Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless – Part II

There’s nothing like shiny blued steel and walnut grips to make happy the hand of a pistol shooter. But waxing poetic about metal finish and fine grained wood will not begin to give you an appreciation for this gun. The Colt 1903 defines fit in my mind. This is a pistol not designed to par with a .45 or even a revolver firing a stout defensive load. Over half a million 1903s were made before production ceased towards the middle of the 20th century so it reasons to believe most will exhibit a little bit of play. And this is where a refinish job will tell you another story.

I’ve put a couple hundred rounds through this gun since the refinish job. Mostly handloads with a few factory rounds thrown in here and there. Notice the wear marks on the slide, the inset of the frame where the rails ride, the barrel hood. This pistol is tight. It feels tight. It racks tight. It wears tight. I present to you the marks of accuracy potential.

But what about practical shooting accuracy? Bring out the magnifying glass cause you’re going to need one if you want to shoot the Colt with any sort of precision. This gun will hammer nails if you line up the sights… a big if considering their size. I must admit the shiny blue finish did nothing to enhance the contrast between the now blurry front sight and hair thin notch in the rear. The contrast is so miniscule I was unable to take a picture that really demonstrated the sight picture. If I was going to carry this pistol as a primary piece I would send it to Novak Sights. But as one wishing to keep a semblance of nostalgia I will make do.

If you squint any more you’ll be closing your eyes.

Another thing you will notice from the pictures are the magazines. If you go out and buy a 1903 you will quickly learn a factory magazine will run in the neighborhood of $80+. I scored three no name after market mags from Numrich to the tune of $38 each. I had to gently file the top of the feed lips to ensure proper seating but after working the slide a few times with the magazines in place they presented no problems. Aftermarket mags like mine differ from the original by sporting a longer base plate. They also lack the two indentations at the bottom of the magazine on each side. Even though a factory mag will usually be finished in a two-tone with bare steel on top, Colt refinished mine in solid matte. An additional difference would be the lack of the “CAL 32 COLT” on the bottom of the base plate for the aftermarket mag. As for difference in function – none.

Aftermarket mag on left. Notice difference in length and contour of baseplate.

In an effort to compare the Colt to a modern predecessor I brought along a Bersa Thunder 32. The Bersa features all the modern steels and decent sights of a modern gun and it is the closest thing to the Colt I could find.

It also gave me the option of firing in single action and the Colt fires no other way. Since 32ACP is scarce in my locale I loaded up some handloads and headed to the range. The load consisted of mixed headstamped brass, CCI #500 primers, 2.2 gr. W231, topped off by a Rimrock 78 gr. (.313) LRN. First up was the Bersa. Firing in single action mode only, I was able to punch four respectable groups of five rounds each into the bullseye at 15’.

Next up was the Colt. The tiny sights were difficult to pick up but the trigger more than made up for the shortcoming. A little bit tighter, but not a significant edge.

So which one wins? I think it’s a toss up. On one side you have the Bersa with decent three dot sights shooting respectable groups. Then you have the Colt with horrible sights doing ever so slightly tighter groups. Because of the sights I had to spend twice as much time lining up sight picture on the Colt so maybe that is not a fair representation. Then again, if proper presentation is practiced the Colt will allow the shooter to machine gun rounds with combat accuracy. It will also feed rounds the Bersa chokes on. Though I didn’t shoot any at this last range session, 60 gr. Speer Gold Dot handloads run through the Colt like full metal jacket loads.

The Bersa, with its blowback design, requires ample reward energy to cycle the slide. The Colt will gobble up light loads and spit out the cases with ease. Whereas the Bersa adheres to matte finish and polymer grips, the Colt pairs with jeans and a t-shirt or a tuxedo.

All joking aside, this is a nice gun from a period when even firearms designated as backups or concealable were given the same attention to fit and finish as the larger guns. Seeing may be believing but shooting is experiencing. And you are missing out on great one by not experiencing the Colt 1903.

Savage Model 11 Trophy Hunter XP – Part IV

For accuracy testing I originally wanted to put out a target at 100 yards or so and start collecting data. Upon arrival at my shooting location I decided to put the steel as far as I could since the wind was calm and ambient temperature was around 65 degrees F. Seeing as how its December 2, I was not about to waste that kind of shooting opportunity and I think you’d agree. The max range I am able to shoot at with any kind of safety was 225 yards so that is where the steel went. I situated my shooting position on top of a hill across a mild valley. Per GPS, the elevation difference between my shooting position and the target was 31 ft. with my shooting position on the high side.

Additionally, I entered this review with the idea of shooting from a prone position off my pack. While that may be the utmost best way of taking out as many human variables as possible, I don’t think its common for the majority of shooters across America. You may have a covered bench to shoot from – great. You may have miles and miles of prairie with unlimited long range potential – I can only wish. So I decided to sit down and rest the rifle on a stand alone bipod. I’ll also say I have less than 500 rounds through glass in my entire shooting life so throw that variable in as well. These human and environmental variables exist not to cover my lack of skill. I’ll say upfront I bet the majority of my readers excel my ability. I feel the variables with the testing give you a practical accuracy result.

First up was some factory ammo I still had laying around. Fortunately or unfortunately, this was the worst ammo I tried for this review. Out of ten rounds I was only able to get one on target and that was after stopping and then resuming fire after I had fired about 20 handloads to ensure zero. For whatever reason, Federal Premium P260A, lot #05N322, would not group at all in my barrel. Rounds were all over the place. I have the same ammo from a different lot # that grouped well at 75 yards earlier this year so I may buy another box later on to see if it was lot or load induced.

The hand loads started off with neck sized Federal nickel cases, Hornady 129gr. SP Interlocks, under 40.5 gr. of IMR 4831. All hand loads used the 129 gr. Interlocks and CCI #200 primers. I fired a three shot group and was a bit surprised. Always forgetful, the tape measure was left at home so I used my Kroger mini card to measure the group.

The longest distance between the shots was the length of that card, 1.9”. Technically that is sub MOA but lets call it an MOA group. Other loads used varying amounts of IMR 4831 from 40 to 41gr. I blasted away getting the barrel pretty hot. Groups opened a little bit but the Savage is definitely an MOA capable shooter out of the box with hand loads. Switching to Federal’s P260B with 120 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips during the evaluation resulted in similar performance as the hand loads.

.260 Rem with parent cartridge .308 Win on right.

Reloading .260 Rem is like reloading any rifle cartridge in the .308 Win family of rounds. There are no surprises or quirks that must be understood to make quality ammo. The rounds I used in the previous review were full length sized. All of the rounds used for this testing were neck sized. COAL was set at 2.775” per Hornady 7th Ed. Manual. Powder was trickled by hand using a Marlin 444 case and RCBS 502 scale. In place of an actual funnel, some paper rolled and taped in place did the job fine. Case trimming was accomplished with the Forster Original trimmer set to 2.026”.

Seating the Hornady 129gr. SP Interlock

This will be a continuing review but I must draw some conclusive points. This is a great hunting rifle at a great price. You get this mounted scope on a light weight rifle for around $500 that shoots 1 MOA with hand loads and about 1.5 MOA with factory ammo. With that said I think you should exercise caution in selecting a cartridge for hunting. If you want to primarily hunt and do some plinking now and again, 308 Win may be a better choice financially. But if you’re like me and you find yourself busting steel more than anything else, start looking at reloading presses and choose whatever cartridge looks interesting. And that brings me to the next point – fun! This is a fun rifle. A recreational shooter. If your aim is ringing steel at distance you can find this setup will serve that purpose beautifully for a lot less than a more expensive rifle without glass.

Fun

So what about upgrades? I could go either way on it. A proper upgrade to this rifle might be another setup entirely. The Savage 11 is good for what it is but it doesn’t lend itself to add-ons like other rifles. Take the stock for example. With the Savage you will need short action bottom metal plus additional magazines if you want to get away from the Axis mag tab. A new wood stock with an updated magazine will run you $150 minimum. On the other hand, you’ll have a solid stock from which to mount a bipod. There is one way around ordering additional magazines. Since the body of the magazines for the 10/11/12/14 are the same, you can convert the Axis mag to a metal cap mag simply by squeezing the body of the magazine and swapping the polymer cap with a metal one. I’ll have to call Savage and see if I can order metal caps and short action bottom metal from them. You can change out the scope, rings, bolt handle, whatever you want. While upgrades can be done I think you will lose some of the original value. Then again, this rifle might prove to be a good project gun. I think the next steps for me will be a stock, bottom metal and metal mag caps from Savage, and maybe a bipod on down the road. This could turn out to be an excellent shooter. Now the heart of any rifle is the barrel. Considering the accuracy I’m getting now, I do not feel an upgrade is warranted at this time. Maybe 5,000 rounds later I will have improved enough to notice a difference.

But that’s it for the Savage Model 11 Trophy Hunter XP. I will continue to shoot and evaluate this rifle. If upgrades do happen they will be reported.