SA National Match M1911A1

[Mike in Wis.]

Can anyone explain the discoloration on the slide of this National Match ? Hardening ? It appears to have a commercial Government Model slide with the last 4 of the frame numbers on it. It has most all the features of a 1960 National Match including the plastic trigger, except someone has added a non "US" marked Eliason rear sight instead of the tall rear fixed sight as the 1960 NM was released with. Is this a legit SA National Match pistol ?

http://www.simpsonltd.com/product_info.php?products_id=40930

Regards,

Mike

[Johnny P]

The problem I see is that the service slide was used through 1962 on the Springfield Armory NM pistols, and the next year the fully hardened Colt slide NM 7791435 was used. The heat line itself may be from silver soldering the front sight to the slide.

This is a 1960 Springfield Armory NM pistol with a Type III Remington Rand slide.

[Mike in Wis.]

Roger that on the service slide use. However, these slides were obtained by the Army from Colt in the 1950's and used as rebuild slides during the rush for parts at the start of the Korean War. So.... I assume these commercial marked slides would then qualify as a service slide as well. Granted I'm no expert on these.... just curious. The commercial slide on this NM is also "P" proofed on top near the rear sight notch. Pretty interesting...

[Johnny P]

The idea was that everyone was suppose to be issued the same quality pistol, and a hardened slide was not the same as the others. It was known that the hardened slides did not wear like the service slides, retaining it's accuracy longer.

The first hardened slides were made in late 1944 and 1945 for the military, but these do not seem to have been used either.

By the way, is everyone seeing the extra page with the russian or whatever?