Every now and again you find a "story book" gun. A gun you hold in your hands and immediately wonder "where the hell have you been?". I'm not speaking of the ones that spent the last 80 years sitting in a box on a shelf remaining in 'as new' or in a transit chest in some armory still 'unissued', but a gun that got out, used, scarred and was cared for to such a degree that it could go out today and do it some more.
Such is the story of the example listed below. Manufactured in 1930, the owner installed bone grips probably within the first several years of it's life. Although it retains 70%-80% of its original finish, the balance having been scratched and worn from years of carry, internally it doesn't appear to have been shot much and the mechanisms including the barrel remain in near new condition and original to the gun.
For a gun that cost $45.00 new at a time when the average annual income was $1,368, this was quite an investment for someone (my father in 1936 was making $2 a day and bought his first car, a well used model T, $15). I'll be sending off for a letter from Colt, but I doubt it will have much of the story.
Whatever the story was for the last 84 years, I bet it was a good one.
Such is the story of the example listed below. Manufactured in 1930, the owner installed bone grips probably within the first several years of it's life. Although it retains 70%-80% of its original finish, the balance having been scratched and worn from years of carry, internally it doesn't appear to have been shot much and the mechanisms including the barrel remain in near new condition and original to the gun.
For a gun that cost $45.00 new at a time when the average annual income was $1,368, this was quite an investment for someone (my father in 1936 was making $2 a day and bought his first car, a well used model T, $15). I'll be sending off for a letter from Colt, but I doubt it will have much of the story.
Whatever the story was for the last 84 years, I bet it was a good one.
