Posted: 10/9/2025 3:33:18 PM EDT
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Tisas knocked it out of the park with their WW2 replica 1911 based off of the Remington Rand. Great attention to detail, matching the small features, correct finish, even the locations of the markings. Easily the best WW2 USGI replica on the market today. Can they do the same with a WW1 replica 1911? To my knowledge, the only good WW1 replica that has been made was the Colt 100th anniversary model, but those are rare and getting more expensive every year. Is Tisas were to put the same level of effort into a WW1 replica that they have with the WW2 replica, I think they'd have the market cornered. |
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I agree, but please a polished blue finish if possible or a good park and HIGH ejection Port like the WW2 historical version - Most cannot afford early 1911s and the steel isn't worthy of shooting regularly if you could. My earliest gun is 1923 I (need to re-check that) I rarely shoot it My clones get all the trigger time lately. |
Gotta focus here, people.  I'm all for starting a thread about making reproduction Borchardt pistols in 5.7x28 or whatever, but this thread is for repro WW1 1911's.  Glad to see there's some others interested as well. Originally Posted By cherenkov: I agree, but please a polished blue finish if possible or a good park and HIGH ejection Port like the WW2 historical version - Most cannot afford early 1911s and the steel isn't worthy of shooting regularly if you could. My earliest gun is 1923 I (need to re-check that) I rarely shoot it My clones get all the trigger time lately. A polished blue would be nice, but would probably make the gun expensive. Something to replicate the look of the "black army" oxide finish would probably suffice for most people. Please no cerakote though.  It would definitely need a high ejection port, long-spur hammer, long trigger, smooth MSH, correct safety, correct frame profile, etc. RIA tried making a pre-A1 frame, but they got the profile behind the trigger wrong and it just looks sad next to an original gun. I have a 1913 and a 1918 that are safe queens. I don't shoot them because of the risk of slide cracks, but I'd shoot the heck out of an accurately made WW1 clone. |
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Originally Posted By Screwball: I’d buy one… maybe slightly higher price point of the MEUSOC clone. Not expecting one at the WWII like price. But I’d want one to be somewhat correct. Don’t do one, then do short trigger or any other A1 features. Same, that would be a good price point for me, IF it's feature correct. If it's aimed at the collector market, it needs really good attention to detail. |
For comparison, this is the Rock Island "GI Special Edition" that is supposed to be sort of a WW1-ish replica. However, they screwed it up in multiple ways. The same Armscor "pre-war" frame is also used by Cimarron, with equally bad results.     Here's a comparison of the RIA with my WW1 Colt. Note the difference in the shape of the frame behind the trigger. The RIA looks unfinished and odd, like they just omitted a machine cut instead of trying to match the original.       The RIA also got a bunch of the small parts wrong. Slide stop is a WW2 contour without the WW1 cut along the bottom edge. At least they tried to make it checkered instead of grooved, but even the checkering is too course and doesn't look right. Thumb safety is a post-war instead of the correct small tab. Note that even the Tisas small tab safety is WW2 correct, but not WW1 correct. That's pretty minor, but it's there. Hammer is a flat-sided design, not wide spur. The Tisas wide hammer is a pretty close match to earlier short Colt hammers, but I'd like to see a long-spur wide hammer just because it's cool. Short spur would technically be a correct match for early guns though. Grip safety is way too long. I recognize this is done to prevent hammer bite, but it looks wierd. Maybe a good compromise would be a short grip safety with a short hammer. Mainspring housing is flat, but with grooves. WTF? Even Cimarron used a smooth MSH. Trigger is a bit too short and is grooved instead of smooth like the original. Ejection port is lowered, which is wrong. Tisas got this right with the Armed Services Family WW2 reproduction. Should be the same for a WW1 model. Sights are relatively OK. They're square-notched instead of round-notched, but not overly large. Passable. Grips are awful, but that's easily replaced. Lastly, the parkerized finish feels wrong for this gun. Blueing would look great, but wouldn't hold up very well. Cerakote feels wrong in hand and doesn't have the right look either. Not sure what the right answer is there. Please, if Tisas does a WW1 reproduction, it's gotta be better than the Armscor/RIA/Cimarron ones. Granted, that's a pretty low bar, but a well executed repro would be really cool to have. This Colt WW1 reproduction popped up on gunbroker, for reference. These were incredibly faithful to the original, down to the patent dates and inspection stamps, and also the finish. I wouldn't expect quite that level of detail in a Tisas repro, but having same/similar slide markings, the US property stamp in the right place, maybe a made-up inspector stamp (different from the real ones), etc would be a nice touch. https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1134224995 |
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I recall Springfield Armory (the Gov entity, not the current commercial one) also made some 1911s during WW1. Perhaps make them more with these type markings, but with a now closed .Gov Armory name. How about Frankford Arsenal, Watertown, or Allegheny instead of Springfield? https://pre98.com/shop/preview-springfield-armory-model-of-1911-u-s-army-feb-1915-production-very-sharp-100-original-example/   |
"Don't seek relationship advice on a gunboard frequented by moody loners." -stoner63
"The solutions of today will be the problems of tomorrow." -amaxell27
"The solutions of today will be the problems of tomorrow." -amaxell27
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Originally Posted By BobTheGreat: What's incorrect about the back end of the current 1911 line?   |
If Tisas didn't even want to do a machine checkered slide stop from barstock for MAC MEUSOC, I won't hold any high hope on a correct WWI clone. Their MEUSOC still come with a MIM checkered slide stop that looks just like what RIA used, that tells me additional tooling to machine correct WWI style slide stop, thumb safety, long wide-spur hammer thin blade front sight and tiny u-notch rear sight will not likely to happen.
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