Need info on a slide for my Colt 1911 mfd in 1918

Thanks so much English, I appreciate the time and effort. Now I know what to look for!

You are about to be a victum of another gun with an illegal serial number. The old serial has been removed and that mess/number added. Run from that gun. It is a potential Felony charge to own, recieve, transfer, transport, almost anything known to man. This has become a huge problem in the 1911 community since the guns have gotten so expensive. We see them several times a week on the 1911 forum.

Notice how altered the metal looks where the number is located. A real USGI will have a NO prefix. It will not have an R suffix. The M1911A1 U S Army is also ground off to the left of the number. This stuff amazes me. Why would anyone risk a felony to make a few hundred bucks. Insane.

wiredog70 said:

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Just got this pics tonight, getting pistol tomorrow. It appears I do have a remington rand, i was going off the # he gave me and I thought it was a colt from 1918 based on that number, didnt know about the "R" afterwards. So now i'm wondering what I do have. I know its a 1911a1, frame has "FJA" who inspected all RR's, not sure about the cross cannons. Wondering why the ser # is not in RR's range. online shows rr range from 916405-2465139, was it restamped? What does the "R" signify? why would it be restamped? Other RR's I have seen had the united states property and m1911a1 us army, don't see that on this one. I'm confused, can anyone help tell me what I have?? Thanks.

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The Ordnance stamp looks OK as an Ordnance stamp. But that S/N is scary as far as i am concerned. The gun has an obliterated original serial and a new one applied - and unless it was cleared with ATFE (there are some provisions of law allowing that, but complicated and touchy because you have to admit to having a gun wth S/N removed to do it, unless you are serializing an arm that never had one).

A lot of GI guns fell off property books and somehow walked home following a GI after both WWI and WWII. And a lot of them had the U.S. Property stasmps and/or serils removed, with the idea that would somehow avoid a cahrge of being in possession of stolen government property (it wouldn't). Problem is that now it is a felony to alter or obliterate/remove a serial number, or be in possession of a fiream with an altered or obliterated S/N.

i wouldn't jump so quickly to say that the serial number has been removed and restamped. It is possible that the frame is a aftermarket piece made before GCA 68 required manufacturers names on the frames, hence the odd serial number. The FJA stamp looks to have been done with individual stamps, as the F is very deep, while the other two letters are stamped much lightly, that just doesn't look right to my eye. The Ordnance stamp looks to lightly struck as well, where the serial number was struck with a heavy hand. Without measuring the width of the frame, and comparing that measurement to a known good example of a USGI 1911A1 to see if metal has been removed, I would say that it might be possible that this was put together from a bunch of GI parts and a aftermarket frame.