Unusual Remington Rand

[Johnny P]

Normally you would expect a Remington Rand in this serial number range to have a Type II slide, and be finished in Du-Lite blue. This one has a Type III slide and is finished in phosphate. The barrel bushing, hammer, and sear and hammer pins are finished in Du-Lite blue. The wear pattern on the barrel and breech face match exactly.

[milgunsguy]

That is some fine photograpy.

Could you please reveal how you get such detail on these postings?

[da gimp]

where they using up parts? let nothing go to waste in war time?It's dern pretty,
johnny pep.

[KeithNyst]

Johnny, that's a real odd variant; the lowest "NO" prefix, lowest Type III and lowest parkerized Rem Rand I've seen so far. P. 75 of 3rd edition says that Remington Rand sent the first batch of parkerized pistols to SA for salt spray testing in June 1943, but routine parkerizing was delayed until August because several thousand receivers had been given a blued finish. From my notes, pp49 of the collector edition guide states the Type III was reduced to an inch in width beginning about 980000. Your pistol certainly shows exception to both of those.

[Johnny P]

That is some fine photograpy.

Could you please reveal how you get such detail on these postings?

Was hoping the pistol would be more interesting than the photography. Anyway, making good pictures comes down to choosing the correct lighting, the correct background, always use a tripod, and never use flash. It is much easier to get the correct exposure by using open shade outdoors if you don't have a dedicated place to make your photographs. Some cameras do well using the AUTO setting, but I prefer the manual settings with the ISO set as low as it will go. Never use a white background unless you are experienced enough to use the manual settings to compensate for underexposure. On Auto the camera sees the white background and does a great job of exposing the white correctly, leaving the pistol underexposed. Even when shooting outside where the shutter speed is fairly fast I still use a tripod. It is much easier to frame your photograph, and eliminates any camera movement. Using flash is for group pictures of people, and when used for photographing a pistol the center of the photograph is burned out and the remainder is underexposed. If you shoot the flash perpendicular to the pistol, you get the flash reflected back at the camera making it even worse.

Most any modern digital camera will take better photographs than most of us are capable of. We just have to learn how to use it.

[Rob Greer]

I love seeing the unusual pistols, and the history behind them. Thank you! Very interesting pistol!

[milgunsguy]

Remington Rand that served two masters:

[KeithNyst]

Was hoping the pistol would be more interesting than the photography. Anyway, making good pictures comes down to choosing the correct lighting, the correct background, always use a tripod, and never use flash. It is much easier to get the correct exposure by using open shade outdoors if you don't have a dedicated place to make your photographs. Some cameras do well using the AUTO setting, but I prefer the manual settings with the ISO set as low as it will go. Never use a white background unless you are experienced enough to use the manual settings to compensate for underexposure. On Auto the camera sees the white background and does a great job of exposing the white correctly, leaving the pistol underexposed. Even when shooting outside where the shutter speed is fairly fast I still use a tripod. It is much easier to frame your photograph, and eliminates any camera movement. Using flash is for group pictures of people, and when used for photographing a pistol the center of the photograph is burned out and the remainder is underexposed. If you shoot the flash perpendicular to the pistol, you get the flash reflected back at the camera making it even worse.

Most any modern digital camera will take better photographs than most of us are capable of. We just have to learn how to use it.

Johnny, not sure folks are picking up on just how unusual, the unusual is. Great find and thanks for posting.

[Johnny P]

Johnny, not sure folks are picking up on just how unusual, the unusual is. Great find and thanks for posting.

Thanks Keith. Remington Rand had reached a point where something had to be done to improve their production quality. Management considered it critical enough that production was halted in order to sort things out and make changes that would result in a quality pistol. We know that the NO. prefix was started in the 955000 serial number range, and that the serial number placement was moved to the end of production, and this Remington Rand exhibits both of those changes. How the serial number was held up for so long that the pistol received an original phosphate finish and a Type III slide will probably remain a mystery.