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Colt Ace Service Model 1945 help
ak47-726
Member Posts: 30 ✭✭
oh and im new here so if doing something wrong please dont get mad .
I recently acquired a Colt Ace Service Model, serial number is SM58XX Caliber is .22 long rifle. 5 inch barrel. Finish is Parko-Lubrite. Moulded plastic stock. It was shipped to the Army-Navy Consolidating Station in New York, for Officer in Charge, Naval Supply Depot in Oakland CA. There were 1200 guns in the shipment. It was shipped June 13, 1945. I have the Colt Archive Authentication Certificate.
I have taken it to a gun shop and he said the gun was 85 to 89 %.
I am looking for the value of this gun. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
I recently acquired a Colt Ace Service Model, serial number is SM58XX Caliber is .22 long rifle. 5 inch barrel. Finish is Parko-Lubrite. Moulded plastic stock. It was shipped to the Army-Navy Consolidating Station in New York, for Officer in Charge, Naval Supply Depot in Oakland CA. There were 1200 guns in the shipment. It was shipped June 13, 1945. I have the Colt Archive Authentication Certificate.
I have taken it to a gun shop and he said the gun was 85 to 89 %.
I am looking for the value of this gun. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Comments
WoW nice pistol . I have not seen any 1945 models sold and as this Finish PARKO-LUBRITE is only factory finish on a small number of pistols My opinion is it would bring more then a Blued model. I think the only way to tell what it is worth is to have it seen by a large number of people and then have a true auction and the value that day would be the highest bidder. I feel and Hope that things will improve and sale prices would go up if you hold on and wait for a few years before you try to sell.
thank you perry shooter
The following is just my opinion....take it for what you think it is worth:
My reason for replying is to caution you regarding how you store the gun, especially for a long period of months or a few years. For a possibly high value gun, I personally would remove the grip scales and give the internals and externals a good coat of preservative such as BreakFree-CLP (cleaner, lubricant, preservant), then lay it on a a couple layers of brown grocery bags for a few days to soak up the excess (then reinstall the grip scales). I would also get some vapor-wrap paper form a source such as Brownells and wrap the gun in that and put it in a gun storage bag, also from Brownells or another source.
WHAT I WOULD NOT DO is store the gun in that plastic handgun rug you have there in the picture, which probably has some type of synthetic funny-fur inside. If you simply MUST store the gun in a gun rug, I would buy an oblong shaped Boyd premium rug of the proper size made of heavy cotton canvas, with cotton batting internal padding and cotton liner. You can get these direct from Boyd's website or maybe on GunBroker, I don't know. But prior to storing the piece in the rug, I would do the BreakFree-CLP treatment.
EDIT EDIT
I just took a look at your photos again and it looks like your storage rug might be of cloth of some kind rather than plastic, but not sure. If so, something that breaths is better than plastic, regardless of the cloth composition.
Your photos are too fuzzy & lighting is too poor. Your gun looks too "gray" for a P-L finish, more like a commercial potassium phosphate refinish; I just can't tell. If we can't see the markings on the gun, then the photos aren't good enough.
While a Colt letter is often a plus when evaluating a gun, their use of the word "authentication" is misleading. All they do is research the serial number & tell you what a gun looked like when it left the factory; they don't examine the gun & tell you if yours is really "authentic".
Neal
EDIT: THAT'S a good job of posting photos! There is no doubt in my mind that the finish is original. But, it looks to me like the % finish is in the high 90's. I would think it would bring a minimum of $2K at auction, maybe a lot more.
Just for further information, instead of posting a new post to the thread every time, use the edit function to add to your post. Herein the "Experts" column, the threads are locked after 10 posts'.
Best