Auto-Ordnance WWII 1911A1

Guns Magazine, Nov, 2004 by Jim Gardner

As I write this it is the sixth of June. For Americans, this date will forever be remembered as D-Day. Television and radio broadcasts are filled with accounts of the desperate and heroic events of 1944, as well they should be.

On the desk in front of me is a 1911 .45 in GI trim. No. it's not a surplus gun. Rather it's brand new, made by Auto-Ordnance and identified as the "1911A1, .45 ACR WWII."

From the outside, only a few details distinguish this pistol from the ones our fighting men carried in Normandy. The grasping grooves are angled rather than square to the slide, and the polished barrel hood looks a little out of place. The magazine well is slightly beveled, and the parkerized finish is a little different color from the wartime guns, but that's about it.

On the inside, the Auto-Ordnance 1911A1 looks to be pretty much straight GI. Yes, the furnished magazine does have a round follower to improve last round feeding, and the ejector is slightly extended to better toss empties out the port, but there's no firing pin safety or other major re-design.

If the design is pure 1944, a close look shows the manufacturing methods are those of 2004. Small parts show a casting line here and there, and the barrel is of two-piece construction, but what's wrong with that? It's modern production methods that make these guns affordable. This same pistol built exactly as they were 60 years ago would have to sell for two or three times as much.

The Auto-Ordnance 1911s are not exactly new, however their quality has improved dramatically since the purchase of the company by Kahr Arms. And those improvements aren't just on the outside. Bill Laughridge of Cylinder & Slide has tested these guns, and he reports flames and slides are properly hardened.

My sample Auto-Ord 1911 is fitted better than any GI-issue pistol I've owned or examined. The barrel locks up well, with only the slightest trace of vertical movement. Slide to frame fit is good too--a little horizontal movement but almost no vertical slop. The trigger is okay, rolling off at 5.75 pounds.

Test firing brought me back to my first GI-surplus 1911. Memories of paddling out to the islands to try 'er out. Of thumbing those fat cartridges into the magazine (I thought they looked as big as anti-aircraft shells), and of kneeling in the sand, poking my finger through the huge holes in the driftwood target.

I perforated a few targets with the new gun too (50-yard groups ran about five to six inches), but for the most part I simply enjoyed crumbling dirt clods on the 50-yard berm. To be honest, I'd forgotten what a great pistol a basic 1911A1 is--no oversized safeties, no big sights, no checkering or fancy finishes--just a big. workhorse gun that put those 230-grain pills right on the sights whenever I did my part. Wow, what a classic fightin' gun!

Reliability? The pistol functioned flawlessly, even when I put away the ball amino and broke out some cast semi-wadcutters.

The price is $581 and the pistol comes in a hard case with one magazine and a cable lock.

If you haven't shaken hands with an unadulterated version of this classic American pistol for a few years, maybe it's time to do so again.

For More Information Contract: Auto-Ord: (845) 735-4500; www.autoornance.com.