Just a nickel DS for 8 bills?

If 20:1 then half a mil manufactured would place Colt posting 25,000 factory nickel.

And no doubt most are gone... others the nickel has pealed (mine hasn't.)

Mine stays put... good retirement fonder when I want to talk a vacation.

Deaf
 
If 20:1 then half a mil manufactured would place Colt posting 25,000 factory nickel.

That's as good a guess as any. I know that I have not seen many original nickel DS over the last 50 years or so.
 
I don't know if this is original nickel. A S&W would have a big fat N stamped on the frame. The inside of the stocks each have 2000 written in a black felt pen. I suppose $20 replacements. Checkering has a lot of bite and the inside shows a lot of tooling marks and a red 5. The butt was not polished before the nickel. You don't notice that w/stubby fat stocks extending beyond/covering the butt. Regardless of the butt I'm going to snoop around for a set of stocks that cover the bare minimum.

There are serrations on each side of the top strap. The right side is close to 1/4 wider. The channel between has been resurfaced/ground to change the polish to more of a matte style. Except they used a wheel. A wheel a mite too wide and not exactly centered. I can see a ramp on each side of the channel where it dropped in to dress the channel & take close to a 1/4 of the serrations width on the left side. This is also apparent at the end of the channel. The right side rolls back into the channel at the end of the frame and the wheel cut the left side, so there's nothing to roll. Not as noticeable as the width difference. This is my remark on the Colt Forum, "It was 1978, so perhaps the craftsman had just enjoyed the Cheech & Chong cinema debut, "Up in Smoke" prior to prepping this sidearm." There's been no response since that post. The ramp is a bead blasted matte save the front tip and the small sides of the rib.

The inside SW quadrant of the trigger guard is scratched the entire width for the most part. Seems the gun hung on something that didn't agree w/polish. Perhaps a display where it rocked upside down during transportation.

However, the BC gap comes in at .002". I noticed the fine lateral scratches on the front of the chambers. Appears enough rounds fired quickly will bridge the gap to naught.

The tip of the hammer wasn't dressed properly. The left side extends farther than the right & when viewing from behind you notice a facet that grows in width from left to right.

Trigger/hammer are matte front/back or top/bottom w/polished sides. To me it will look a bit odd in slimmer profile stocks that don't cover the butt. That nickel is shiny, but that part of the frame wasn't polished. Straight line tool/file marks running lengthwise will never come out w/o stripping the nickel.

I don't know anything about a Colt DS. The inside of the trigger guard is a condition not revealed in description, excellent w/some tiny nicks in the finish. The hammer tip appears to be ground by hand instead of using a guide to insure a single perpendicular angle.

I paid 750 shipped, but my state sales tax kicks it to 810. Still, that's about 80 clams less than asking which roughly covers the sales tax. Of course I knew about the sales tax & my guy getting 25 going in to the deal.

So, the little pistola is a contradiction in craftsmanship. One one hand this, but on the other that compromise.
 
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I sold my nickeled 3rd gen DS on Gunbroker two years ago. No box or paperwork. I started the auction at $1 and it went for $790. Imagine my surprise.

While I think $800 is too high in my mind, there are folks paying $1200 plus for King Cobras too. It seems all Colt revolvers continue to climb in value.

Jim
 
I agree I think it a bit much. I partially justified that on alleged condition.
I think everything I buy has to sit for 5 yrs to get back what I have in it. I'm happy that it had the top strap serrations though I'm not convinced that running a wheel down the channel to scratch the shiny surface halfway dull is factory speced. For all I know the wheel was wider in part for a fresh cut on the inside of the top strap serrations to obliterate buffing marks on that edge. If that's the case, regardless of original finish, it's been dipped at a later date.

I just don't know. I don't know beans about Colt or their procedures.
After eyeballin' the slanted tip on the hammer I could believe they were capable of using an abrasive cutting wheel to rough dress the bottom of the channel & clean cut the rolled serrations prior to nickel plate.
 
I can't post pics here because I'm too lazy to reduce the resolution. Howevah, I have some big 'uns at the Colt forum.

http://www.coltforum.com/forums/colt-revolvers/81297-78-nickel-ds-value-2.html#post628456

I'm interested if folks more knowledgeable than I, which is pert near everyone, can tell me if they think the nickel is factory. Along w/stocks, that have no grooved border around the checkering, & the de-glazed sight channel that isn't a matte finish.

I have found several listed '78 DS that have the same lighter coloured borderless checkering stocks. So, perhaps these were a change sometime after 1975.
 
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