This gun was giving to me by my aunt today and I just wanted to know more info about this gun. Year made, what ammo to use and also value. I cleaned and oil it up and everything seems smooth. Should be a fun shooter.

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What a great gun! Its a Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless - one of the great concealed carry guns of all times:

Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yours looks to be in great shape. Congratulations. (It uses regular .32 ACP ammo) I'm not sure about value on these nowadays - I'd say upwards of $500 at least. I'm sure someone more in the know will chime in with a manufacture date - according to this chart its 1916:

http://www.guncollectorsclub.com/1903.htm

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

I have a 32 and a 380 in the pocket pistol series. Easy to carry and conceal. Send me you address and I'll copy my disassembly sheet and the dates i have for these fine little semi auto's
[email protected]

Thanks for the info! I went to the range today and stopped to visit my aunt when i was done. She asked me what I was doing and when I told her she comes out with the colt and also a titan 38 special. They were my uncles who passed a couple years ago and the guns scared her to have in the house. She really flipped when I told her the 38 was loaded!

Is it okay to fire this or should I just keep it as a collector?

collectibility is in the eye of the beholder. that pistol looks decent but i wouldn't consider it collector quality, i say go shoot it if you want to. it won't devalue it.

Looks like it was made in 1916. Definitely fun to shoot!
TACC1

What a coincidence! I was just in my LGS day before yesterday and saw one of those on the consignment shelf. The serial number dates it to 1909. I almost put down the money for it right then, but it was a new add to the shelf and still subject to the 30-day pawn hold. I'll go back in a few days when it's unrestricted and look at it again. If it's still there, I may pick it up.

Yours looks like a nice one. I'd shoot it.

UPDATE: When I got back to my LGS, the 1903 was off the shelf. I should have moved when I had the chance.

I consoled myself by buying a couple of other things.

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David Wilson

Thanks for the input... I will be shooting it this weekend. Just aint right having a gun you can't shoot anyways.

I have a #154XXX from 1913 that has less remaining finish than yours. They are great shooters (even with those tiny sights) and are about as thin a pistol as I know of for their size. Extra magazines are readily available, but locating any other parts is problematic. The original barrel with mine was badly pitted and after searching for several years I was able to find one from another pistol that was "parted" out.

If needed, you can get a spring kit from Wolff that includes the recoil spring along with a few others. Disassembly beyond a basic field strip is supposed to be a booger, so the extra springs that came with mine are unused. These came along just after the dawn of semi-auto pistols, so many of the easy maintenance shortcuts we take for granted these days were unheard of then.

This might help or give you more info. I have one and it shoots great!

http://stevespages.com/pdf/colt_32_&...hammerless.pdf

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Still Running Against the Wind

That was back when the gun folks knew how to make a cool pocket pistol.

I have a .32 and a .380. They sure have more class that some of the ones being produced today.

Per the serial number chart for Colt 1903's, serial number 198892 was manufactured in 1916.

I've had a love affair with Colt pocket pistols for years. Nice ones are starting to demand a premium but can still be found. I've acquired a few through the years and have found them to be very reliable and very accurate. A little heavy by modern standards for a pocket pistol, but the new stuff don't hold a candle to the fit and finish of one of these babies.

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- Change it back -

COOL!! A Colt Model M or Colt Pocket Auto!! I love these old gems!! I've had my fair share of them myself mostly in .32 ACP, although I did have one .380 that wasn't near as accurate as the .32 versions.
Shoot it! It's accuracy will astound you as will it's mild manners and reliabilty! And most will feed hollow points, mine loved the old Fiocchi 60gr. HP load that was rated at over a 1000 fps!
These are dandy little guns and like everybody else says they have more class than anything made today!
Bogart used a lot of these in his movies, along with many other stars of the 30s and 40s, heck one even showed up in an episode of Simon & Simon!
They are timeless classics, enjoy your Colt! Dale

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"Long live the S&W 3rd. Gen.!"

Its my CCW gun. I also have a couple in .380 that I carry. Its a natural pointer-reliable. From a time when guns were "machined"-Savage, Remington 51, FN 1910/22, Colt 1903 .25 etc..... .32 ACP was derigueur.

Without aging myself too much, I had one that I carried as my first BUG. After a year or so, I went to a .44 special but I sure
liked that Colt.

Learn to dissassemble (field strip) the Colt to keep it clean. Be sure the safety lever is "stiff" and engages fully, especially if you're going to carry it with a chambered round. That bar in the rear is a grip safety. You'll note this isn't a target pistol but rather a point-and-shoot. Parts/mags are available online. I'd contact a custom holsterer and get a nice rig for your belt...something of the period. I have two of these and love them! It was my very first gun back in 1954.

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Term limits!

I've got one in .32 acp and one in .380 acp and I love these little Colt Auto's! They are REALLY reliable, have a decent trigger pull, and despite their puny little sights, are actually quite accurate.

I would however never carry one for S/D purposes because of two major factors.......

First of, I do not like carrying it cocked and locked - the little safety can be knocked off way to easily, and if you carry them without a round chambered, you need two hands to operated the weapon.

Secondly, I really have no confidence in the .32 & .380 as S/D rounds. I just think they are too light, too small, and lack "stopping power".

But as a shooter and collectible, they are fantastic!

Chief38

Appreciate all the info.... I bought some ammo today and look forward to going to the range this weekend to see how well it shoots.

Beautiful Collection!!!

Here's a poor picture of mine. Nothing but COOL!

Regards,

Jerry

There is a lot of info online about the Colt 1903 Hammerless. I just traded 3 German Ortgies for one that was mfg'd in 1907 and I'll get it this Friday. My friend is going to reblue and restore it for me as it's a basket case. I'll take it to the range but I wouldn't trust an old gun enough for concealed carry, but that's just me. Cool gun!!!

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S&W 645, 3913, 59, 669

I looked at one yesterday at my LGS. It looked kinda "rough" to me, but probably nothing a little WD-40, a terry cloth towel, and and some gentlely applied elbow grease wouldn't have removed most of.

It had nicely aged ivory stocks, and they had it tagged at $650.00. I was tempted to throw out an offer just to see if they'd take it, but I've got one gun on layaway there now (The clerk told me "You can have more than one layaway when I said that).

Nice old gun that's for sure.

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John 3:16 .

I traded three German Ortgies (like the one pictured, not mine...) for a Colt 1903 Hammerless. I like the little Ortgies pistols, but they are too finicky to take to the range, parts are very hard to find and I really want to stick to collecting John Moses Browning designs...

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S&W 645, 3913, 59, 669

In, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (the book), Capt. Ted Lawson said that on the Doolittle raid, he had his wife's Colt .32 as well as his own .45. I thought that spoke well of the .32.

I read an article in the, American Rifleman that was printed back in the 1940's that espoused the Model M as an outdoorsman's gun. The author mentioned the high accuracy in .32.

Is it true (as I've heard) that the .380 doesn't feed as reliably as the .32?

My dad had a .32 when I was a kid, but I never got to shoot it, and he swapped it to some guy for help on his taxes.

If I ever have the money to spare, I'm getting one of these. But I think it might be wise to change the springs.

T-Star

They are great shooting and beautiful little pistols. I wish I had more than one.

Beautiful pistols!!

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S&W 645, 3913, 59, 669

Two of my 1930's era pocket pistols.

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For what it's worth, ... my Colt 1903 Hammerless weighs almost exactly 1 oz. less than my S&W 3913 & 3914, ... just to keep things in perspective.

Jerry

"Is it true that the .380's didn't feed as reliably as the .32's?"

I can't say about feed problems. But I have read (on the Colt forum) that until the last model finaly got the problem solved, the .380's sometimes had extraction problems.