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The ejection port window is lower (that is, larger) than in the WWII guns. The AO slide serrations are forward-slanted in the style of Drake-manufactured National Match slides and the commercial Colt Gold Cup model, as compared to the vertical grooves of CI and standard Commercial Colts. The Metal Form Corporation made magazines during WWII, although I am unable to establish a linkage between the early and the current firms. The AO magazine is made by Metalform and has a removable metal base plate. The AO’s seven-round magazine differs from the familiar GI design, although retaining the flat-shelf follower which has a raised dimple in its center for enhanced feeding. (The more familiar green-hued phosphate finish found on U.S. Both were developed by the Parker Rustproof Company of Detroit, Michigan. Starting with the AO’s Parkerized finish, the reference work notes that Colt used Parco-Lubrite finish, a manganese-based phosphating process, while Parkerizing uses a zinc base. Clawson’s book, Colt Service Pistols, Models of 19A1 (available from Charles W. To do this I used what I consider to be the definitive text on the subject, Charles W. My sample was Parkerized so I thought it would be informative to see just how faithfully the AO gun follows those made during the WWII era. The AO 1911A1 is available with three finishes: Parkerized, standard and deluxe blued. In the new AO gun, the parts fit right save for the WWII grooved mainspring housing that has a few gaps in its fit to the receiver. Out of the box, the new AO 1911A1 looks to be a newly-manufactured twin to those 1911A1s made at the beginning of World War II, with some small changes. The new gun should have been (and maybe yet) dubbed the Kahr Arms 1911A1, losing once and for all the baggage that accrued to the old AO 1911 guns. The Kahr Arms supervision shows and the company is doing it right – except for the name. The new Auto-Ordnance 1911A1 is well-made. The author fired some very good groups at 25 yards. The pistol just wasn’t very nice to look at. 400 Cor-Bon barrel dropped in easily and also worked. aftermarket barrel (Gun Parts is the successor to Numrich) chambered for. The Unserviceable Grade guns of old were a better gun by far.įor instance, I had an AO 1911 for a test of a Gun Parts, Inc. The ones I’ve examined showed they had received little if any attention to such niceties as seeing that parts mated up well with each other. Since Auto-Ordnance and Numrich Gun parts shared a common town – West Hurley, New York – it’s no stretch to figure out that the previous AO guns were primarily assembled from surplus parts…the operative word being assembled (read just put parts together). I know more than a few gunsmiths who refused to work on them. Prior to the new owners, AO guns had less than a sterling reputation for quality – and that’s putting it nicely. Now the job was to see if the Auto-Ordnance 1911 benefited from being made under the direction of Kahr Arms, which recently bought the company. There just might be a market for an American-made, standard 1911 at a reasonable price. Also, there aren’t any “cheap” GI 1911s for sale and the ones that would rate NRA-excellent grade run in the $1,000 range. The DCM is long gone, replaced by a private company, the Office of Civilian Marksmanship Program, and the “gun grabbers” stopped government-sponsored handgun sales a very long time ago.
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(Of course, time does have a way of making what I did and how well I did it remember “better”.) In gun shops, GI guns went for about $37.50, while new Commercial Colts were $78 and used ones ran $55 plus change.Īs I thought about this, I also realized that forty years have gone by. Both grades had been rebuilt at government arsenals prior to storage, although once in a while some lucky NRA member would get a brand-new original 1911 or A1 at the Unserviceable price. Most often, the only difference was that the latter had some surface pitting that hadn’t been buffed out. I bought the Serviceable Grade while others went for Unserviceable guns. If you wanted to gamble on what you would get, you could opt for an “Unserviceable Grade” gun for $17.50 (meaning possibly missing some small parts). I reflected that during my college years as an NRA member I could (and did) buy a “Serviceable Grade” 1911 (meaning ready for re-issue to military forces) from the Director of Civilian Marksmanship (DCM) for $34.50.
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I thought to myself I have at least a half-dozen GI 1911s and they were all cheap.
![auto ordnance 1911a1 for sale auto ordnance 1911a1 for sale](https://images.guns.com/prod/2020/10/13/5f8612a8ec998ef28ebf38e7a62c96328d1867da5e268.jpg)
Looking at the new Auto-Ordnance 1911A1 I wondered if anyone needs or would want yet another “plain-Jane” 1911A1.