was made at some where around #1000.  The mainspring housing pin had convex ends on it until about #6499 instead of one convex end and one concave end.  The thumb safety lock was also different and changed at about #6000.  The recoil spring plug did not have a tab pressed into it until about #6500.  There may be more slight differences and I will continue to research them with the reference books that I have.  The only incorrect parts that I will have to offer with the pistol will be the magazines.  The exposed base plate magazines look like they are going to be just too difficult to do so I will do the Type 3 magazines.  There will be two magazines with each pistol.  One magazine will have the lanyard loop and the other will not. The bases will be pinned on.  The slide, frame, mainspring housing, and grip safety will be buffed correctly as possible and the bluing will be Carbona Blue.  The small parts will be fire blued to the iridescent blue color as per the pistols up to #2400.

 I would appreciate it if any of you can point out any other major parts of the pistol that were different in the under #3000 serial number range that I may have overlooked.  Please understand that there are so many tiny variations found from gun to gun that no two of these early pistols were perfectly alike.  These pistols were hand fitted by many different fitters so there were always tiny differences from gun to gun.  So, I will do my best to produce as close of a reproduction as possible and still keep the price under the UNOBTANIUM category.

 Speaking of price and the do-ability of this project, the price that I have now based on my projections is $4000 per pistol.  I will start this project only when I receive 50 deposits of $2000.  The cut off date for receiving the first 50 deposits so I can launch this project will be May 30th, 2010.  If I have received the required 50 paid deposits by that time all deposits become non refundable and the project will move forward.  I have to start the project at that time to be even remotely able to deliver the pistols in 2011.  If I do not receive the needed 50 paid deposits by that time I will have to put the project on hold and I will return all deposits in full that I have received.  If for some reason the price that I have now increases, everyone that has paid a deposit will be contacted and given a refund of their deposit if they so desire.  I would really like to be able to build this 1911 reproduction to celebrate the 100 anniversary of the 1911 but I understand that these are trying times for many people due to the state of the economy and the unknowns of job security so this type of project may be badly timed.

 Please keep checking for new updates.  I would appreciate it if anyone has a pre #3000 pistol that they would be willing to let me examine.  The more pistols that I check the more accurate I can be.  I also would appreciate it if anyone has an original two piece box that the pistol was shipped in so that I can duplicate the markings that were on the box on my two piece craft paper covered boxes. 

Bill

 

Update: 18 February 2010 

Currently I am working on making the one piece long triggers and the magazines. 

The long one piece trigger is the most difficult part to manufacture besides the frame, slide, and barrel.  I feel that the original part was probably manufactured from a forging.  A forging die is way too expensive to have made for a short run of parts.  My one piece triggers will be made from billet steel. 

If you have ever looked at an original one piece trigger and understand machining this part is a work of machining art.  The complex shape and the thin bows make it quite difficult to make even with today’s modern machining methods.  The change in the trigger that was introduced in 1928 for the 1911A1 made the trigger much easier to manufacture.  The bow is made from a stamping and the finger piece is made from a stamping also.  This type of manufacturing would have reduced the part price by at least 75%. 

I am going to have 200 of these one piece triggers made.  There will be 100 of the triggers made available for sale as parts and the other 100 will be reserved for the pistols.  It looks like the triggers will have to sell for $95 each.  These triggers will have the finger piece highly polished and then heat blued.  

The magazines that were used in the original 1911 pistols were made from seamless tubing that was purchased from Germany according to my information.  I cannot make magazines like that.  However, I can make the magazines with the pinned on floor plate that shows the entire side of the floor plate below the magazine tube sides.  The magazines will also have the lanyard loop on the floor plate.  The manufacture of the floor plate is actually pretty complicated.  The floor plate has two bosses machined on the top that have 1/16” holes drilled through them for the pins that hold the floor plate on the tube.  The bosses also have to be machined on the ends so that they can go up inside of the tube.  These bosses keep the floor plate from sliding sideways on the tube.  The pins keep the floor plate on the tube and keep the floor plate from sliding fore or aft.  The pin holes in the tube must line up exactly with the pin holes in the floor plate bosses so the tube must be jig drilled to match the floor plate pin boss holes.  The other little fun thing is the 5 degree angle on the back of the floor plate to match the angle of the back of the magazine to the bottom of the floor plate.  Don’t forget that the sides of the floor plate must line up nicely with the sides of the tube.  I hope that we can hold this tolerance very closely so I don’t have to make the floor plate width slightly wide and then grind and buff them to match the tube.  This will add quite a bit to the price of the magazine if I have to do it.  The magazines also have to be carbona blued.  They are not going to be two tone magazines.  According to my reference books the original magazines were not two tone because they were not case hardened by dipping the tops into molten cyanide.  I assume that the original magazines were pretty soft and didn’t hold up well.  Our magazines will be made from modern heat treated steel.  The lips will be of the old ball style as they were.  The cut out in the back of the magazine at the top will be new style with the rounded corners instead of the sharp square corners as the dies that the tubes are made from have that feature and I can’t and don’t want to change that feature.  The reason that they changed from the square corners to the rounded corners was that the magazines cracked there.  The other feature that I may have to keep on the magazines is the 1/8” weep hole slot in the bottom of the front of the magazine.  The originals did not have this weep hole.  I am not sure when the weep hole was added as I have not come across that information.  The die that stamps out the tubes has the weep hole built in to it and I don’t know yet if that can be removed from the die without a major reworking of the die.  

 I don’t have a cost figure on the magazines yet but they will certainly cost more than a new 1911 magazine does.

 

 

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