Never before, well, not until 1983 anyway
While John Browning’s everlasting M1911 design had long been made in various blued and nickel coatings, up until the early 1980s it had not been cranked out in a production stainless steel model. That’s where the company formed by airline executive Ken Lau and retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Russell Randall, seized the opportunity.
The Randall Firearms Company started off making stainless .45ACP magazines, which sold exceptionally well, then began firearm production in Sun Valley, California and by June 1983 they started marketing, what gun writer Len Davis described that year in American Handgunner, the first “full-size, all-stainless steel .45 ACP autoloader.”
In production for less than two years, the California-made Randall M1911 hails from the Reagan-era and is a solid collectible. And, yes, this one is named in honor of The Big Cigar.