Henry Rifle Forums

Well, I talked to my brother yesterday, and decided I needed to pull Dad's old Colt out of the safe and clean it. I had forgotten how bad the barrel looked on it. It's an old Colt Challenger, the first gun I ever shot, and I made sure it was the first that Clovispup ever shot. Anyway, most of the bluing was gone and it looked terrible. I went over to my buddy's today, and asked him his opinion. Before I knew it, we were getting out the cold blue and gloves.

I didn't do a full on strip. It still has a few spots of surface rust, but if I want to go a little further, I can strip it back down and remove any remaining surface rust. The barrel turned out great. The rest is a tad uneven in the right light, but still looks 100 % better.

It's not a collector's piece. I will never sell it. I like the looks of it much better now. I might spend a half a day sometime and completely field strip it (the Colt's are a real pain in the behind to field strip) and remove any surface rust and redo the cold blue.

Anyway, here it is.

I think it looks darn good. If you're not going sell it and are happy with it,no one else's opinions matter.

I guarantee it looks better than I could have done...

No mistake at all. I'd have done the same. Wouldn't worry about it one bit. Yes, just by virtue of being a Colt, the Challenger will always hold its value, but the diehard Colt collectors are more interested in the prestige models and much less so on the basic models like the Challenger. That, and a cold blue is a temporary fix, anyway. It's not really considered refinishing, as a hot blue would be. Enjoy. Those old Colt 22 semi-autos were great shooters.

After posting this, I got to thinking, I know...... dangerous. Anyway looked up the born on date from the serial number.

1952

At this point I'm glad I did it. It looks so much better. I think my Dad would be pleased.

He wasn't a gun person. He had this pistol and a Remington .22 rifle. My Dad would occasionally take my brother and I out plinking. It was a real treat for us.

If I think about it too much, I might start looking at a proper hot blue refinish. It doesn't see much use. I really don't like the plastic grips, but hey, it's a family gun, so.... Not quite sure what to do with it other than take care of it, and shoot it from time to time.

Looks nice!

It only needs to please one person and you know who that is.

Very Nice. I would make some wood grips for it, or check eagle grips. They probably have some.

Funny, Clovispup and I were just talking about making some wooden grips for it. They have some really nice ones available. Rosewood, with a thumb rest. Expensive though. I may just try my hand at a pair.

Nice! I We all have guns of limited collector value but that in no way makes them any less precious to us. Dads' 97 Winchester and Savage 340 come to mind. Neither will be show pieces but they are a part of his life and mine. That's good enough! Enjoy and cherish your Dads' Colt-it is truly one of a kind!

clovishound wrote:Funny, Clovispup and I were just talking about making some wooden grips for it. They have some really nice ones available. Rosewood, with a thumb rest. Expensive though. I may just try my hand at a pair.

I have a set of custom grips for my Ruger MKII .22 with the very distinct thumb rest. I don't really care for it, but I can take it or leave it. Miss T has much smaller hands and hates that rest. Until I decide to reshape and refinish the custom grips to remove it, I put the factory grips back on the ruger. Tina shoots it more than I, since she uses it in conjunction with clearing the traps around her coops prn.

Well, my Mark I target has factory walnut grips with a thumb rest. Both the pup and I really like the thumb rest.

I found from experience that unless you have some experience and some woodworking tools that I lack, making grip panels is time consuming.
I don't mind spending some time playing around with a few pieces of wood, but sometimes it's better to just pony up the money and get something that is ready to go, and fits properly out of the box. I do like the idea of some bloodwood grips. Unfortunately, I don't have any decent bloodwood stock on hand that I could use for this project. I can buy some, but I would have to buy a $40 board. Of course, that would leave me with plenty left over for other projects. I love working with bloodwood for small projects. It is hard, works well, finishes well and is gorgeous.

After a few weeks I assume the interest in "upgrading" the Colt will wane. I will take it to the range next week and run some ammo through it. I'm sure that nice looking blue finish on the barrel will result in at least a 1/2" reduction in group size.

My dad has the same pistol, though your looks like it might have a longer barrel than his. My dad's was made in 1953.

Mine has the 6" barrel. They came with 4.5, 6 and 6.25 inch barrels. Mine might be the 6.25 depending on where you measure from.