Dad was salesman for an aluminum foil company. He had a sales route that saw him driving to visit customers in the Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. At some point he got into a fender bender back in the 1970's with a road raging idiot. Guy threatened him with a tire iron. Dad sped off but was a little freaked out by it. He did some research and bought this pistol plus a 12 gauge pump shotgun with bulk ammo to go with both guns. FMJ for the Colt and 00Buck for the 12 gauge. He also put a year or more worth of canned freeze dried survival food under our basement steps.
Mom tells me a story of how on one Halloween night she answered a knock at the front door and was expecting children trick or treating. Instead she found a huge black guy who started coming in the house. She yelled out to my Dad:
TOM! Get your gun I need help!!
Dad came out of the bedroom with his Colt Series 70 45 which he kept loaded "cocked and locked" and said:
"Get the hell out of my house!"
The Dude saw the gun, turned right around, and got out of there quick.
Dad passed away when I was 12. A good family friend taught me to hunt and shoot plus stored this gun for me till I was 21 and legally able to possess it in Illinois with a FOID card. I inherited it bone stock with the cardboard box and all the paperwork including original receipt.
In the 1990's when I was in my 20's, I of course, ruined all it's collectable value by having a bunch of custom work done to it. Had the following added: Kings beaver tail grip safety, Kings ambi-safety, Videcki Speed Trigger, taller dovetailed sights, lowered and flare ejection port, polished and throated barrel, custom cut hammer bead blasted to match the color of the trigger, a insanely LIGHT trigger job, and the whole thing reblued. I later on added the non-matching color Wilson bullet proof slide stop and shot the heck out of it.
I've retired it to the gun safe for the past 10 years and shoot once in awhile. It currently has hammer follow that needs to be fixed and I'll probably replace the hammer with a commander hammer sometime in the next couple of years.
