Colt 1903

J

johnm1

New member
I always wanted one of these but couldn't see paying $600 plus for a 50% gun. This one is reblued and I payed a reblued price. They didn't mess up the engraving when it was polished. It was probably over polished but at least the design didn't have sharp edges or corners. I like it and it will get shot. Reality is I traded my only other .32 auto (savage 1917) and had some ammo left over.

I knew about the grip scales being different and may just leave them that way. Type 3 made in 1923. The problem with such a high polish is it takes fingerprint way too easy. I will have to wait until next weekend to see how it shoots. I don't expect much. I am told that it has sights. I just can't find them ;)

Two more posts with additional photos ( I think). Software has me stumped and I couldn't manage to attach more than one photo to my test post.
 

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i have one in the 351xxx range and it is a very well made pistol, it has sights but they are skimpy. however it is a defence pistol to me and i can hit a quart can at 20yds. i paid 325.00 for it and its in 90 percent condition with ex grips and original magizine. eastbank.
 
Then I probably over paid for mine. I like it and it called to me. Still not sure why. I would have liked to have kept the Savage. It is my understanding that the Savage was the competition for the 1903 in its day. But that particular Savage had such an terrible trigger pull it wasnt fun to shoot.

Someone once said "You didn't pay too much you just bought too early". This one is for shooting so i dont feel too bad.
 
Looks good. Based on those pics I'd say whoever did the reblue knew what they were doing. All the stampings still look pretty crisp.
 
Kid,

I can rationalize even further. Even if sold or traded at a loss i figure the difference is what i paid for the use of the gun. We don't really own these things. They will outlast us and will be owned by somebody else eventually. I'm just paying to use it now.

Apparently some of the older versions had a high polish finish. But not this late in production. I agree that whoever did the re-blue knew what they were doing. There are only a couple of marks, very small, that were blued over and the trigger and safety (possibly the pins) should have been fire blue.

Overall I am pleased with the acquisition.
 
For a reblue, that gun looks very good.
The transition from the flat slide side to curved slide top is usually buffed completely away, as it's not an especially sharp transition even on original finish guns.
 
I may yet get to shoot it today. sick kid so we aren't going to the Renaissance Festival today.

agreed about the soft transition in the design from the slide to the slide top helping the re-blue. In its originalm form it was pretty much melted.
 
It is not going to pass as original, but I have seen FAR worse looking guns than that one. From a collector's viewpoint, though, the Savage is less common than the Colt and the design is more interesting.

Jim
 
I agree on the Savage. It was a very interesting gun. I would have liked to have both but it wasn't fun to shoot due to a very stiff trigger. I used it for a partial trade on a near mint S&W 18-3 a couple of weeks ago.
 
I might just get to liking this Colt a little bit more. This was at 7 yards offhand. For what i could see of the sights this was a lot better than i expected.

It feels great in the hand and points well. I did have 2 fail to feeds in the first two mags. But after that it functioned well. (EDIT not sure why the photo rotated?) That is about 2 1/2"
 

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I traded a Colt for a Colt. My friend had the 1903, and I had a well used Police Positive Special. The guns were about even up condition wise. So we traded even up.

Accurate, and tucks away very nicely. My wife has laid claim to it, so I tucked the original grips away and put Rosewood grips on it for her.
 
I have had four of those savages three of em in .32 and one in 9mm Corto. Still carry One as a backup. They are easy to work on and I still have a bag of barrels frames and parts I am one part short of making a complete gun....but since I gave two of them to my niece one for her and her then boyfriend and now husband and the 9mm Corto to my nephew the guns are still in the family. The one I carry as a backup I had to fix as it went full auto one day. There is a Colt 1903 in .32 ACO sitting at the local Cabellas. It has been sitting there for more then a year with a $1000 price tag on it.
 
I really liked the Savage. It was a neat little dsign but the trigger on that gun was terrible and i couldnt get anywhere close to this type of performance. As a locked breach it did have a bit more snap to it.

By the way, 15 yards was out of the question last night. the 1903 just doesnt have enough sight for my eyes.

Pricing on the 1903 are all over the board. Good examples are fetching over a thousand dollars on Gunbroker.
 
One has to feel sorry for guys like Elbert Searle and John Pedersen; every time they came up with a good, obvious and simple way to do something, they found that some guy from Utah had patented it and they had to use a complicated and convoluted way to do the same thing.

Jim
 
I have a very early Savage and what a nicely engineered and beautifully built pistol, but next to my 1903 Colt it somehow looks dated. Both pistols are easy to shoot, the Colt is easier to conceal. For concealed carry there are much better choices available ie: size and caliber.
 
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