Colt 1903 Hammerless Pocket pistol question

[tt3]

Do any of you have breakdown schematics for the pocket pistol? I'm looking for more than the simple field stripping guide. My magazine release came out and I need to know how to take the grip safety and spring(s) out safely so I can put the thing back together. Rather than tapping out pins left and right I'd like to have a step by step breakdown. My own Google searches haven't turned up much.
Any help would be appreciated.

[Squib Joe]

http://www.marstar.ca/AssemblyColtAP32.htm

[tt3]

Nice, thank you. I had a dickens of a time aligning the grip safety back to re-insert the lower pin, I guess thats why they pay the gunsmiths the big bucks. I'll re-tackle it tomorrow using the directions provided!
Appreciate it Joe!

[Rags]

Do any of you have breakdown schematics for the pocket pistol? I'm looking for more than the simple field stripping guide. My magazine release came out and I need to know how to take the grip safety and spring(s) out safely so I can put the thing back together. Rather than tapping out pins left and right I'd like to have a step by step breakdown. My own Google searches haven't turned up much.
Any help would be appreciated.

Are you sure you want to? I got halfway through detail-stripping my 1903/8 and realized that there was a faint fragrance of old gun oils and stuff that would be destroyed if I cleaned it. It dates to 1928, and I just decided to leave it the way it was. (Of course, I'm a nut on the subject of smells. I like the smell of gun oils and solvents, and boiled linseed oil, and fresh sawdust, and even the smell of refined turpentine coming from my wife's oil paints.)

Anyway, it can get to be damn near impossible to put it back together. It took me hours, and required four hands. The guys who built them way back when probably had special tools and jigs to help with the assembly.

I did finally get it back together, but I would advise against detail stripping it unless you have some overarching reason to do that.

[tt3]

Unfortunately the magazine retention clip thing came out, so yeah, I need to take the whole shebang apart in order to get it back in. I was able to get the safety back in using a channel locks and strip of leather. It'll be a bear, but I want it back together and shootable again.
From the serial number it was made somewhere in the 1915-1916 range. Its a dream to shoot, points great and fires flawlessly... except for that whole magazine release thing coming loose.
My Great aunt's husband etched his initials above the trigger, so I'm sure it has little value other than sentimental.

[Rags]

Unfortunately the magazine retention clip thing came out, so yeah, I need to take the whole shebang apart in order to get it back in. I was able to get the safety back in using a channel locks and strip of leather. It'll be a bear, but I want it back together and shootable again.
From the serial number it was made somewhere in the 1915-1916 range. Its a dream to shoot, points great and fires flawlessly... except for that whole magazine release thing coming loose.
My Great aunt's husband etched his initials above the trigger, so I'm sure it has little value other than sentimental.

Yeah, my attachment is sentimental, too. My dad had two -- one in .380 (like mine) and one in .32 Auto. I don't have either one and don't know what happened to them.

One of the odd things about them is that although we consider them small guns now, back in the day they were considered full-sized guns. I'm basing that on movies like "Sunset Boulevard", where the 1903 is waved around the way 1911s are now. But maybe people just had smaller hands then.

[DeanC]

One of my favorite unknown pro-gun movies "Suddenly" has Frank Sinatra promiscuously waving a 1903 around.




Incidentally, you can watch "Suddenly" on-line for free here. (It's perfectly legal to watch "Suddenly" on-line because it is in the public-domain.)

[Rags]

There's also "The Killing," a Stanley Kubrick movie with Sterling Hayden. Nebbishly little Elisha Cook, Jr., has a 1903.

In one of my fave Hollywood-gets-it-muddled moves, he pulls it out of a gym bag, racks the slide, and only then inserts a magazine. (Of course, you might do that just to make it easier to rack the slide later, but it's not as if it requires a gorilla to pull the slide back on one of those.)

[tt3]

I was able to get the magazine catch back in and get the thing back together. I'll probably not be shooting it much any more it is a nice gun!

[Pinnacle]

Some of those old pocket pistols are COOL.

Remington made an interesting one and I cannot remember the model number - but it has a split bolt - interesting gun. Very well made and very collectible -

I would actually carry it

[GregM]

Isn't that a 1903 that Warren Beatty carries in the movie "Dick Tracy" ?

[justaguy]

+1

[tt3]

+1

WTF?

[GregM]

I don't believe in fate, but it sure makes a good excuse for buying guns.

While nosing around at Bill's the other day, I spotted a Colt 1903 in very good condition and priced to fit my budget.

I said to myself: "First I hear about the 1903 on the MNGunTalk forum, and now I'm face to face with one. This gun has been waiting here just for me." So I bought it.

What an incredibly elegant little pistol!

[tt3]

Nice find!
If you want any help taking it apart and putting it back together I've found a trick or two to ease the process.