Dad’s Old Gun
Old tanker was kind enough to tell us the tale of a particular .45 Colt. His dad had a pair of the revolvers, which were lost in a burglary. One was recovered but had been brutally modified to suit the needs of the current owner. The damages made the firearm a hazard to shoot so it became a safe, well, queen isn’t quite right. Resident? Here’s Ot in his own words.
It was one of 2 stolen from my Dad in a burglary. Only one was recovered. They hacksawed the barrel. drilled through the rifling and used a penny for a front sight with the post peened from the inside of the barrel. Supposedly a common “thing” in the cholo community back then in the late 40’s / early 50’s. It also had a split barrel forcing cone as the idiots got it out of time and fired it. Dad, a WW2 Vet, died when I was 8. It sat in a drawer for close to 20 years then I got it and put it in my safe for another 40 or so. I knew it was a basket case, had no collector value and I wanted to shoot it as I have very little from my Dad. I decided to get it restored. I got a letter from Colt, it was manufactured in 1899 in the condition I had it restored to other than a gen 2 barrel.
I finally got to shoot it this month and I am almost 70.
The pic at the top of the post is of Ot’s Dad’s old gun prior to restoration.
Thanks, Ot.
Category: Guest Post
Nice post Old tanker. 1899 gun. Great restoration for a gun that went through all that damage.
I might be technically behind here as all I see is the before picture. Here is the after. It went back to it’s condition according to the Colt letter I got. It was made in 1898.
That’s a good lookin’ smokewagon!
What a beauty! Good job, OT.
Beautiful, absolutely beautiful!
Thanks for sharing OT!
Very nice revolver. Good job.
I. Am. Jealous.
Nice smokepole.
Enjoy.
Ot, beautiful restoration job. I have one that was built in 1906, but was sent back to the factory in the 1950’s and given a .44 special barrel and cylinder, plus refinishing. I have regularly shot it at CAS matches. Colt did a nice job on re-case hardening the frame and the hammer on your pistola. Also, someone found an original set of 2nd generation factory grips for it.
Sorry for your loss(es).
Glad you could get that iron in working order. May it continue to give enjoyment to the now and of the future a link to the storied past.
Look who got his medals back after throwing them away multible times.
Why the fark aren’t these made of uranium?
Un-depleated.
The bastard puts the “dup” in “duplicitous.”
It’s about identifying with the Royals. They do their service and get their medals and orders to wear at their leisure. Some of our politicians, like Kerry, volunteer for service, get their medals and orders (under seemingly questionable circumstances in Kerry’s case), and while those military trinkets aren’t worn as often as the Royal Family wear theirs, they use that service as a steppingstone to an elevated platform during their political careers. You see, we must respect Kerry because he’s a bona fide war hero, just like we couldn’t question McCain during his lifetime. The Royals need to view him as every bit their equal because he is, after all, political royalty in the States. At least the media and many on the left think so.
The medals are little more than political tools to people like Kerry. When he wanted to make his name known in the ’70s those medals were garbage to be tossed aside in the name of anti-war activism. Now that he’s surrounded by his British peers those medals are a symbol of his “sacrifice” for our country during a controversial war. Less than four years of service in the Navy with four months in Vietnam and the guy is more stacked than most Infantry grunts who served multiple (year-long) tours.
Yeah, well, as an alleged Irish Catholic, what the fuck would Kerry be doing at the coronation of an English king? Fuck that guy. I’ll leave it to you guys to figure out which of the two I’m referring to.
Fuck that phony sanctimonious bastard.
This is a Feel Gooder Story indeed.
Glad you got to shoot it finally, and that they were able to restore it well.
Appreciate the post and story. Glad to hear that Colt could/would still do the restoration.
I have a pair of worthy family heirlooms that are safe residents.
A S&W Model 1917 that my maternal grandfather brought back from France when he returned from the War to End All Wars. He gifted it to my father as a wedding present. I have fired it several times over the years and I worked up a load with a 200 grain SWC in 45 Auto Rim (eliminates the need for half moon clips) that is a tack driver.
The other is a Savage Model 99 in 303 Savage that was my paternal great grandfather’s deer rifle. He died before I was born. It was passed down to my Dad and then to me. I’ve got about 100 rounds of various factory loads for it and have the brass to produce a couple hundred more. I’ve never fired it. I do have its younger sibling in .308 winchester that I’ve fired several times.
So you had it cleaned up and rebarrelled – looks like a nice job turning it into a decent shooter. You can either run so-called “cowboy” loads in it (which aren’t very satisfying) or you can get some local black powder enthusiast run you up some black powder loads for whatever it is chambered in. The latter will provide about as much fun as you will ever have shooting a handgun!
It was made in 1898, well into the smokeless era. It will be plenty strong to shoot modern ammo.
Besides, modern .45 Colt is loaded to blackpowder specs anyway. You have to go to the custom ammo guys for some real rip snorters.
From my reading of the Spanish-American war, the US Army was still using black powder in 1898. So I have to wonder. I still remember my hunters’ safety instructors warning us to never use use smokeless in a black powder breech loader.
Black powder maybe for pistols, but the .30-40 Krag round was loaded with smokeless powder. And I’m pretty sure the 1895 Lee Navy was also smokeless. I’m sure there were Joes carrying trap-door Springfields out there, but black powder was on its way out by that time.
The 6mm Lee Navy was too far ahead of it’s time in terms of smokeless powder technology and metallurgy.
All – yes, I know you can shoot modern smokeless (8ish grains of Unique and a mid-250s weight bullet will do nicely for .44 and .45) but black will allow hotter loads and is just fun to shoot.
But you must clean the pistol and brass after firing with black, or som serious corrosion will set in. Not so with smokeless.
I throw BP brass in a zip up bra bag and drop it in the washer with some vinegar, palmolive and some old towels for cushioning.
Safe smokeless loads can be created for most BP actions. Don’t think I would trust a Snider or early Trapdoor, but Martinis, Rolling Blocks and Mauser 71’s are fine if you use common sense.
Very cool. I have a “dad’s gun” story, too. Dad was an officer in the 11th Armored Cavalry in the 1960’s. He had been in the reserves after his initial tour in Germany (when I was born) and was “voluntarily recalled” when the 11th ACR was deploying to Vietnam in 1966.
I have a hard time believing it, but back then the Army not only allowed, but often ENCOURAGED officers to provide their own sidearms. Dad had qualified with the M1911, of course, but he was always suspicious of semi-autos so when it came time to get a pistol, he bought a Smith & Wesson Model 15 “Combat Masterpiece” revolver in .38 special. Apparently some of the other officers bragged about the power of the Model 19 “Combat Magnum” in .357 but Dad was either practical or cheap (really, he was both) so he got the less expensive .38 SPL model 15. He took that revolver to Vietnam with him on his first tour in 1966.
Dad got out of the Army as a captain in 1967 and then became a DA Civilian historian. In his capacity as a historian, he made 3 more trips to Vietnam in 1969, 70 and 71 (He pointed out that he was in Vietnam for every Tet [new year’s celebration] from 1966 to 71 except for the “big one” in 1968.) As a civilian, of course the pistol stayed home.
Sadly, it was his tours in Vietnam that ultimately cost him his life. In 2019 he was diagnosed with ALS (which I believe Jonn also had) and per the VA, it was determined that it was likely caused by frequent exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Dad passed away in 2020.
This past December, my brother came over to the house for a Christmas gathering and brought a box of Dad’s old stuff that he thought I might want. Among the items was dad’s old Model 15, which now resides in my gun safe.
When I deployed as an augmentee for DESERT STORM I’d been sitting on the TAC staff for ovr 4 years. My routing was commercial air to Oklhoma City, a BWACS from Tinker to Riyadh via Langley and Zaragosa Spain.
While at Tinker the locals ask me if I had a weapon. I told them No. So they met me at the plane and handed me a standard USAF .38 special that just so happened to be a S&W Model 15. It was sealed in a mylar bag as it had been returned from its most recent depot overhaul. And 18 loose rounds of 38 pecial ball ammo. I still have the latter. I readily gave up the weapon when in theater. The fact that I had my personal 9mm and three mags in the foot of my sleeping bag might have contributed to my willingness.
I liked my S&W Model 15; it fit my hand better than most pistols I handled. I especially liked the point and click technology; when I aimed at something, it got hit. With the 9mm and the .45; some days the only way I could hit something was to throw the weapon at the target after I’d run out of rounds.
As an Aircrew Life Support Technician one of our duties was to issue firearms to the aircrews.
I know when we did exercises in the AF and issued our pilots their 38s they were in a sealed foil type bag. We open the bags issue the weapons and after the exercise we would do an inventory, cleaning, oiling before putting them in the correct bag and resealing them. IF the bag was getting too short we placed it in a new bag (Pre labeled), and annotate the SN on the label.
So for 2 1/2 years at my first assignment I did this after every exercise. The unit had been doing this before I got there and long after I left. I wonder if people thought they were depot guns based on being sealed, clean and oily.
I don’t know. In the case of the one issued me it was labeled as such with its depot refurb date.
Old Tanker and AW1Ed:
WOW.
What a great story!
Thank You so much for sharing this!
What a breath of fresh air to read a Feel Good Story.
👍👍👍👍👏👏👏👏
I’ve a 1902 Bisley, gifted to me by my best friend. Story goes, that it was the Grandpa’s “Cowboys and Indians” gun back in the 50’s and 60’s. Great Grandpa removed the cylinder, and let the kids play out in the yard and neighborhood, like kids do while playing Cowboys and Indians.
Needless to say, the old girl was beat the hell up and back again. So many parts broken, and the original nickel finish was just horrid.
It took me 6 months to convince Peacemaker Specialists (local parts place) to allow me to buy replacement parts. They only agreed AFTER I showed them the gun. I replaced all flat and coil springs, bolt, cylinder pin, trigger screw, hammer screw, bolt screw, firing pin, mainspring tension screw, and shattered grips. Then, spent another 3 days timing the thing.
I learned a ton about SAA’s doing all that, but wound up with a very ugly, but very sweet and accurate shooting gun, which makes her all pretty once again.
Peacemaker Specialists still refused to allow me to have the finish redone. Their goal is to preserve a Colt’s history as much as possible, even if that means no repairs.
Colt or Doug Turnbull will be happy to restore the original finish, which likely includes the color case-hardening, which very few gunsmith outfits have the ability to perform, due to its use of cyanide.
Oh, I’ve thought about it. But the scars and shredded finish are their own stories, and I’m certainly not going to change that! The chambers and bore are fine and undamaged (amazingly), and she shoots like a target gun once again.
Nice gun, and sorry to hear the story of it and its missing sibling. I recently bought two Winchesters of similar vintage: an 1892 rifle and 1897 shotgun. There’s something about those old “cowboy guns”, and you just never know what stories they could tell.
As much as I’d prefer the shorter barrel, it’s the height of blasphemy to violate that weapon that way. Excellent recovery!
Any pics of the target?
I’ve got old guns (Pre 1900s), but not of family origin.
I did have my great grandfather’s old Iver Johnson shotgun, 12 gauge Champion model with a 32 inch barrel. She looks rough and won’t win any beauty contests, but she shoots fine. She put food on the table when my grandfather was a kid and when my dad was a kid.
It’s a connection to the past, connection to my family’s history, to a time that was way different than today. I sat on my GGF’s lap when I was a little shit, and he passed away in ’69 before my 3rd birthday.
Handed down each generation, now it belongs to my son. It was hard to let it go, but it was time for him to be the caretaker, my grandson will be the next caretaker. When there is no son to pass it to, it will be sent back to the old homestead and placed above the mantel where it hung before my time. Which is a historic home and museum.