1911 A1 with high standard barrel

[Enzo]

Hi,

I have a military Colt 1911 A1 which was made in early to mid 1942 according to serial number. It shows an overhaul mark from Augusta Arsenal. The gun has all features you would expect from a 1942 made pistol except the fact that it has a (blued) high standard barrel. I am currently trying to find out, wheter the barrel was exchanged during the military overhauling process or not. May be someone else has also seen guns showing the same features and may be can give additional informations on the overhauling process and the barrels used for replacement. I am also not sure about the finish, is it the original one or not? One clearly can detect the darker coloured area on the front of the slide, where the material was hardened, but does that automatically mean, that the gun has its original finish? Silde and reciever perfectly fit with respect to finish (grey to very slightly greenish).

Any comments on that are highly appreciated!

[Scott Gahimer]

Photos would be nice. But in their absence I'll still offer an opinion. I've never seen an original finish pistol with an AA mark. I've seen a lot of AA rebuilds.
Based on the onfo you provided, it's impossible to know who swapped the barrel. All types of barrels were used in rebuilds, including those made by Hi-Std. Many were refinished. You will probably never know for sure. A good, firsthand inspection of the wear patterns might reveal something, but...

[Enzo]

Thanks a lot for your answer, Scott.
I'll try to organize a digi cam to make some pics. Some additional infos: I could not detect any bright metal inside of the VP mark neither of the inspectors mark on the trigger guard. Inside the receiver, ramp looks parkerized on both edges, seems that only the area in the middle in contact with bullets while feeding is bright and looks like polished. Barrel itself shows "HS" mark on one side of the lug and "P"-mark on the other side. Chamber shows crude machining outside on the bottom on both sides of the barrel lug. Blueing shows strong wear. Condition perfectly fits with condition of the gun, not bad, but hardly used. On the right of the trigger guard is a mark showing one "W" over another one and on the top the number "88" in bold letters. To me it seems (especially with respect to the fact that all parts match with respect to condition), that the gun was brought into this condition during military overhauling. Means that it is not original but an original military gun and a collectible. What's your opinion?

[Scott Gahimer]

Definitely sounds refinished. Refinished by who? I don't know. Might have a clue after seeing the photos.