New Life for an Old Colt

[The Pathfinder]

Just before Christmas I picked up an old beater "bubba'd" Colt. Only thing I saw going for it was it was all there, just not in the best of condition AND it had a U.S. frame. Got it for just over 1K.

When I got it in hand I found that while all there, the hammer notches weren't and the barrel had been shortened from the rear so that when cinched into the frame the front sight would have been at approx. 10:30 position. Sad because it was a script address barrel.

Also it is now apparently serial no 1; not bad for a frame that by the inspector markings on it was made in 1890 or '91 and should be in the 138K to 141K range. It started life as a Cavalry model, somewhere became an Artillery model and ended up in the hands of Bubba. After having Dave Lanara take a quick look at it at the OGCA show he thinks the backstrap and triggerguard are from two different Ainsworth era 5 digit Colts now also numbered 1.

I'll post some pics of what it looked like when I got it and a couple of it during it's resurrection, keeping in mind that with the wife out of work I'm just bringing it back to shooting condition at the moment. Full restoration to a Cavalry model will take a while.

[The Pathfinder]

Here's another pic

[The Pathfinder]

One showing the new barrel, a later military barrel that had been cut to about 5"s.

[The Pathfinder]

And with new first generation hammer, barrel, a third gen recut cylinder I had (to make it safe to shoot without wear and tear on the original which has seen better days) and a set of walnut grips from Dave Lanara. I've also gotten an 7 1/2" Ainsworth barrel and matching cylinder from Dave that should one day see the gun return to Cavalry configuration.

[The Pathfinder]

And one last one for now. Can't wait to get it out to the range and see how it shoots. Black powder only ammo.

[yahoody]

Nice!  and well done by both owner and smith to save a historic gun.  Dave's great to deal with isn't he.,

[The Pathfinder]

Dave's helped me save a couple of others as well.  An 1876 that had a chopped barrel now sports a 7 1/2" tube again and he completely redid a 4 3/4" 1882 .45 for me. I'll try to get pics of them up sometime this week.

If any of ya'll want to save a good old Colt, Dave is the man to go to. Thanks, Dave.