1903 Colt Pocket Hammerless Barrel Question

C

Cossack

New member
I have been in the market for a 1903 Colt .32 pistol. I prefer the first version with the 4 inch barrel and barrel brushing. There’s one at the Local store that’s been refinished but which has an excellent bore and has a pretty good price. When I was inspecting the bore, however, I noticed that the barrel didn’t come all the way out to the end of the slide. It stopped almost a 1/4" before the end of the barrel bushing. It made me wonder if it was actually a barrel from the later version (Type 2 or 3) with the 3.75 inch barrel. However, it doesn’t seem like the later barrels would work or even fit in the first type with the 4 inch barrel.

Can someone with more experience with these pistols tell me: does a type one normally have a barrel stop a little before the end of the slide? Is it possible that someone could have put a 3.75 inch barrel in a type one? And if so, would it function correctly?
 
The "type 2" has a 3.75" bushing barrel. That MAY be what you are seeing.

I would want a test fire and a major price cut.
 
It’s definitely a type 1 by the low serial number and the length of the slide. I was just surprised that the barrel ended before the end of the slide.

Would a type 2 barrel be able to fit in a type 1 slide? I wouldn’t think so, but I have only owned type 3s in the past...
 
I'll try to take a picture of a Type 1 frontal for you.

medium800.jpg
 
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I am with you on the interest in the Colt 1903 hammerless pistols. They are great guns. I am not an expert, merely a fan and have a type 1 with a 46xxx serial number that I love to shoot. I have researched and read about these and the '1908' .380 guns with great interest. The barrel on mine looks like the earlier picture 'jar' shared.

I suspect what your local shop has is a type 1 (4 inch slide) with a type 2 barrel (3.75 inch barrel). Based on my reading and talking to a few collectors, the type 1s were all 4 inch barrels.

Take a look at the following video which might be of interest to you. At the 3.15 mark it addresses the question, which you can further research if desired. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ojBCqOOKo

If in fact the barrel is short, I personally would not buy the gun you are looking at unless it was really cheap and I had a type 1 barrel ready to go into it.

As you may already know these guns are not intuitively field stripped and some people have attempted to take them apart with pliers and brute force which results in messing up end of the barrel.

Editing to note: the bushing in mine is in fact nearly 3/4 inch long and the shorter barrel may actually fit. The barrel in mine, when racked shows wear where the bushing engages, all the way 3/4 inch down the barrel. Just know that there are still there are lots of these guns available on the market that are generally intact originals that are great shooters without questionable heritage.
 
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