My Life as a Shooter: The Colt M1903 Hammerless Pocket Pistol

I love classic guns, moreso by far than the new hotness. I have an Acquisition List going over two pages (hand-written) of classics I want to collect, own, and use. Every so often I see a video or an article that has me thinking of moving around the priorities on that list, and about a month ago one such thing came up in my YouTube subscription feed. It's the video embedded below.

Not every firearm has to be tactical, or conceal-carry, a safari rifle, or whatever. This? This will sit in a safe most of the time, be brought out to shoot at a range or used as a live costume piece (meaning that it is a fully-functional prop), and put back after maintenance. I could use it as a pocket pistol, as it was built to be, but even at the affordable prices for originals you can get ($300-$500 as of this post), I could instead get a new(er) pistol in a more potent caliber that does the same job with equal or greater capacity.

But this? This pistol has style, something a lot of those newer pistols lack. You have to get a Beretta 81/84, a Makarov, or a CZ-82/83 to find that sort of classy, subtle, understated style to it that the Colt M1903 has. It's that Second Kind of Cool that Nutnfancy talks about, and that's why--despite newer models being available--I'd have no problem putting this 113 yr. old classic back into service as a self-defense pocket pistol. Yes, even one chambered for .32 Automatic Colt Pistol.

So, since I have a birthday in just over two months, mark this: if you're want to wow me, make a gift of one of these (and don't forget ammo, a holster, and a spare magazine or two). Or FN's M1910, for that matter, since we're talking classic early 20th century auto-loading pistols.