Rem 1911R1

[PJ Hardtack]

My Remington 1911R1 arrived. First impressions:

Very nice gun overall! Tight slide to frame fit, all the necessary mods and a few dubious bells - straight grip,  even matte finish, hi-viz sights, bevelled mag well, lowered & flared ejection port, long tang, attractive double diamond grips, loaded chamber indicator. All the things we used to do to stock Colt 1911s in the early days of IPSC.

I'd be happier if it didn't have the Series '80 firing pin widget.The feed ramp is smooth and the barrel throat looks like the one in my Gold Cup. It feeds dummy hardball flawlessly. Pressing the trigger with just the pad of the trigger finger gives an acceptable break for a service pistol.

In fact, it's so far from a stock Gov't 'O' 1911 that I'm surprised it's SASS WB legal. Not a true 1911 in that it has the cut-aways behind the short trigger, but a lot more 'in-the-spirit' than my tricked out Series '70 Gold Cup.

The mags were a pleasant surprise - numbered 'witness holes' and a spring that tapers to a tighter coil near the top. Different follower than any other mag I own. Hoping to put some rds thru' it tonight ..... ;>)

[PJ Hardtack]

Now I'm not so impressed with those Rem 1911R1 mags ..... ;>(

The gun was ACCURATE with two loads my Gold Cup eats up - 5.2 Green Dot under 212 gr SWCs and lead RN 230 gr. But ....
one mag failed to lock the slide back after the last round and the other came apart in the gun - TWICE - after the last shot.
That has never happened to me before with any other mag. Unfortunately, I didn't bring any other mags, just the two that came with the gun.
At home I stripped and reassembled the mags repeatedly, tested function with dummy rounds and swapped followers from proven mags - no dice. One still failed to lock back the slide and the other had to be dragged out of the gun.

The dealer wants me to return them and will replace the mags. In the meantime, I'll try other makes of mag with live rounds.

[Skeeter Lewis]

Interesting that Remington produced 1911s in the First World War for the U.S. Ordnance Department. I didn't know...

[St. George]

Those were built by 'Remington-UMC' - and they're 'real' M1911s - not clones - built on contract to the War Department.

Remington-UMC produced 21,513 pistols by February 1919, with an additional 160 delivered in April and 3 in May - for a total of 21,676.

Remington-UMC manufacturing equipment - 1700 pieces of it - was shipped to Springfield Armory (the 'real' one) after the war, and was stored in the Water Shops complex for future use.

It was distributed to different manufacturers during WWII for the eventual production of M1911A1s.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[fowler]

  I  had a RI when they first came out and did not like the looks of it or the feel of it. I sold it and got a Colt 1911-1918 copy. Much better made and the looks of a real cowboy 1911. The Rem was like all the rest of investment cast  & MIM copys. not correct in parts or looks.