MattTheHat
Member
I've mentioned my little pea shooter several times over the past couple of years here on the HighRoad. It's a very early Type I, manufactured in 1904. When I acquired the pistol it was in excellent condition but the finish was almost completely gone in several places. Otherwise it was in near new condition.
I sent it to Ted Yost, at Heirloom Precision earlier this year. Since the finish wasn't offering any protection, I wanted to have it refinished. At the same time, though, the thought of an updated Model M really appealed to me. I have several of these pistols in .32 ACP, as well as a couple of the 1908 Colts in .380ACP, and I actually carry them from time to time.
What to update? Well, as designed, the thumb safety leaves a bit to be desired. Nice and thin, which was the idea, but a bit difficult to operate without eyeballing. Being so thin, you don't feel enough of the safety to know if it's engaged or not. So, I asked Ted to improve it. Somehow, I wasn't sure how, but I knew Ted would figure something out.
The sights were too small. Ted said he'd whittle down one of his Retro rear sights. I asked him to keep a goodly sized gap between the width of the front sight blade and the notch in the rear for faster sight pick up.
Look as I may, I could never find any stocks that I liked. Eagle has some fairly nice checkered Rosewood stocks that I've used on some of my other 03 and 08 Colts. But, they're too thick for my tastes, and the darned escutcheons were white metal, which just doesn't look correct to me. I figured Ted would know of some sources that I didn't, and left that to him.
The only other things I specifically wanted done was some checkering on the front strap and grip safety, and a trigger job and reliability job. I left the rest to him.
The pictures don't do the pistol justice. Not bad for 107 years old, huh?
-Matt
I sent it to Ted Yost, at Heirloom Precision earlier this year. Since the finish wasn't offering any protection, I wanted to have it refinished. At the same time, though, the thought of an updated Model M really appealed to me. I have several of these pistols in .32 ACP, as well as a couple of the 1908 Colts in .380ACP, and I actually carry them from time to time.
What to update? Well, as designed, the thumb safety leaves a bit to be desired. Nice and thin, which was the idea, but a bit difficult to operate without eyeballing. Being so thin, you don't feel enough of the safety to know if it's engaged or not. So, I asked Ted to improve it. Somehow, I wasn't sure how, but I knew Ted would figure something out.
The sights were too small. Ted said he'd whittle down one of his Retro rear sights. I asked him to keep a goodly sized gap between the width of the front sight blade and the notch in the rear for faster sight pick up.
Look as I may, I could never find any stocks that I liked. Eagle has some fairly nice checkered Rosewood stocks that I've used on some of my other 03 and 08 Colts. But, they're too thick for my tastes, and the darned escutcheons were white metal, which just doesn't look correct to me. I figured Ted would know of some sources that I didn't, and left that to him.
The only other things I specifically wanted done was some checkering on the front strap and grip safety, and a trigger job and reliability job. I left the rest to him.
The pictures don't do the pistol justice. Not bad for 107 years old, huh?
-Matt
That is outstanding
