Given the volume of those .45ACP on the market, it does not look like a gun with only 8000 samples made in 1920s. And given the general shape of many IARs, it's safe to say they were newly assembled.
The question is : were they assembled from old parts?
Hard to tell. But there are some side hints. Chinese official told Brenner (a U.S. wholesale importer) that most of those guns were used to contribute raw material to Chairman Mao's backyard steel smelters during the Great Leap Forward Movement. Assume that's not a lie, then a natural question is: if complete guns were not kept, why did they keep parts.
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