There is an interesting line from the movie "Clear and Present Danger",
where Robert Ritter and Jack Ryan are going back and forth about the
mess that has been created. Ritter has a letter from Jim Cutter,
purportedly authorizing the illegal activity that Ritter was caught up in.
The line is something like:

"I have this get-out-of-jail pass. Do you have one of those, Jack ?"

Another thread here is about The First Combat Magnum, and the gun
is K260003. So, in the context of the Clear and Present Danger
situation, I would say:

"K260001 has several get-out-of-jail passes. Does K260003 have
any of these passes, Bill ? " ( Of course, this is all in good fun !)

This first image is a copy of the original invoice for K260001. It has
Roys comments at the bottom, identifying K260001 as the first
combat magnum. That seems like a good get-out-of-jail pass, for
starters .



This next image is the factory letter, from 1980, written to Rex Applegate
about K260001. It states that K260001 was the first serial number
assigned , which means it must come before K260003.
(Otherwise K260003 would be the first serial number assigned.) It
also states that K260001 was completed on the same day as K260003,
so that must have been a very busy day, at the factory. This seems like
another good get-out-of-jail pass , not to mention the fact that Rex
went to his grave believing he had the first Combat Magnum.



This next letter is from Bill Jordan, to Rex Applegate, via "Guns & Ammo"
magazine, written in 1981. Bill is convinced he owns the number One
production gun of the Combat Magnum series. This is not a bad
get-out-of-jail pass, not to mention that Bill Jordan would be rolling
over in his grave, if this were not so.



Finally, we have this factory letter written to me, in about 1999. It
notes that K260003 was completed first, but my goodness, its only
a test gun. It probably didn't even work right ! The letter goes on to
say that K260001 is the first Combat Magnum shipped by the factory,
which means, among other things, that by BATF rules it is the first
Combat Magnum. Since both guns, by various factory documents, were
completed on the same day, I wonder how the factory records lead one
to conclude which gun was completed first !



It would be fun to see some get-out-of-jail passes for K260003 !

Regards, Mike Priwer