This is a very good example of an early pre-war Colt 1911A1 Government Model National Match pistol manufactured in late 1938. This pistol is accompanied by a Colt factory letter dated Sept 2001 that verifies the original configuration of this pistol and the one-gun shipment to Thurman Randle & Company in November 1938. Mr. Randle was an early rifle and pistol competitor and operated a very successful small arms and shooting equipment mail order business prior to WWII. During WWII, he served as a commissioned officer from 1942-45 and was tasked with organizing and implementing the Navy's small arms training program which was designed to train all incoming Navy personal. It is estimated that through his efforts, along with 600 officers and instructors, trained over two million sailors during WWII. He served as NRA president from 1944-1946 and was a close friend of George Whittington for whom the NRA Whittington Center is named. This lot is accompanied with documents and photos from his catalogs and pictures. This example has the very desirable Schwartz safety device and an adjustable rear sight. The right side of the slide is stamped "NATIONAL MATCH COLT" followed by "AUTOMATIC/CALIBRE .45" followed by a Rampant Colt. The left side has the standard Colt two line address and patent dates. The matching serial number is stamped on the back side of the slide under the firing pin stop. The blued barrel has a bright chamber that is marked "COLT 45 AUTO" with the circled "MB" proof on the left side of the lug, with an "S" proof on the right side. The left side of the trigger guard is stamped "P" over a Colt factory "VP" triangle proof and number "99" on the right side. It has a blued long trigger with a checkered face, checkered wide hammer spur, checkered thumb safety and slide stop release, and an arched/checkered mainspring housing. The pistol is fitted with an early Colt adjustable target type rear sight and a thick target front sight. It has the standard fully checkered walnut grips. It is complete with one half-tone, blued magazine with "COLT/45 AUTO" on the base. It is complete with its original matching Colt factory shipping box. The matching serial number is penciled in on the underside.

Fine with 70% of the original blue finish remaining overall, scratches and high spot wear overall, and significant wear on the front grip strap as well as the grip safety, mainspring housing and rear edges of the frame. The grips are in good condition with visible checkering overall showing significant wear on both side from actual use. The box is in fair condition with a nice pre-war purple color overall showing light tape repairs on all the corners.