A gift from my wife. Low ser# Colt M1908/380.
 

I'm posting this on several different forums. I'm bragging on my wife so if you've already read this - well you know how it is. Nyles you would probably be the one other member here that would be the most interested in my antique.

My wife went to an auction today. An antique store had called it quits and the owner auctioned off the inventory. She (the owner) has an FFL and had a nice collection of older firearms. There were two Colt Model 1908's for sale. My wife got me the older one with the serial number 3XX. Yep that's it. Three numbers no more.

Much of the finish has been worn off in the past 102 years, but it's been from honest use.It has that nice antique patina. It does not appear to have been abused. No gouges, cracks, dents, ect.

She literally presented it to me about an hours ago and right now I'm on duty so I haven't had time to really look at it. But it appears to be in good mechanical shape. No corrossion, everything is smooth and pretty tight. All the safetys work ect.

I'll be posting photos of it in the near future. She got it for $400.00.

The first time my wife has ever bought me a gun as a gift in our twenty-two years together. Wow.

I did not think such a badass woman existed, you lucky bastard.

Wow! That's great! I love the Pocket Hammerless Colts, unfortunately they're prohibited under our gun laws. I hope there are pictures forthcoming?

I wondered about that and for what it's worth that sucks. Yes photos are forthcoming.

Okay here they are as promised. As you can see it's seen use, but I've taken it apart in the past couple hours and it looks to be in remarkably good condition. Used but not abused.

This is beautiful! You are so lucky you got that piece...oh, yeah, and having such an awesome wife, too, I guess. :D

That's about the only reason I don't move to Canada

Congrats on the beatiful gun, Checkman

VERY nice. It even has the barrel bushing, which is a feature I espescially liked on those very early ones. I didn't even realise they'd made .380s with it - quick search tells me they only made 6250. Probably worth a premium to a Colt collector, too.

When I met my wife (Many years ago ;)) she hated firearms. She was a classic liberal Portland Oregonian. But she liked me (a short haired reactionary from Eastern Idaho) so she learned to tolerate my interest. Of course then came the years in the Army and now police work and she has just accepted that guns are part of the family dynamic.

Gradually I've taught her a few things about firearms. But she is a collector of vintage clothing and what not. She's very knowledgable and she figured out that the rules for collecting vintage stuff (like don't refinish and low serial numbers) applied to guns. So she has developed my interest in old fireams. She prefers old firearms to all the new black Ninja firearms. Guess they don't seem as intimidating to her. That's okay with me because I like them as well.

Anyway it was my wife who saw the low serial number and she knows that Colt handguns are a big deal. So she went for it.

She gets the Wife of the Year award in my book. But that now means I'm really going to have to wow her this coming Sunday - which is Mother's Day.

Oh the pressure.

4 words: gold plated Rolls Royce