1911 A1 Serial Number

[Skippar1]

I have a Colt 1911 A1 with serial number 731139. I would like to know when it was manufactured.

[exitwounds]

731139 is a 1941 Colt. If the slide is original it should have the same serial number on it underneath the firing pin stop plate. Shipped on Jun 28, 1941 to the Commanding General, at Springfield Armory, Springfield, MA.

[Hunter]

Welcome to the forum. Check this link and see if it is listed.
http://www.proofhouse.com/colt/index.html
If not you can call Colt at 1 800 962 Colt and ask for customer service and they can tell you.

[TattooPaul]

Welcome aboard Skippar1, you'll find any input from Exitwound, and others here, to be quite thorough. The link to Proofhouse is very good also but will only go so far as to give the year of maunfacture. There are folks here with source books that will get you much more detailed info. An additional route, that I plan to go with my 1943 'A1 is to contact Colt's Archival Sevices and get a letter of verification about your pistols origin and initial shipping http://www.coltsmfg.com/cmci/historical.asp. I believe you can call them before dishing out the money (about 100 bucks) to see if they have records that would make this a worthwhile endeavor. If you have one with a documentable history; a nice embossed, signed factory verification can be pretty nice in a frame for showing off with your old timer. Just a thought if you want to go that far.
There are some books available to help you verify if what you have is at least correct, if not original, and the folks here could help with that as well by seeing pics of the various proof stamps, etc. should ou not feel the desire to add one of the books to your library.

Congrats on the vintage A1!