pawnshop colt pocket hammerless update

[silicosys4]

Well, I finally had the chance to pick up that pocket hammerless I found at the local pawnshop. I didn't have the chance to take any decent pictures while I was there so here is an update. Field stripped it, lightly polished the frame then waxed it. It looked kind of sorry when I got it, but I'll fix that.



https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...08-hammerless-automatic.911700/#post-12441516

The mother of pearl grips are not factory, nor are they particularly well made, unfortunately. The extra mystery hole in the grips is a pin that is used to secure a wood backing. Bummer, but I think i'm going to have the grips restored due to the rarity of mother of pearl.

The finish isn't bad, but i'm not used to grading antique guns and I know that an "excellent" antique gun rated as an antique can be very far off from what an "excellent" modern firearm is. What I see as a worn but decent nickel finish might be considered high grade given the guns age, I don't know. It does have its fair share of nicks, dings, and scratches with a few flaking areas under the grips.I'm about certain at this point its original.

Its neat though, and once I find the correct vintage grips for it, it should present itself well.

 

[bannockburn]

siliccosys4

Very nice job of cleaning your Colt! What did you use to clean up the nickel plating?

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Lookin good to me!

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

A very nice find!

If it's the original factory nickel, it's in remarkable condition for its age. And if it was refinished, they certainly took care not to damage the edges or markings. Bore looks entirely shootable too.

I'm down to just one 1903 at present -- it still has the original blued finish, which has seen some hard times. I love the 1903 and had three of them at one point.

My first 1903 had been rather badly nickeled, with nearly all of the Colt emblem on the slide obliterated in the process; I replaced its shot-out barrel, installed a Wolff spring kit and had it matte electroless nickeled shortly after I bought it. My buddy Bob owns that one now. He shoots it with an extra 1908 .380 barrel installed most of the time -- depending on the variant, this is a drop in fit that functions with the regular .32 ACP extractor, though a .380 magazine is also necessary (and which can be a bear to source.) The reverse is also true, going from .380 to .32 ACP, with the bonus that 1907 .380 magazines usually feed .32s pretty well.

I bought him these imitation ivory grips for Christmas a couple years back.



I had another 1903 until just recently that had been nicely reblued -- had to sell that one last year to help pay off the car. Here's what it looked like next to my remaining pistol showing the difference in finishes:


The lower set of grips are modern reproductions from these guys:

https://vintagegungrips.com/shop/colt-model-1903-pocket-type-iii-grips-32-380/

BTW, I also have one of the Colt's big brothers from Sweden, an Husqvarna M1907 in 9x20 Browning Long.

 

[silicosys4]

siliccosys4

Very nice job of cleaning your Colt! What did you use to clean up the nickel plating?

Thank you for the kind words,
I used a Turtle Wax light polishing compound and a fresh terrycloth, about as gentle as I could find while still being somewhat abrasive. I didn't go nuts, just a bit of polishing to clean off the surface, smooth out some of the scratches, remove the bit of haze that was present, and bring back a bit of the shine.

 

[silicosys4]

A very nice find!

If it's the original factory nickel, it's in remarkable condition for its age. And if it was refinished, they certainly took care not to damage the edges or markings. Bore looks entirely shootable too.

I'm down to just one 1903 at present -- it still has the original blued finish, which has seen some hard times. I love the 1903 and had three of them at one point.

My first 1903 had been rather badly nickeled, with nearly all of the Colt emblem on the slide obliterated in the process; I replaced its shot-out barrel, installed a Wolff spring kit and had it matte electroless nickeled shortly after I bought it. My buddy Bob owns that one now. He shoots it with an extra 1908 .380 barrel installed most of the time -- depending on the variant, this is a drop in fit that functions with the regular .32 ACP extractor, though a .380 magazine is also necessary (and which can be a bear to source.) The reverse is also true, going from .380 to .32 ACP, with the bonus that 1907 .380 magazines usually feed .32s pretty well.

I bought him these imitation ivory grips for Christmas a couple years back.

View attachment 1115276

I had another 1903 until just recently that had been nicely reblued -- had to sell that one last year to help pay off the car. Here's what it looked like next to my remaining pistol showing the difference in finishes:

View attachment 1115270
The lower set of grips are modern reproductions from these guys:

https://vintagegungrips.com/shop/colt-model-1903-pocket-type-iii-grips-32-380/

BTW, I also have one of the Colt's big brothers from Sweden, an Husqvarna M1907 in 9x20 Browning Long.

View attachment 1115279

That Husqvarna is one sweet pistol, I like that.
Yea, I'm going to get a new recoil spring, a new set of grips, and shoot this one at least a bit...if I can find .380 ammo right now.

 

[Jimbo80]

It's always nice to see proof that there are real bargains still out there.

 

[sgt127]

I have two. Both refinished. The top one (.380) was pretty rough. I did all the prep work and had a friend reblue it.

The .32 was a gift. Very nicely refinished.

I seem to recall, somewhere in its run, the hammer had a safety notch installed. Those are supposed to be better for carry.

No idea which version I have.

Fun to shoot. Beautiful design. Feels like a well worn bar of soap in the hand.

You did well on the nickel one.

 

[Monac]

That Husqvarna is one sweet pistol, I like that.
Yea, I'm going to get a new recoil spring, a new set of grips, and shoot this one at least a bit...if I can find .380 ammo right now.

I don't want to be Debbie Downer here, because that Colt cleaned up very nicely. But it's now known that the 380 Hammerless was somewhat more prone to jamming than the 32. This came to light in two main ways. First, in the 1920's or 30's the Shanghai Municipal Police went to the trouble of modifying their Colts (the 380 was standard issue to their Chinese officers - White Russians got 45's!) with a flat spring mounted on the outside of the slide, pushing on the barrel through a cut in the slide in order to fix it. And during WWII, the US military returned a lot of 380's to Colt to have the problem addressed. Colt modified them, then added an "M" prefix to the serial number so that the military could tell which ones had been repaired, and also confusing collectors for a couple of decades or so.

I cannot, for the life of me, remember if they fixed the ejectors or the extractors. I am pretty sure it was one or the other, but I stand ready to be corrected.

I am not saying they were all bad. That kind of problem would have been caught and fixed early on. But they seem to have been more erratic than the 32's, and if yours turns out to have a problem you might want to ask people here just what Colt did to fix them, or at least where to find out.

BTW, I read about this in an article by Donald Simmons titled "The Myth of the M Series Colt" in the April 1978 issue of American Rifleman (here's a picture of one on Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/254733457033 ).

 

[EMC45]

View attachment 1115490

I have two. Both refinished. The top one (.380) was pretty rough. I did all the prep work and had a friend reblue it.

The .32 was a gift. Very nicely refinished.

I seem to recall, somewhere in its run, the hammer had a safety notch installed. Those are supposed to be better for carry.

No idea which version I have.

Fun to shoot. Beautiful design. Feels like a well worn bar of soap in the hand.

You did well on the nickel one.

I used the soap bar analogy all the time when I carried my 1915 Colt 1908 .380 concealed.

 

[Jeff olson]

A very nice find!

If it's the original factory nickel, it's in remarkable condition for its age. And if it was refinished, they certainly took care not to damage the edges or markings. Bore looks entirely shootable too.

I'm down to just one 1903 at present -- it still has the original blued finish, which has seen some hard times. I love the 1903 and had three of them at one point.

My first 1903 had been rather badly nickeled, with nearly all of the Colt emblem on the slide obliterated in the process; I replaced its shot-out barrel, installed a Wolff spring kit and had it matte electroless nickeled shortly after I bought it. My buddy Bob owns that one now. He shoots it with an extra 1908 .380 barrel installed most of the time -- depending on the variant, this is a drop in fit that functions with the regular .32 ACP extractor, though a .380 magazine is also necessary (and which can be a bear to source.) The reverse is also true, going from .380 to .32 ACP, with the bonus that 1907 .380 magazines usually feed .32s pretty well.

I bought him these imitation ivory grips for Christmas a couple years back.

View attachment 1115276

I had another 1903 until just recently that had been nicely reblued -- had to sell that one last year to help pay off the car. Here's what it looked like next to my remaining pistol showing the difference in finishes:

View attachment 1115270
The lower set of grips are modern reproductions from these guys:

https://vintagegungrips.com/shop/colt-model-1903-pocket-type-iii-grips-32-380/

BTW, I also have one of the Colt's big brothers from Sweden, an Husqvarna M1907 in 9x20 Browning Long.

View attachment 1115279

I also am down to 2. Had 4 at one point. One was a 1910 model that was extremely rough and pitted, but mint grips. The other was a 1924 with box and brochures that was pristine. I was offered stupid money for it so away it went. The 2 I still have are a 1913 and 1918 models. And a distant cousin as well.

 

[Jeff olson]

Well, I finally had the chance to pick up that pocket hammerless I found at the local pawnshop. I didn't have the chance to take any decent pictures while I was there so here is an update. Field stripped it, lightly polished the frame then waxed it. It looked kind of sorry when I got it, but I'll fix that.

View attachment 1115249

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...08-hammerless-automatic.911700/#post-12441516

The mother of pearl grips are not factory, nor are they particularly well made, unfortunately. The extra mystery hole in the grips is a pin that is used to secure a wood backing. Bummer, but I think i'm going to have the grips restored due to the rarity of mother of pearl.

The finish isn't bad, but i'm not used to grading antique guns and I know that an "excellent" antique gun rated as an antique can be very far off from what an "excellent" modern firearm is. What I see as a worn but decent nickel finish might be considered high grade given the guns age, I don't know. It does have its fair share of nicks, dings, and scratches with a few flaking areas under the grips.I'm about certain at this point its original.

Its neat though, and once I find the correct vintage grips for it, it should present itself well.



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View attachment 1115243
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View attachment 1115250

That one cleaned up very nicely! Congrats.