Hi, I just picked up a mk4 series 80 Colt Combat Commander at a local shop. It's blued carbon steel with trijicon night sights, an adjustable trigger, skeleton hammer and a beaver tail grip safety.It also has black rubber wraparound grips with a colt pony on each side. The s/n is FC088XXX. When was this pistol made? Was it a special model? I am curious because it looks like a factory stock piece. A couple of funky things about it are the stainless bushing, guide plug, slide release and chrome mag release. The fit and finish are excellent, and the trigger is really good. I took it out today and shot it and it's very accurate. BTW, I paid $500 for it and I estimate it's in 97-98% condition, with just a tiny bit of holster wear on the front edges of the slide. Did I do ok?




On to the second colt, it's a cobra in .38 special, has a black alloy frame, 2" barrel, and walnut grips with a chrome colt pony. The s/n is B779XX, when was it made?



tia,


Chris

Well, the Commander isnt totally factory stock.  It has an Ed Brown "Memory Groove" grip safety added, and if IIRC, Colt never offered standard Trijicon night sights as an option.

Its still a good looking piece and Im sure you'll be happy with it.

thanks, btw I fixed the pics.

Looks as the ejection port's been lowered and relieved as well. I'd say that the previous owner has had some work done on this pony. Looks like a good buy to me.

Always liked the commander size pistol with the 4.25" bbl, colt had what they called enhanced models, your serial # should end with an "E" this included features such as the relief cut on the front of the frame below the mag release, this was for a higher grip hold, angled slide cuts, top of slide raised sight rib, lowered and flared ejection port and a somewhat swept beavertail grip safety, your gun has had the sights and grip safety replaced and maybe the mainspring housing, they were usually flat not arched also the slide stop appears to be a colt part but is stainless, you have a good pistol there hold on to it.

The mainspring housing is stock colt, it is plastic.  I replaced mine with a wilson combat V grip stainless housing.  If I were you that would be the first thing I fix, I hate plastic!

Obviously all the stainless parts are added.

What I have seen in the mark IV's is that if the grooves in the rear of the slide are angled like yours are, then the gun comes stock with wraparounds, extended beavertail (though your beavertail is aftermarket), special hammer and I believe flared ejection port was not on the standard models.  The Mark IV's with straight lines on the slide were standard and have normal grips, normal beavertail, and spur hammer.

Nice gun I would definitely hold on to it, Iv'e got a full 5" barrel Mark IV series 80 and I love it, its been unbelievably reliable, something these glock disciples can't comprehend.

thanks for the responses. I'm thinking about changing the stainless parts back to blued, and installing an ambi safety. Who makes the best ambi safety and other parts?

I like Ed Brown parts they have a Ambi-saftey that is narrow called the Tactical model and all of the other parts including a Nice set of cocbolo wood grips.

Ed Brown

forgot to mention that it does have an "E" at the end of the s/n so it is an Enhanced model.

Great gun, the Commander, not only "broken in" already but some goodies were added, making it a good price.
And, like you said, it shoots good, all the better.
I would opt for a SS ambi-safety, staying with the blue/SS idea, then some SS pins and MSH to top it off, but that's just me.
You can spot an enhanced model just by the cutout under the trigger guard.
The Cobras in nice shape too, an out of print classic.