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Hello,
Can anyone tell me more about Colt 1911's with the "Colt commercial/military slide, circa May-June 1918" as found on page 30 of Clawson's Collectors Guide? I am interested in knowing the location of the Rampant Colt on the left side and serial numbers of 1911's that have this slide. What's the story behind this variation? Thanks for your help. Regards, Bob.
Hi BGold,
Try looking at the following link to an older thread in this forum. It is about my pistol that I was trying to date. It has a commercial and military marked slide on it. Those slides were replacement slides, but in the case of my pistol, both the slide and frame are original to each other.
https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=11085
In answer to your question, the rampant horse is behind the serations on the left side of the slide. Once I was able to upload my images, I posted several photos... look towards the bottom of the first page.
All the best,
Rob
Tried to delete a double post.
The double marked slides were not replacement slides, but were commercial slides diverted to the military contract in mid 1918. There could have been a shortage of military slides, and Colt used what they had by applying the M1911 logo to the commercial slides.
In WWII Colt diverted approximately 6000 Government Model pistols to the military contract. They had all the commercial markings, but the original serial numbers were replaced with serial numbers in the assigned military range, Government Model was removed from the receiver, military markings were applied, and the pistols were refinished to phosphate.
Thanks for the correction!