Colt Trooper Mk III Owners? Information

Will soon be having an opportunity to purchase a Colt Trooper Mk III .357, 4". As new in box unfired as far as I can tell. I only own one Colt revolver, a 1956 Colt Officer Police. All others are S&W. I have done a lot of research and know about them but would appreciate any personal reviews by someone who has one. This is a rare opportunity and want to make right decision. I buy higher quality shooters and not safe queens and this one was one for previous owner. A beautiful revolver.

I have a 4” Mk III, and it is a great gun.

I have read to always use snap caps when dry-firing it, because the bushing around the frame mounted firing pin can come unmoored, requiring a special tool only known to old men in green eyeshades and Keebler elves. I use snap caps just in case it is true.

It doesn’t have the Royal Blue found on a Python, but it is way ahead of anything made today.

Short answer, The Mk III is a quality revolver that is easily tuned for a smooth trigger pull.

I had two Colt Mk III when they came out in 1982(?), both were 8" barrels. One was 22 LR, the other 357 mag. I shot thousand rounds of 22 LR , 12,000 38 SPL and 4,000 357 mag through those guns. When I sold the 357 mag it was more accurate than the buyer. I traded the 22 LR + $$ for a S&W M52. I find the current prices for Mk III remarkable; $225 (dealer cost + shipping +sales tax) in 1982 is $575 in 2018 (inflation) not current "Gun Broker prices".

I bought it for dealer cost + shipping & sales tax from a dealer friend. It must have been at the end of the production run.

Good heavy duty revolvers. They made extensive use of early MIM technology in the form of Sintered Metal parts inside. That was a cost saving measure to get away from the labor intensive earlier Colt DA designs of the Official Police.
The trigger, hammer, cylinder locking bolt, and other internal parts are sintered metal construction. It's powdered metal pressed into shape at high temp and pressure in a moulding process..
I wouldn't doubt if the firing pin and/or bushing are sintered metal construction also but I do not know that to be a fact.

There have been quite a few broken hammers, triggers and other MIM parts on the MkIII revolvers of which there are several models.
Are they all suspect?, I doubt it, but it's a point that is argued just as when S&W introduced their higher tech MIM parts to replace the forged steel parts. Change is difficult to take.

All the springs in the MkIII design are either coil or wire torsion. No flat springs used.
The only springs I've ever replace on any MkIII model were the trigger return springs. A torsion spring that had broken one of the long arms of the spring in both instances.
I know for a fact that one of the revolvers, a 22LR MkIII had fired in excess of 20k rds and been dry fired extensively,,daily most likely and w/o snap caps. (no damage to the firing pin).
The other pistol was a 357 that had been carried quite a lot but I doubt the round count was more than several hundred.
Poor QC? in the second instance, probably, Springs are vendor provided in the industry and usually at low bid to the mfg'r.
Springs are easy to replace and quality replacement s are available.

There was a time in the early 80's that you could barely give these away. Close out sales on NIB MkIII's were common and the prices extremely low.
Now they're priced like 14k gold. Pythons like 24k.

Too late (69/70 intro) for a big hit in the L/E market.
S&W had that pretty much to themselves already and stainless revolvers & semi auto's were about to take over. There were a few agencys that did use the MkIII models though.
The 38spl cal fixed sight MkIII is probably the harder one to find of the MkIII models. The replacement for the original Official Police, I believe it was used by the Maryland SP as a duty weapon for a time.

Good heavy duty revolvers that relatively little goes wrong with them.

VaTom said:

Will soon be having an opportunity to purchase a Colt Trooper Mk III .357, 4". As new in box unfired as far as I can tell. I only own one Colt revolver, a 1956 Colt Officer Police. All others are S&W. I have done a lot of research and know about them but would appreciate any personal reviews by someone who has one. This is a rare opportunity and want to make right decision. I buy higher quality shooters and not safe queens and this one was one for previous owner. A beautiful revolver.

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I have one that was my dads gun, it’s still beautiful and the action is smooth like butter. In times past I read nothing but negative things about the revolver and alwYs wondered if they were all talking about the same gun.

I was working in a local gun shop in the mid ‘80’s when the owner bought out all of the stock of Trooper Mark III’s from a distributer. The Mark IV’s had come on the market and you literally could not give away a Trooper Mark III. I think I bought eight of them over a month or two time period in most of the configurations. .357’s, .22 long rifle and I bought two in .22 magnum. I also bought a plain jane model that was an ugly little snub nose that I think was called a Lawman. We had them in blue plus some type of brushed chrome finish. If I remember correctly I paid around $140.00 each for them. We had several dozen in the shop and no one would buy them. Nothing wrong with them, just that everyone in our area wanted a Smith or a Blackhawk, not some discontinued Colt.

The .22 magnum versions were some of the most inaccurate revolvers I have ever fired. Sadly, over the years I sold or traded all of them off. Hindsight being what it is…. I should have put about 25 of them away and paid for one of my kid’s college.

I have a Colt Trooper MKIII in 357 magnum. Not pristine by any means. It even has a slight purplish cylinder. Back when Ebay let you sell gun parts I managed to get a nice barrel,complete cylinder, hammer, trigger and some of the springs. Still oiled and wrapped if I ever need them. Currently likes Sellier & Bellot Czech 357 ammo. Frank

VaTom, back when they were in production, I bought a new 6" MKIII .357. Good, reliable and accurate revolver, but the DA trigger pull, while smooth, was very heavy. The SA was fine, but the DA was so heavy that it was of no use to me. I guess I'd already been spoiled by owning S&W revolvers

I have one of the Trooper MK IIIs in 22 Magnum with a 6" barrel and the electroless finish. This revolver is more accurate than I am!
Jim

For crisp trigger action I prefer my smiths, but the Colts they too are beautiful guns. I don’t think really good condition ones are selling for $575, they are easily 700-800 dollar guns. Here is my well used lawman MK III that I wouldn’t let go for $500.

And here is my MK III trooper, next to my once well worn python. I probably wouldn’t let go of the trooper either for a handful of 100s.

My first handgun was a 4" nickel MK III .357 purchased new in 1978. Sold it after my daughter was born to help pay the bills one month. Bought almost the same gun only blued a few years ago, NIB. Finally took it to the range late last year. Glad I did as it brought back some fond memories.

If it's priced right I'd go for it. I bet you find it quite serviceable.

Thanks all. Colt changed the shape of the grips (stocks) later in production. I understand the MKIII was in production from 1969-1982. Early ones had squared off grips and later ones were rounded on front bottom edges.

Any idea what the year the change happened?

I have a 6" blued mid 70's MKIII in 357. It is very accurate and after a good cleaning and greasing, a wolf spring kit it has a very nice action. SA just as good as a S&W. In DA it is still like a Colt, smooth but has that "Stack" point. They are very tough revolvers designed to handle full loads day in and out. I bought mine for $525 just before they went crazy. Now the same revolver is making $1200 in my area. I believed that the grips changed in the mid to late 70's.

Might find this link interesting on the Colt MK lll's. It does mention the standard target grip being rounded in "later production models".
Mark III

Larry

Fishinfool said:

Might find this link interesting on the Colt MK lll's. It does mention the standard target grip being rounded in "later production models".
Mark III

Larry

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Thanks. The particular one I am looking to buy has the rounded off grips. The ser # wouldn't come up on the Colt lookup program so I called Colt Archives. Nice folks and quickly found that one is a 1981 model.

I believe that mine is a '76, and it has the full length checkered grips. The folks at the Colt forum would know the exact date they changed.

As an aside, I have both type grips and either will fit. With my big hands and a rather heavy 6" I like the full length checkered ones better.

Colt Trooper MK III 357 Magnum


Here is my Colt MK III Trooper in a "before" shot.
Bore checked good, but the outer finish was heavily worn, pitted rust on the cylinder, rust and pitting on the frame. The front sight had been filed down and the grips were quite worn. The action, seemed a little loose.
It came with the original box, "Handling Instructions", test target, and an ad for the “Miniature Frontier 45.” There was also a notice that it is the “Mk III.” Made 1969.

The price was right, meaning real cheap, so I bought it.
Seller said it was formerly the sidearm of a deputy sheriff but could provide no details. It clearly spent a lot of time in a holster, and probably a lot bouncing around in the bed of a rusty pickup truck.
I sent it to Colt to be refinished and to have the action corrected.
It's a good shooter for less than the price of the average used one on the market. It doesn't see daylight much because I prefer to shoot other guns, more. But, it's one of those guns that's just nice to know I have.
I thought I had an "after" pic to show the new finish, but if so, I can't find it.

If you get it, you’ll need some green-tinted aviators and a leisure suit so you can shoot it from the steps of the winery.

move on...

I owned a 1964 Python years ago which I got unfired. It was pretty to look at but definitely not a shooter. DA was terrible. As bad as the 1955 OMM I owned. They were also impossible to work on. Never owned a trooper but never heard much praise about them.

My advice would be get a good beautiful model 28, 27 or a nice early 586 4'' and you will be in better shape for a very pretty (although a bit more utilitarian) heavy duty reliable and accurate hard shooting revolver.