OLD COLT: WE PROVIDE THE PUBLIC WITH AN ONLINE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE FOR OLD COLT GUNS.
This Colt M1911A1 was shipped to the U.S. Naval Operating Base, Sewell's Point, Virginia, on January 7th, 1941. This particular pistol has a slide that is numbered 720683 or 3 digits off. Both pistols were shipped on the same day and were in the same box.
The document showing this provenance is a shipping ticket showing the shipment from the Colt factory to the Sewell's Point base, near Norfolk, VA. This shipment was in accordance with directions given to Colt by the Springfield Armory, the organization that had established the contract with Colt and managed inspection, delivery and distribution of these arms. At the time the U.S. Army was the executive agency for military small arms procurement and contracted with Colt for pistols required by all of the services. Prior to the beginning of the war, these pistols were allocated to the individual services and shipped in serial number order. As shown by the packing memorandum, this shipment consisted of 500 pistols packed in ten boxes. Pistol number 720686 was in box #9 which contained pistols numbered 720653-720702.
The inspector stamp of C.S.R. is for Charles S. Reed. From August 2nd, 1938 to December 31st, 1940 he was in charge of the production and acceptance of ordnance in the Springfield Ordnance District. He was the officer in charge of the Outside Inspection (A.I.O.).
