1920 Colt 1911 comercial find.

[imarangemaster]

Picked up an interesting basket case. According to serial number, it was made by Colt in 1920. It had some pitting polished out and re-blued for an ugly finish, and for some reason had the channels in the top of the slide opened up to make a sloppy barrel fit, allegedly to allow it to shoot blanks or some such nonsense. The barrel slopped around in the 1920 slide.

I tried the barrel (which appeared unmolested) in a different slide, and it was nice and tight. I stripped the slide, and put everything in a Brazilian contract slide. It was a direct fit, as I did not even have to change barrel links. Took it to the range and it ran like a champ. He also had a series 70 barrel bushing (which I kept), a funky Commander style hammer, which I replaced with a Colt 1911A1 wide spur hammer, and a badly pitted mainspring housing, which I replaced with a 1911A1 arched one with lanyard ring. I also added a nice set of diamond grips, though it had a nice set of fully checkered ones which I kept.

End result is a Franken-Colt. I plan on using it for shooting Cowboy Action "Wild Bunch" matches.

It is amazing that this 103 year old Pony rides again!

[browningautorifle]

So...pics?

[imarangemaster]

Here it is. Probably zero collector value, but a really good shooter! The lugs on the barrel are crisp and intact, and the lock up in the Brazilian slide is 100%. It floated around in the Colt slide.



Check out the buggered up slide with locking lug recesses enlarged?

[browningautorifle]

Only thing it might use is a nice bead blast and parkerize if someone was doing a batch... I have a Gov't model that's like this. Started life as an Auto Ord of new and has undergone enough changes...but is tight and shoots and functions perfectly.

Too bad about the old Colt slide.

[imarangemaster]

I also replaced the recoil spring with qa Wolf factory standard 16 pound one.