Colt Cadet? anybody have knowledge?

[Bill from Louisville]

I saw a Colt Cadet 4" bull barrell in a pawn shop the other day, kinda dindgy looking, a few surface rust spots but if its a stainless pistol it should polish off right?

Insides looked good.

Does anyone have a working knowledge of these pistols?

This one was offered at a "Well, we'll take $179" price. i saw another at another gun shop and theirs was at $310 but shinier.

will this make a nice range mate to my 22/45? im looking for another cheap .22 (Cheap being under $175)

Cheers and thanks

Also since Colt doesnt make these anymore are they gonna be hard to service?

Cheers again

 

[Razor]

I've had one since 1996. The only problem I've had with it was that it wouldn't feed Stingers reliably. I bought a Ruger 22/45 around '99 with the intentions of selling the Colt, but the Colt's grip just felt a lot more comfortable to me. Accuracy was comparable to the 22/45, so I sold the Ruger. About 2yrs ago I upgraded it with the 6in Target barrel w/ a red dot sight and have had no problems with it at all. I don't about service issues because it's out of production, but I do have an extra firing pin and springs just in case. Besides, I've heard Colt's service dept. leaves a lot to be desired. $179 sounds about right for one in good shape, it definitely isn't worth $310 no matter how shiny it is. (Unless there's some collectible value I don't know about)

 

[Hand_Rifle_Guy]

They're good guns. I've put some 10-odd thousand rounds through mine since I got it in 1995. It shows little interior wear, and it's still nicely accurate. It does need a new set of recoil and striker springs, as it has lately started to misfire occaisonally, but it has digested a HUGE stack of ammo.

Mine was $245 out the door brand new. $310 sounds like too much unless it's the 6" target version. $179, on the other hand, sounds like a fine price for one that's nice on the inside. It might need new springs, but they're available and pretty cheap. Magazines are easy to get also.

Fixing the finish is a half a minute in a bead-blasting cabinet. Interesting that it has rust spots. I used too shoot mine out in the rain, and then put it away damp. The only marks it has on it are a couple of shiny spots it got from riding around in the plastic factory box going to and from the range. I found that really irritating, as I never took the gun out except to shoot and clean it, and I wound up with burnished spots on my matte-finish gun for being consceintious.

The only thing I found even slightly unhappy about the gun was the fact that the cool-looking angled grip delivers a somewhat awkward trigger index. However, this only became noticable after I'd been shooting the gun constantly for an ENTIRE DAY, and was certainly not any kind of problem. it just started to feel a little funny, and I found myself trying to run the trigger from the bottom. It took about 700 rounds to get to that point, so you can see it wasn't an issue.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Made for a very short period of time in the mid-1990s as a way of getting Colt back into the semi-auto .22 market.

Unfortunately, it didn't last long.

Unfortunately, I say, because it had the potential to be a VERY good little gun for Colt. Simple construction, and from my experience, very reliable and accurate.

Coonan threatened to sue Colt over use of the name "Cadet," so you'll also see some marked just "Colt .22."

I don't think it lasted more than 3 or 4 years.

 

[GrandmasterB]

My experience is just like Razor's. I have thoroughly enjoyed mine since I bought it new around 1994 or so. It had the 4" bbl with fixed sights and I found a 6" barrel kit with red dot scope a couple of years ago. It is like having two guns in one!

Mine is super accurate and feeds most ammo just fine. I just with Colt still made them.