1911 Colt with S.A. Marking

[tomvera]

Hello
This is my first thread.
I have a 1911 ser. no. 313999 which was carried in WWII by a friends father.
By serial number it is a Colt built frame. The slide is Colt. But it has the Eagle Head with S8 under it indicating it was inspected at the Springfield Armory.
Did Colt sometimes send their guns to Springfield for inspection?
I have read about refurbished guns after WWI and this does not display any of those characteristics. It is blued, not parkerized, and has original wood grips. Also by serial number it was built in 1918.
Thanks,
Tom M.

[John Holbrook]

Your Colt was inspected at the Colt plant by a Springfield Armory inspector.

The early Colts, through early 1917, had a cartouche consisting initials. As producion increased in 1917, the inspectors at Colts were given a number like "S17" under the Eagle Head.

Sounds like a nice old Colt...

[tomvera]

Thanks for the info on that.
Yes it's a nice gun and got me interested in the 1911. When it was given to me it was dry as a bone. I field stripped it cleaned and oiled it and took it to the range. It was the best shooting I had ever experienced and after a few hundred rounds I decided to let it rest.
Because of it I bought a Colt 1991A1 slightly used and a perfect shooter.
Later, Tom

[garrettwc]

Also just to clarify, we are not talking about the company Springfield Armory. We are discussing the Springfield Massachusetts armory which was founded in 1777 and was the birthplace of the Springfield '03 rifle and M1 Garand among other things.

History of Springfield Armory (http://www.nps.gov/spar/history.html)

[Johnny Peppers]

The last Colt with the inspectors initials was in the 303,000 serial number range. At that time the eagle's head inspection mark was put into use.

[tomvera]

Hi guys,
Thanks a lot for all this info it really helps. Good forum
Tom