Franklin Roosevelt is the new President. The Great Depression is doggedly crushing the spirit of everyday Americans. John Dillinger, Prettyboy Floyd, Babyface Nelson, Alvin Karpis, and Bonnie and Clyde are robbing banks. Prohibition is still depriving Americans of their freedom to drink alcohol. Adolf Hitler has recently ascended to the Chancellory of Germany. My Grandparents have been married just a few days and this pistol has just rolled off of the line in Hartford Connecticut.

My luck at the craps tables put the coin in my pocket with which I obtained this old COLT. She has been in service  long time and it shows. The barrel is about half a box of ammo away from being a smooth bore. Judging by the wear patterns and other indicators, it looks like this pistol has all of the same parts now, minus springs, as she did when she left Hartford.

Anyway, I like her and wanted to show her off a bit.

If that thing could talk...

nice !

Well, she can't talk, but she has revealed some things. First, I am the first person in 81 years to see her fire control parts. Every other part of this gun has been cleaned so much that the bluing has been rubbed off. The fire control parts, minus the exposed portion of the hammer, still have factory fresh bluing. Also, the main spring housing channel was packed with what I at first thought was dirt. It was actually leather dust. That means that ol girl here has spent decades riding around in a leather holster. Probably several generations of holsters.

Prior to WWII, COLT stamped the serial number on the frame and around the firing pin hole. The firing pin/extractor retaining plate rest against the firing pin hole. The hammer has stuck the retaining plate so many times that there is a reverse image of the serial number on the back side of the retaining plate. This correlates with the very worn rifling in the bore. The rifling is so faint that when I push a cleaning rod with a tight fitting patch though the bore that the rod doesn't even turn as it passes. She has had countless thousands of rounds fired through her. This ol girl has been ridden hard, but she wasn't ever put away wet.

I put the slide onto a new production COLT frame and the fit was almost perfect. Both the old and new barrels head spaced in the old slide. That is simply astonishing to me. COLT has a well earned reputation for quality.



 

That is awesome!

I can only say it is beautiful and I am envious.

 

That's awesome