Calif. Hunter
Active member
This first model Colt Trooper belonged to my late Uncle Bill. It was stolen from my house many years ago, and -almost unbelievably - a few years ago the polcie departmetn from my former town called and told me that tehy had recovered it. On cloud nine, I drove up the next day to retrieve it. Sad to say, it had been treated horribly over the intervening years. The target hammer had been crudely bobbed, the Python-style target grips had been removed and replaced with some small plastic grips and the gun had rust pits all over it.
Fortunately, my brother was going through Yavapai College's gunsmithing program and needed an old-style Colt to work on...so he replaced the internals, did an action job, replaced the hammer, etc. The rust pits were too deep to polish out without losing all the lettering, so he beadblasted it and reblued it. It was no longer a collector piece so we made it a nice shooter. I have another set of the factory target grips that cost a pretty penny, but I ordered the Herretts to fit my hand, and it's a sweet shooter - single or double action.
Fortunately, my brother was going through Yavapai College's gunsmithing program and needed an old-style Colt to work on...so he replaced the internals, did an action job, replaced the hammer, etc. The rust pits were too deep to polish out without losing all the lettering, so he beadblasted it and reblued it. It was no longer a collector piece so we made it a nice shooter. I have another set of the factory target grips that cost a pretty penny, but I ordered the Herretts to fit my hand, and it's a sweet shooter - single or double action.
