1915 Argentine Army Contract Colt Government Model

[jmoore]

The first .45 ACPs for the Argentine Army were shiped in mid-1915. A block of 1000 pistols with sequential serial numbers, starting with 20000. (Or 20001, I forget!) This very worn and generally tired example was marked as issue number 109 on the top of the slide, which corresponds to the last three digits of the Colt serial number.

As it sits now it has had the grip safety and slide stop replaced with slightly later ("A1" style) Colt commercial parts, probably by the Argentines. The muzzle end of the slide is damaged, resulting in the replacement of the front sight as well. It appears to be a later type of Colt sight as well, but it was filed down slightly on the sides, probably to keep it from over filling the rear sight notch. Bushing and barrel are both newer appearing than the rest of the pistol.

But the real dramas lie underneath. I'm guessing this pistol was shot until the recoil spring failed entirely! The slide is so badly peened at the real of the dust cover that the current barrel needed to have the sides of the lower lug filed down to pass through the slide. In addition, there's an odd bit of damage on the outer rear edge of the dust cover- possibly where a piece of broken recoil spring impacted?

Regardless, the pistol still functions and escaped refinish. Which are the two most likely reasons it's being presented here. Basically it's an example of how tough this design really is.




The wear and general finish of the frame and slide look fairly different, but the numbers match and conditions internally are consistant.






Ow!

For "high grade" examples of little used Colts, you've come to the wrong guy's thread! But a range report will hopefully be soon forthcoming.

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