Looking to find age of Colt .25

[OpenRoad]

It is the exposed hammer. It does not say Junior on it like the other ones do, it says, "Colt Automatic Caliber .25". It is early production serial number 5,8XX. Is it a pre-Colt Junior?

 

[gamachinist]

The Colt you have is the gun that replaced the Junior.
The Junior was made by Astra,and the GCA 1968 banned it from importation,so Colt started making them here.

(My how things have changed at Colt's over the years,some of the more recent managment would have rolled over and just not bothered with it).

Anyway,the serial number should have a prefix of OD,and was made in 1970,
the first year of manufacture.
Serials started at OD 01001,and ran through OD 10001 that year.
My book shows OD 120,471 as the last gun made in 1973,and the gun was dropped in 1974,and as far as I know,that was the last 25 ACP gun Colt made.
Hope this helps,Robert.

 

[Jim K]

Colt never made those guns in the U.S. They had the frames made in Florida by FIE and then imported the other parts from Astra. I don't know if Colt assembled them or FIE did, but I think the latter.

Jim

 

[gamachinist]

Sorry Jim,
I was reading from Wilsons book,and he made no mention of the guns being made by FIE,although I don't doubt that it was the case.
Regards,Robert.

 

[Jim K]

That info was from memory, and I goofed twice. According to Spanish Handguns, by Gene Gangarosa, Jr., the U.S. maker was Firearms International, not Firearms Import-Export (FIE, a different company). The guns were made at the FI plant in Accokeek, MD, (not Florida, as I said) the same factory where Beretta now makes the M9 service pistol and other pistols for the U.S. market. Production started in 1970, but demand was low and production ceased in 1973. Colt marketed the pistols, but did not actually manufacture them or assemble them.

I apologize for the errors. FIE did have some pistol frames made in Florida after 1968 under the same kind of deal, and I got confused.

Jim