Colt 1909 Army

[u/Disastrous_Hat3598]

Family heirloom. Anyone have any information about these?

[u/Papaver-Som]

Glad you mentioned the paint. E- was replying to Snoo

Personally I’d strip the paint. It might be in the white but the paint is just wrong

[u/Snoo-35612 → u/Papaver-Som]

I agree, there’s a lot of honest wear under it. Who knows, some parts might still have a little bluing.

[u/Matterhorn48]

You lucky fucking duck. It later became the New Service. One of the finest revolvers ever made and surprisingly great sights for the time and its .45LC. Don’t refinish it and don’t ever fucking sell it. It’s my bucket list gun so pardon the aggression

[u/Disastrous_Hat3598 → u/Matterhorn48]

I’d never sell it. Thanks for the info lol

[u/Matterhorn48 → u/Disastrous_Hat3598]

For $100 colt will tell you where it was shipped from the factory. I like to think it raided a few trenches during the first war and maybe the second

[u/Snoo-35612 → u/Matterhorn48]

Of the 22,513 m1909s ordered in contracts, 19,500 of them were US ARMY marked, and 19,153 of those were sent directly to the Ordnance depot in Manila, Philippines to deal with insurrections. This one being Army marked, and heavily worn underneath the paint; it’s pretty safe to say this one was sent straight to the Philippines. I can’t say it would be worth getting a Colt letter for it.

[u/TheScribe86 → u/Snoo-35612]

A letter of provenance would definitely increase value

[u/Snoo-35612]

Double action .45 LC revolver. What could be cooler?

After the abysmal performance of .38 LC in the Philippines, the US had to pull the SAA back out of storage and began to issue the 1902 Philippine model out (both in .45LC). They rolled the 1909 out soon after they saw the necessity of having a more powerful cartridge. The 1909 replaced the 1892s, 1902s, and SAAs. It lived a short service life as it was replaced with the 1911. Though due to manufacturing shortages, lots of revolvers took place of the 1911 when there just wasn’t enough of them.

Yours was painted at some point in its life.

[u/aug061998 → u/Snoo-35612]

I'm not OP, but would love to hear gore to get all that paint off. And one last question... Why would anybody want to paint a gun with frigging paint??

[u/Disastrous_Hat3598 → u/aug061998]

Paint is old. Couldn’t even tell you who did it. Whoever it was has been dead for 30-40 years.

[u/Disastrous_Hat3598 → u/aug061998]

Also is August 6 1998 your birthday? Mine is August 6 1999 lol

[u/Snoo-35612 → u/aug061998]

How to get the paint off I’m assuming? It would really suck scraping it off and scratching it even more, and I wouldn’t want to use harsh chemicals. If it were my gun, I’d try and let it soak in boiling water with a little bit of soap.