In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
1903 Colt Trigger
telohf
Member Posts: 912 ✭✭
Over the years I have owned several 1903 Colt autos in .32 acp. Like a fool I sold all of them. I love the feel and how they shoot but the trigger pull is the reason I end up selling them. So my question is this..is cleaning up the trigger pull an easy thing to do on the pistol? The lack of good sights and bad trigger make for a not very accurate pistol..but I still love them and want to buy another one. Thanks for your time.
Comments
http://www.gunpartscorp.com/Manufacturers/Colt-33188/AutoPistols-35748/1903Pocket32Hammerless-34909.htm?results=All
It has a hammer and sear plus a trigger to work with.
Unless you can buy a 03 reasonably to work on. And get replacement sights triggers, sears etc. inexpensively. I wouldn't even start the project.
The triggers usually have a significant amount of "play" in them, but once one takes up that slack when starting to pull the trigger, it's a pretty consistent and clean pull and break.
I actually haven't taken any measurements on trigger-pull weights, but have started to try to determine the point when Colt made a minor change in the sear and hammer. It was sometime in the "Type 3" stage of the pistol's production run. I'm not sure if pull is "better" or "poorer" before or after the changes.
A lot of them (actually, most) saw corrosively primed ammunition, so bore damage is common. My understanding is that the loading of 32acp ammunition has changed some too since the time these were manufactured. If someone was having "accuracy complaints" about a 1903, I'd be thinking it was more likely barrel or ammunition related than some problem with trigger-pull or sights. (Both a poor trigger-pull and poor sights can be overcome to a significant degree by a good marksman.)
There are usually plenty of examples of reasonably-priced and mechanically OK pistols available (Colt made about 500,000 of them), so I'm sure you could find one and start playing with the trigger pull if you really wanted to. (I just bid on this one this morning, but was out bid. You'd probably want something like this: http://www.GunBroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=420484842 The extra factory magazine added good value to that one.)
Since all 1903s are over 60 years old, they can be really "crudded up" with gunk. I'm not sure what some of the old oils people used on firearms were made of, but I usually find extremely heavy and sticky varnish-like build-up on the parts when I completely disassembly them. Spraying "cleaners" while assembled normally won't really clean the parts; I find one needs to disassemble and literally scrap the gunk off.
Perhaps the examples you've had just needed some "deep cleaning" to make them more suitable to your expectations?
He may not admit to it, but I watched Hangfire walk the shots from a 1903 in on a cottontail at over 100 yards. He hit it with the last round in the magazine - then I had to walk out to it and finish it with my Single Six. They can shoot extremely well for a gun designed for a firefight in a phonebooth.
Of course I'll admit to it.. It was a helluva shot.. I remember you chuckling, until that last round found it's mark.. You failed to mention it was a dark and stormy day, with high winds and fading light!![:0]
No disrespect to 62fuelie and hangfire but how did we get from improving the trigger pull to incredibly lucky shots. Is there a gunsmith or two out there that can improve the trigger on the Colt 1903?
I think the discussion reinforces the point that it probably doesn't need "improvement" -- at least from the perspective of how the pistol was designed to be used.