Letter came in for colt pre woodsman (king super target)

[daddio202]

I have posted on here before about this gun which is one of my favorites and most accurate 22lr. This is my King super target gun with all of the King goodies! I was hoping that Colt might have shipped this gun directly to King sight company. I knew the chances of this were very slim and it turned out it had not been shipped to the sight company. It was however originally sold to Iowa state university in December of 1922. I am including 2 pictures of gun and letter and I believe the gun has been reblued at some point in its past. If anybody has any information about Iowa state university in the 20's having maybe a target shooting program I would very much like to hear about it. Unfortunately any searches now days with the words school and shooting are not going to help me at all with the gun's history due to all the recent shootings. In the past when I have posted about this gun I get many inquiries if it is for sale and I have no plans of selling gun at this time.

 

[kwill1911]

I have a database of over 100 of these Colt-King Super Target pistols and wrote an article about them a few years back. That's the lowest/earliest one I've recorded. I believe Iowa State had a competitive shooting team (as did many colleges back then) and evidently had a significant budget. I know I've seen other guns with a shipping destination as Iowa State. Congratulations on a great find.

 

[gregintenn]

That is some kind of cool!!!

 

[daddio202]

Thanks guys!! I really love the gun and take it to my indoor range to shoot fairly often. I can put the target all the way back and put every bullet in the center if I rest it on something. Last time it was out one of the pins in the rib must have fallen out. When I was cleaning it at home and seen that I was mortified! Took me alot of searching around town to find one to fit. Im glad I could add to the database for kwill1911. Would love to read the article on them.

 

[reddog81]

Sold to Iowa State University yet shipped to Van Camp Hardware in Indianapolis, Indiana. I'm guessing they are the ones who installed the aftermarket parts???

 

[kwill1911]

I'm guessing they are the ones who installed the aftermarket parts???

That would be surprising. I think it would be much more likely that the gun(s) were modified in California by D.W. King.

 

[italiansport]

Sold to Iowa State University yet shipped to Van Camp Hardware in Indianapolis, Indiana. I'm guessing they are the ones who installed the aftermarket parts???

What other reason then for some modification would the pistol had been shipped to a hardware store and one quite a distance away from the buyer? Please also note that this was one of 7 pistols in the shipment!
Jim

 

[S&W ucla]

What other reason then for some modification would the pistol had been shipped to a hardware store and one quite a distance away from the buyer? Please also note that this was one of 7 pistols in the shipment!
Jim

That's a nice King conversion!
Just a guess, but Van Camp was a very large hardware store and distributor. Often smaller stores (Des Moines or Ames) would order from the large distributors for thier stock. In 1913 they also introduced Van Camp Pork and Beans The work was done by D W King. Can't really tell who or when it was sent to King.

 

[H Richard]

Sounds like a bid situation to me. With 7 pistols in the order they may have sent out for bids and this distributor won.

 

[daddio202]

I very much doubt a hardware store (even a very good one) did the conversion. Somebody sent it out to King gun sight co. sometime afterword. The rib on top sits in channel that has to be milled in perfectly as well as the hole and threads for the weight tube under barrel had to be perfectly drilled and tapped. Requiring quite a bit of machinery and skilled workers. I don't think King was in business yet in the early 20's also. I assumed the hardware store was the closest distributor to the school in 1922. It will probably remain an unsolved mystery unless we talk to somebody over 100 years old that worked at either facilty back then.

 

[bengal fan]

Beautiful gun!
I’ve had this one for a few years, mine doesn’t have the barrel weight, but someone did pay the extra $5.00 for the Honed action job with trigger stop

Also, I do have a original King Catalog when he was in Denver Colorado that has some customer testimonies that are dated 1914. However, in that catalog there is no listings for Super Target modifications, so he probably didn’t offer that mod until he moved to California.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[reddog81]

I assumed the hardware store was the closest distributor to the school in 1922.

It's almost 500 miles from Indianapolis to Ames. There's got to be a more logical reason than that. Minneapolis, Kansas City, Chicago, or Omaha are all 100's of miles closer.