CMP 1911's

[Edward Tinker]

So the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) received 8,000 1911's last year, and they went through a ton of hoops to do so
** built a huge vault / room
** had to get an FFL license (for rifles, no FFL was required by them, as they are chartered by congress)
** set up completely different operations
** two background checks required (people got all upset by this, and an FFL 03 was not allowed, I thought, big deal)

They received 19,000 applications - this after tons of information released (some true, some not) on how to get one. Many folks have said that the guns would be crap, would be mismatched junk, over-priced - that they were far to expensive. It was expected they'd still get 60-75,000 applications, however, they received 19,000 for less than 8,000 guns.

I like 1911's, as I carried one in the army for about 3/4 of my career - so I put my name in and luckily received random generated number 3953 - was notified two weeks ago that I was too pay and it would be sent to me within 90 days (they say that to keep folks from getting mad if it takes a while, I noticed its usually a few days to 2 weeks).
Cost were for two types - Service grade ($1050) and Field grade ($950) - when they called, whichever or both were available, when I was called, only service grade was offered and naturally I took it (had set aside spending money for several months )
Within the costs, you received a nice solid case to hold it, Technical manual, military bore brush and shipping was included.

It came in Friday and I picked it up from a local FFL on Saturday. I was expecting anything from a total mixmaster (mixed slide and frame), to a 'new' 1980s 'hardslide' which I did not really want to get, but it would have been fine. What I really wanted was a Rem Rand - and I received - purely by luck, a nice rebuilt Remington Rand, at one time it was rebuilt by Springfield and another unmarked rebuild before storage -

So, received a nice Remington Rand upper and lower from early 1944. Even a almost new looking HS (high standard) barrel...