It was made in 1968 and found in like-new condition with a widow-lady.
Idaho Leather- " Last Man Standing "holster.
The finder fired a magazine of ball through The factory magazine which had been loaded for apparent decades with some handloads which he discarded had a strong spring. He cleaned out congealed lubricant and fouling and put it up until I got it from him recently.It had very few indicators that it had been fired or cycled very much. These started to appear after I had fired less than 100 rounds There is minor side play in the slide,no perceptible vertical play between slide and frame,. The barrel-to -bushing fit is close but no wrench needed and the barrel link is right with the barrel hood tight at lock-up . The grips are called "Colt Wood" and have a nice color.
The trigger pull was at the expected 6 .5 pound let-off - a common enough value to explain the phrase, " Can't nobody hit nothin' with no .45 audamadic."
I couldn't hit nothing either off-hand but did manage a 2.5" bench group with the trigger at full weight.
I went home and ordered a light-weight sear spring from Cylinder and Slide Shop It is advertised to produce a 4.5 pound trigger pull or 1.5 pound reduction (!) By the time it arrived, I had cleaned, functioned and lubricated the pistol to the point that the pull decreased to 5.5 pounds and installation brought it down to a user-friendly 4lbs 2 oz. and head-shot (b-27) accuracy unsupported at 25 yards. it has not malfunctioned with factory ball or reloaded lead-ball at factory velocities.
Altogether a pretty nice find. I always LIKED these civilian factory Colts from the '60s The top of the slide is matte finished and the finely lettered sides polished fairly bright. They were a far cry from the DCM GI models that were widely available for $17 through the NRA. Those were often polyglot combos of 1911 and 1911 A1 slides and frames and often displayed what was deemed "Washtub" accuracy.
Idaho Leather- " Last Man Standing "holster.
The finder fired a magazine of ball through The factory magazine which had been loaded for apparent decades with some handloads which he discarded had a strong spring. He cleaned out congealed lubricant and fouling and put it up until I got it from him recently.It had very few indicators that it had been fired or cycled very much. These started to appear after I had fired less than 100 rounds There is minor side play in the slide,no perceptible vertical play between slide and frame,. The barrel-to -bushing fit is close but no wrench needed and the barrel link is right with the barrel hood tight at lock-up . The grips are called "Colt Wood" and have a nice color.
The trigger pull was at the expected 6 .5 pound let-off - a common enough value to explain the phrase, " Can't nobody hit nothin' with no .45 audamadic."
I couldn't hit nothing either off-hand but did manage a 2.5" bench group with the trigger at full weight.
I went home and ordered a light-weight sear spring from Cylinder and Slide Shop It is advertised to produce a 4.5 pound trigger pull or 1.5 pound reduction (!) By the time it arrived, I had cleaned, functioned and lubricated the pistol to the point that the pull decreased to 5.5 pounds and installation brought it down to a user-friendly 4lbs 2 oz. and head-shot (b-27) accuracy unsupported at 25 yards. it has not malfunctioned with factory ball or reloaded lead-ball at factory velocities.
Altogether a pretty nice find. I always LIKED these civilian factory Colts from the '60s The top of the slide is matte finished and the finely lettered sides polished fairly bright. They were a far cry from the DCM GI models that were widely available for $17 through the NRA. Those were often polyglot combos of 1911 and 1911 A1 slides and frames and often displayed what was deemed "Washtub" accuracy.