Colt had a lock on John Browning’s Model of 1911 design for just two years, being forced to allow the Army’s Springfield in 1914 to begin production of the pistol.
![](https://laststandonzombieisland.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/john-brownings-colt-1911-m1911-45-gi-patent-drawing-from-feb-1911.jpg)
Before the Great War was out, the War Department leaned on Colt to allow Remington Arms-UMC and Winchester to also get in on the game with contracts for 500,000 guns each at a price of $15 (U.S.) per pistol delivered (of which Remington only managed to make 22,000 and Winchester none.) Added to this were late 1918 War Department contracts for another 1.7 million M1911s divided among the North American Arms Co. (Quebec), A. J. Savage Munitions Co. (San Diego), National Cash Register Co. (Dayton, OH), Lanston Monotype Co. (Philadelphia), Caron Brothers Manufacturing Co. (Montreal), Savage Arms Co. (Utica, NY), and the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. (Detroit), of which only NAA was able to make about 100 toolroom samples before the Armistice.
Colt was able to claw back production after the lights came back on in Europe, licensing small runs to military arsenals in Argentina and Norway in the 1920s and kept the gun back under its control– especially after the M1911A1 standard was adopted in 1924– until the drums of world war sounded once again.
WWII production included components and guns made by H&R, Ithaca, Union Switch, Remington Rand (the typewriter folks), and the Singer Sewing Machine Co., with these makers combined dwarfing Colt’s wartime 1911 run.
Then, once again, when peace broke out, Colt was able to consolidate itself as The 1911 Maker and kept introducing new models (and patents/trademarks) such as the Commander, Delta, Gold Cup, MK IV, Defender, New Agent, 80 Series internals, etc, to keep it that way legally.
However, by the late 1970s, this game started losing ground as folks like Essex, Detonics, Randall, Auto-Ordnance, AMT, LAR, and Viking entered the marketplace with incrementally improved clones and stole share from the “Prancing Pony.”
That paved the way for Springfield Armory Inc, Kimber, Les Baer, Magnum Research, Ed Brown, and others to follow by the early 1990s. Then the huge guys like S&W, SIG Sauer, FN-owned Browning, and Ruger to launch their own lines a few years later.
Heck, even Stevens makes a 1911 now.
Speaking of which, a pair of firearm manufacturers typically known for their black rifles and affordable polymer-framed pistols just announced they are working in the 1911 space– Diamondback and Bear Creek.
And the beat goes on…
![](https://laststandonzombieisland.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/diamondback-limited-edition-db1911.jpg)
The new Diamondback Limited Edition DB1911