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Post by legacyofthesword on Dec 11, 2016 5:43:44 GMT
I've always LOVED the pre-1905 model Colt Automatics. I really really wish someone made a modern reproduction....
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Post by bfoo2 on Dec 11, 2016 6:36:13 GMT
I really really wish someone made a modern reproduction.... So long as Cold Steel doesn't make them. Then we'll be treated to gratuitious videos of Lynn Thomas pistol-whipping his way through pig carcasses
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Dec 11, 2016 12:10:53 GMT
Had a 1903 in 380 for a while )
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Post by bluetrain on Dec 11, 2016 14:19:14 GMT
That was funny. There is something about Cold Steel.
I also had a 1903 in .380 for a while. Nice and flat they were but they had a surprisingly sharp kick, as does a Walther PPK. I had it refinished. Now they're available again but try to find one! I was in a division headquarters when I was in the army and they had a couple in the arms rooms but they wouldn't let me play with it. The new Colt .380 is finished in army issue style.
One of the intriguing things about the Colt pocket auto, as they were advertised, is the way they frequently showed up in old movies. Sometimes, if you look hard, sometimes you will see a Colt .38 automatic in one of the variations (hard to see on the screen). They were made into the 30s but never sold in large quantities. I've even seen a Colt Bisley in a couple of movies, one old, one new. Bad guys always used Lugers. Colt .45 autos appeared fairly often in non-military movies but are rarely actually shown being fired, for some reason, even though they were used.
Pre-Government Model .45 automatics (M1910?) were made by the company that operated out of Colt's old building. They made a huge variety of old Colt revolvers and a few other weapons and in fact, I owned two of their revolvers. Then they totally switched their line of products and I don't remember the name. I have often said that I wish someone would make reproductions of such and such gun, usually with the Colt New Service in mind. But even if somebody did, such as Colt did with the .380 pocket auto, I'd be unlikely to ever buy one anyhow. Right now, I'd like to buy a brand new Colt .38 Super but I really can't afford one. And that's that.
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Post by legacyofthesword on Dec 12, 2016 20:08:00 GMT
Had a 1903 in 380 for a while ) I also had a 1903 in .380 for a while. Nice and flat they were but they had a surprisingly sharp kick, as does a Walther PPK. I had it refinished. I'm insanely jealous of you two....
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Post by legacyofthesword on Dec 12, 2016 20:45:08 GMT
*Drools* Attachments:
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Post by bluetrain on Dec 12, 2016 21:42:36 GMT
I've probably had thirty or forty different handguns in my life (so far) but now I'm down to three. My first handgun was a Mauser C-96 with a shoulder stock (I was living in Germany at the time). My first newly purchased pistol was a Browning Hi-Power. It cost a shade over $100 and I remember having a lot of trouble coming up with the money to pay for it. Other interesting examples were a registered .357 S&W Magnum, a new Model 27 with a five-inch barrel (in my Skeeter Skelton period), a well-used Model 29 with a four-inch barrel (in my Elmer Keith period), four or five PPs and PPKs, including one with an alloy frame (.32) and three or four Colt Government .380s, also including one with an alloy frame. The Colt Government .380 was the softest shooting handgun I've ever had. Most of the guns on my wish list now are preceded by the word "another."
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Dec 14, 2016 12:26:41 GMT
Had a 1903 in 380 for a while ) I also had a 1903 in .380 for a while. Nice and flat they were but they had a surprisingly sharp kick, as does a Walther PPK. I had it refinished. I'm insanely jealous of you two.... The 1903 was a sharp kicker, if you didn't have a firm grip it would " soft cycle " and jam, I had the feed polished and it was a favourite - all time best all round for me was A H&K P7 M13.
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Post by bluetrain on Dec 14, 2016 13:11:31 GMT
The H&K P7 was, I would have to say, unique. I've handled one but not fired one.
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Post by mrbadexample on Dec 15, 2016 0:36:52 GMT
I've got a Colt 1903 in .380 that I got from my wife's grandfather. He gave it to me in the original box with the original documents. It's got about 98% of the blueing left, and it cycles flawlessly. I love that little gun.
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Post by bluetrain on Mar 17, 2017 19:39:32 GMT
You have something too good to shoot.
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Post by Verity on Mar 17, 2017 19:48:56 GMT
My wife has a browning 1898 (FN M1900) in .32 that is sweeet. It is amazing to see the foreshadow elements of Browning's 1911 design. You can break it down and almost tangibly see browning's thought process as he evolved the design... "I need to adjust this... tweak that.."
It's really cool
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Post by bluetrain on Apr 13, 2017 18:20:04 GMT
That particular model, the first FN .32 ACP, is said to have sold in huge numbers during the few short years it was manufactured and before it was replaced by another .32 auto. There is even one claim that Browning himself favored it over all of his other designs, at least for certain purposes.
I always thought that one of the more interesting aspects of the early automatics is the clever, puzzle-like way they go together. At the time, being able to dissemble a handgun was something new, although the older Colt revolvers came apart with just knocking out a single pin or wedge. Most guns at the time were also especially well finished but there were also lots of forgotten handguns that were both less well-designed and less well-finished. But they probably sold in greater numbers than their more expensive competition. That still happens, of course.
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Post by bluetrain on Jun 4, 2017 22:30:38 GMT
By the way, the 1903 Colt that I referred to was not a predecessor of the 1911/Government Model .45 automatic, although Browning was the designer. It was a straight blowback in operation. There was also a completely different 1903 FN Browning in, I think, 9mm Browning Long or something like that. This is all from memory. But it looked almost exactly like the Colt .32 & .380, just larger. Some were converted to .380 ACP when they were imported for sale in this country. To further confuse things, the .38 ACP models, as illustrated above, were made in different barrel lengths. There was a sporting model, a military model and a pocket model. They were all thinner than a .45 auto. The more or less experimental .45 automatics before the final 1911 version were only made in small numbers. They do have a sort of exotic appeal purely from a novelty standpoint, rather like Mauser pistols or even Ortgies Patent pistols.
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Post by Curtis_Louis on Jun 5, 2017 13:54:11 GMT
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Post by legacyofthesword on Jun 5, 2017 15:57:28 GMT
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Post by bluetrain on Nov 8, 2017 14:56:38 GMT
Since I last posted in this thread, I have finally acquired a Colt Government Model in .38 Super. There was a 50-50 chance that I might have bought a .45 auto but I came home with the .38 Super instead.
Somewhere I think I read something about an experimental pistol in some proprietary caliber (they all were at one time) sometime between the wars. It was supposedly a slightly scaled-down Government Model in a .38-sized caliber. I don't remember where I read it and I don't think I ever found anything on the Internet about it either. In any case, Colt found no buyers and the project went nowhere. Handguns in the military aren't really used that much and last a long time, so it's not surprising they couldn't sell any. Lugers were still being used into the 1980s in some places.
I'm trying real hard not to want another Luger.
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Post by solaris on Jun 18, 2018 15:30:50 GMT
John Browning was a genius. I am, and have always been a 1911 guy. Had to carry an M9 when I was an active duty Marine. Hated it. Was given an old 1911 when doing shore duty once when we pulled into port by the ship's armory. Even that old, beat-to-hell 1911 was far superior to the M9.
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Post by bluetrain on Jun 18, 2018 15:45:53 GMT
If I were going into combat, which is very unlikely at this point in my life, the last thing I'd want would be a pistol. There is an inverse relationship between how important a weapon is in the military and how much discussion there is about it. There was more discussion in Congress over a new pistol than a new jet airplane, probably because when it comes to pistols, everyone's an expert. (Parkinson's Law).
My son was a tank crewman in the army. When they deployed, they all had pistols. But at some point in the 15 months he was there (yes, 15 months), they turned in their pistols and everyone either got an M4 or an M16. That is curious because the army is very liberal when it comes to distributing weapons. The infantry platoon they worked with was issued with the so-called port firing weapon (M231) but they stayed packed up in their shipping container. Even as a tank unit, they were issued with .50 caliber rifles, which I guess was a Barrett, but they passed them on to another unit, apparently not of much use to a tanker. They also possessed some captured Russian weapons but there was no interest in using them and there was no ammunition source anyway.
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Post by legacyofthesword on Jun 18, 2018 16:52:19 GMT
John Browning was a genius. I am, and have always been a 1911 guy. Had to carry an M9 when I was an active duty Marine. Hated it. Was given an old 1911 when doing shore duty once when we pulled into port by the ship's armory. Even that old, beat-to-hell 1911 was far superior to the M9. I love 1911s. I love Glocks too, so I'm riding both side of that fence.
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