Hi all, a friend of mine recently lost her father, among his possessions he had a "an old 45" that he apparently bought in the early/mid 1980's. He never fired it...never took it out of the brown paper bag that he brought it home in. Still had a price tag on it... $350. She asked me to take a look at it to see if it was worth hanging on to. Well that "old 45" is a Remington Rand M1911a1. As expected the finish did not like being stuffed in a paper sack and negelcted for the past 30 years or so. When I took it out it had quite a bit of rust on it...but not much pitting. So I disassembled it, gave eveything a liberal coating of CLP and let it sit for a bit. I lightly rubbed some of the heavier rust with some clp and #0000 steel wool. I'm not a gunsmith, but I do understand the importance of preserving the original finish while at the same time trying to save this little peice of history. The things I know about this pistol is, from the serial # it is a 1944, it has the correct High Standard barrel, correct ordinance and inspector stamps, it does have an Agusta Armory stamp and the condition is ....? And that's the question, given the overall condition should this pistol be left as is and kept as a collectable, or should it be refinished and used as a shooter? What would it be worth as is? I'll be taking it to the range later this week to function test, but it cycled the snap caps I ran through it just fine. Take a look at the pics and let me know what you think.
Also, the mag has "L" stamped on the toe, no other marks, no weld seam and has the correct tapered feed lips, anyone know who the manufacturer might be?
Thanks
Also, the mag has "L" stamped on the toe, no other marks, no weld seam and has the correct tapered feed lips, anyone know who the manufacturer might be?
Thanks