Hello All

A friend of mine is about to score this Colt. Or what we think is a Colt. It has a five digit serial number and is a black powder frame. Story is it was found rusted in a house in the 30's that was being torn down and was cleaned up with all the markings removed. Needs a hand (pawl)and some work to get it to shoot. He had to put the Franzite grips on it back in the day. Haven't looked at the bore yet. The button head ejector was a homemade replacement. Is there any sure fire way to tell it isn't an Italian forgery that was rusted up and pitted real bad?

Can't help with that.

Somebody had to do a lot of cleaning up to remove all the markings.

Easy if it is not marked properly buy as if it was a clone. That is all it would ever be. I have seen a few clones and they are GOOD. Would fool 90% easy.

I've seen a few and they were made in the same time frame as 1st generation Colts. I've seen some that are devoid of markings, and one that was attempting to copy a Colt. What was pointed out to me on the last one is how long the front of the grip frame is as compared to a Colt.

nice looking piece.