Essex 1911 National Match

[SNAKE PLISSKEN]

A friend picked up an Essex 1911 with a Remington Rand slide. How can you tell if it is a contract National Match 1911.

 

[V98]

I own an Essex 1911 I got from my father. As far as I can tell from extensive research Essex only made piece parts. They never produced an assembled pistol.

The frames have both decent and poor reviews for quality. The one I own is tight and accurate but that is a rarity from what I’ve found.

The one I have was advertised as an early custom build from a guy that eventually found fame doing custom work for CZ though I can find no marks that confirm it.

Hope this helps!

 

[coolhandluke]

To my knowledge no national match pistols were ever built by the AMU or USAF shooting team armorers, using Essex frames. You'll see NM slides on Essex frames occasionally, but they are parts guns built using surplus NM slides, barrels, etc.

 

[SNAKE PLISSKEN]

To my knowledge no national match pistols were ever built by the AMU or USAF shooting team armorers, using Essex frames. You'll see NM slides on Essex frames occasionally, but they are parts guns built using surplus NM slides, barrels, etc.

Thanks, I had heard a long time ago some Camp Perry competitor's were using Essex frames for Match builds. Like the Norinco frames only in the 60s. But if they were not put together by an arsenal then there's probably no way to tell if it was used in competition.

 

[coolhandluke]

Thanks, I had heard a long time ago some Camp Perry competitor's were using Essex frames for Match builds. Like the Norinco frames only in the 60s. But if they were not put together by an arsenal then there's probably no way to tell if it was used in competition.

Correct. Without some kind of provenance, there's no way to verify if the pistol may have been used at Perry. It is safe to say that it was definitely not built by an AMU or USAF armorer for NM use though.

 

[CutBaitNBlowSh*tUp4ALivin]

Let us see the goods!

 

[SNAKE PLISSKEN]

Let us see the goods!

I'll see if I can get some pics

 

[red dirt shootist]

I own a couple of Essex framed pistols, they are both out of spec, which is common, but they function fine. It's my understanding that a lot of GI pistols were brought back without the frames (serial numbers), and many were built with Essex frames. And a lot of the old bringbacks just had the serial numbers ground off.

 

[SNAKE PLISSKEN]

Let us see the goods!

 

[WoodsCraft]

Essex frames were quite popular into the 1990's . I remember having my smith order them for me from Brownells when I was learning how to build 1911 pistols. They were never used by the military but lots of military parts were installed on Essex frames back when GI parts were plentiful and cheap