Remington Rand M1911 with Belgian? Marking

O

oldiron1

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Hi Guys,

I'm brand new to the world of 1911's. I recently purchased a (believe 1944) Remington Rand M1911 handgun from an estate and am eagerly trying to learn more about it.

Where my big question lies is on it's markings. Both on right side, there is a "Flaming Bomb" marking on the slide, just in front of the ejector port. A similar marking is on the trigger guard. One gentleman advised that he things they may be Belgian Proof Marks?

The gun is also stamped "Property of United States" which really throws me off regarding the Flaming Bombs.

I uploaded quite a few pictures to my PhotoBucket page that can be seen at the following link:

http://s984.photobucket.com/albums/ae330/oldiron1/Remington Rand M1911/

Any input/suggestions are greatly apprecaited!!
 
The flaming bomb is a U.S. ordnance mark, not Belgian.
The serial number shows it is 1944 production.
 
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I don't believe these particular "flaming bombs" are U.S. ordnance marks.

After WWII, a great many of our weapons were given or sold to other nations. In all likelihood, this particular flaming bomb was applied by whatever agency recieved this gun. The most likely suspect is some West German agency. It might be French, too.
 
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After looking at that closer, I think you may be right.
It does look a little different from the usual ordnance mark.
 
I've learned more about WW2 era firearms in the last week since I purchased this gun that I ever could have imagined while searching through pictures after pictures of similar era M1911's and haven't been able to find a similar gun with similar "Flaming Bombs" yet.

I did look at a couple Belgian Flaminb Bombs from referance sites and they appear to be the closest I've seen, but not totally sure what I've got here yet.

The below link shows a Colt with Belgian Marks which seem very similar to me:
http://www.coltautos.com/cagotm200910.htm

I apprecate the input/suggestions!
 
That Colt M1903 number 4 is intriguing. The "flaming bomb" with the "L" is the standard Belgian proof for foreign firearms* being proofed in Belgium to qualify for importation. (It does not look much like the marking on the M1911A1, though.)

I usually don't engage in speculation, but the low number, handstamped markings and the Belgian proofs lead to the thought that the gun may have been a pilot production model taken to Belgium by Browning himself. It certainly seems unlikely that such an early gun would have been part of a normal commercial transaction, especially since Colt and FN had agreed not to sell guns in each other's territory.

* From nations whose proof laws are not recognized by Belgium; this would include the U.S. which has no proof law.

Jim
 
There is a definite similarity between the two marks, but the bombs on your .45 look to have the letter "B" in them.
 
Thanks Guys,

The bombs look similar to me as well. It's hard to make out what letter is inside of my bomb if any. It appears to me as a "C", but that could just be me.

I had also heard that the Belgian Bombs were consisntant, however the initial inside of the bomb reflected to particular person doing that specific proof.

I really don't know....I just can't seem to find another Belgian proofed M1911 to learn from or compare mine to.
 
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