1911 Show-N-Tell

[Bob.]

My First Wilson

Wilson Combat Tactical Supergrade Professional

Now thats nice!

Bob

 

[RHurt919]

My Kimber Pro TLE/RL II with Blackhawk Xiphos NT.

 

[khickey3492]

Cowboy1629, your Wilson Combat Tactical Supergrade Professional is a beautiful gun. I've always been a fan of Bill's work!

 

[Cowboy1629]

Cowboy1629, your Wilson Combat Tactical Supergrade Professional is a beautiful gun. I've always been a fan of Bill's work!

Thanks! I have always wanted one and no regrets here. It is the best constructed 1911 I own, and I own a few. And it is a shooter too. I ran probably 700 rounds through it without the first hiccup.

 

[Cowboy1629]

1911's in .45ACP

Snapped a picture of some of my favorite 1911's today.

From (top center) clockwise... My newest addition Wilson Combat Tactical Supergrade Professional, Colt Special Combat Government, Ed Brown Special Forces Carry, (bottom center) Para -Ordnance P14-45 Limited, Colt Series 80 Lightweight Commander, Les Baer Thunder Ranch Special, (center) Kimber Ultra CDP II w/Crimson Trace.

 

[Racerdj]

Some of my 1911's

 

[Racerdj]

My favorite with cocobolo grips.

 

[AR Maker]

Here she is. Daddy is so proud.

 

[Monster Man]

Dad's Pistol

I too am curious as to if you have any more pics of this 45. It looks really nice and as CandRFan said a great family heirloom! Just wondering is this a Colt, Remington Rand, Ithaca, or a Union Switch & Signal?

My 1911A1, my father's pistol, is a Remington Rand, and below are additional pictures. My father served in Europe; in Sept 1944 he waded ashore at Normandy. He said even that late not only did he have to wade in, but that the beach had not been cleared of , well, let's just say the beach had not been cleared. He entered combat on October 19, and at the time was a T/Sgt. He fought in France Belgium, Germany, and Austria, and on January 18, 1945 he received his battlefield commission as a 2nd Lt, which was his rank at discharge in January, 1946. Dad passed in Dec 2002, and until he gave me his pistol prior to his death, it remained by his bed, fully loaded (with WW II ammunition) and at the ready, all his life. Dad was not issued the pistol; he said it was given to him by his Lt when he was still a T/Sgt. His platoon leader was wounded, and he gave the pistol to Dad to "keep for me until I get back", and Dad never saw him again. Dad said they always stripped the wounded of arms. We knew Dad was awarded the Bronze Star, and only after his death did we learn he actually earned six. We never knew how he earned the one we knew about; Dad always said he didn't do anything more than any of the others. I have his holster and web belt that he used during the war. Dad returned from Europe on the Queen Elizabeth, and said he had his own state room, and an orderly. Apparently returning home on the QE was quite different than his trip over, as he was on a troop ship and not permitted on deck. Dad said he and some others would sneak up top by the stacks at night, just to get some fresh air. The pistol did not see a lot of use after he brought it home, though I remember that at the farm where we lived until I was 5, the barn was about 80 - 100 yards and Dad would stand on the back steps and shoot at a lard can by the barn......he did not have any problem hitting it, as I recall, though that was in 51 and 52! Dad let me play with the holster and belt when I was a kid, so it got some wear and tear from that. He also taught me to field strip the 1911; I'm sure the slide stop scratch it bears is from my early efforts at reassembly. I really miss Dad; I sure wish he was still around, as there is so much I'd like to ask him.

My Dad is the middle guy in the photo within the photo; on the back is written "Dec 31, 1944". Dad was in the battle known as Nordwind at that time.

Panzer Battles: Nordwind


Sadly, I have no photos of Dad with his pistol, and I wish I did. But I have a lot of great memories. I think about Dad every day.

 

[Cowboy1629]

WOW That is really special, thanks for sharing.

 

[cbhausen]

Mods:

Please close this thread now... It simpy can't get any better than this.

 

[OD*]

Fantastic Remington Rand! Is that your mother in the "sweetheart stocks"?

 

[Monster Man]

Fantastic Remington Rand! Is that your mother in the "sweetheart stocks"?

Yes, it is my mother in the picture within the sweetheart stocks. They were married on July 28, 1943. She lives alone in Greensburg. She has all the letters that Dad wrote her during his time away from her while in the Army, and she reads them over and over. She has read some of them to me ,and this is how I came to possess the letter he wrote her (in March or April, 1945.....will have to go look) in which he describes making the grips. I never knew this was a common practice by GI's until after Dad passed, and I began studying these pistols a little.

For those that know the 1911A1, you may notice the original stocks on my dad's pistol do not match; one is from a Colt, and the other is Remington Rand. I only noticed this in recent years after I began to read and study about the variations associated with 1911A1's. I could make the pistol "correct", but then it would not be the same. I chose to leave it as it is, though I told my son about it, as he is the one who will one day be its owner.

 

[Bluedragon]

Excellent story, and thanks for sharing. That gun is priceless.

 

[farva118]

I had never heard of the "Sweetheart" grips before. But I love the idea. Now I'm going to have to take some pics of the wife and baby for mine! Thanks for the great story monster.

 

[OD*]

"Sweetheart" stocks were quite popular in their day.

Good story here about the pistol below (scroll down). BOLO - Stolen Handgun! - Topic Powered by Social Strata

Follow up;

Top Stories Posted on Sat, Aug. 30, 2008print email Digg it del.icio.us AIM
Mystery solved: Woman on WWII vet's gun ID'd
By CHRIS VAUGHN cvaughn@star-telegram.com

James L. Morris met his future wife, Velma, when he was at Fort Belvoir, Va., and she was working in Washington, D.C. The late World War II veteran's wife was on the custom grips of the .45. (Family photo)

Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler spent much of early Friday morning on the phone, talking to people about the Case of the Dark-Haired Beauty on the .45 Pistol.

But none of the callers could answer Fowler’s questions about the seized weapon — who was the woman in the photos beneath the pistol’s custom plexiglass grips and who was the gun’s owner?

Then, about mid-morning, an emotional Jim Morris called from his home in Stephenville with a story about a Nebraska girl who met a young officer from Texas and sent him off to fight the Germans.

Within a few hours, the case was solved.

"I have no doubt it’s his pistol," Fowler said. "It’s a great ending to a mystery."

Morris, 62, can hardly believe that he opened his morning Star-Telegram and saw his father’s service weapon and his mother’s picture, in the hands of the Parker County sheriff. He had all but given up hope he would see it again.

"Nothing in this world that I owned had more sentimental value to me," he said. "That gun meant the world to me. It means the world to me. I was in tears when I read that article."

Last October, someone stole three guns from Morris’ house, including his father’s .45-caliber Army pistol. He filed a police report with Stephenville but did not have the serial numbers.

Two months later, sheriff’s deputies in Parker County seized the weapon while executing a search warrant at a house near Azle. But because the serial number wasn’t in a crime database, they didn’t know to whom it belonged. They put it in a property room, where Fowler — a history buff — found it this month and renewed a search for the rightful owner.

Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, James L. Morris — born in Palestine, reared in Maypearl — dropped out of the Texas Tech University engineering program and enlisted in the Army. The Army sent him to officer candidate school in Virginia.

There he met Velma Cashatt, a girl from Harrison, Neb., who had gone to Washington, D.C., to work for the government during the war.

They married before he shipped out with the 82nd Engineer Combat Battalion, which landed at Omaha Beach two weeks after D-Day. Morris served as the battalion’s executive officer and later its commanding officer as the unit fought through France and Germany in 1944 and ’45, including the Battle of the Bulge.

"He got to see a lot of the horrors of that time," his son said.

The custom, plexiglass hand grips came from the windshield of a crashed German bomber.

"His men took that windshield out and made those grips for his weapon," Jim Morris said. "They really admired him."

His father died last September at the age of 89. His mother died in 2005.

About 10 years before his father died, Jim Morris, a retired Navy chief petty officer, asked him for the gun. After losing it for nine months, he plans to drive to Weatherford on Tuesday to retrieve it and thank Fowler.

"I never thought I would see it again," he said. "My son will get it when I pass away."

Fowler, for his part, isn’t quite done with the case.

"I expect I’ll be filing charges of possession of stolen property on the guy who had it," he said.

CHRIS VAUGHN, 817-390-7547

 

[farva118]

That is amazing. I think that I like having them hidden and being there only for me to know.

 

[CandRFan]

Helluva post there Monster Man!

 

[chraland51]

I really wish that you guys would quit posting threads like this. I might cost me a lot of money. I thought that my Taurus and Smith and Wesson 1911s would be enough as both seem to function well and allow me to generally hit what I am trying to hit without too much recoil. Seeing all of these fine examples of 1911s just makes me want to stop in at Bradis on my way home and see what they have for sale. Just a couple of weeks ago, I got a similar urge and ended up taking home a near mint Ruger Redhawk in .44 to go with my Super Redhawks in .44 and Ruger .480. These urges can get very expensive.

 

[HICKMAN]

thread is sooo full of WIN!