Stainless Series 70 Combat Commander! - (also Hi, OD)

[texnorm]

A buddy calls and tells me he's got a near NIB Satin Electroless Nickel Series 70 Combat Commander. When I get to his store, it looks like someone had polished it to make it look like stainless -it did look like a good job - the serial number had a"70 SC" prefix.

Despite good looking brushed stainless look, the gun had a yellowish cast, the trigger, hammer, and insides of both the slide and frame had the frosty appearance of electroless nickel.

Question - did Colt ever make a stainless Series 70 Combat Commander? Trigger is good on this gun, very smooth action, and a set of aged overly thick stags, mostly bark. If the price is right, I may be able to snag it.

Norm

[Rio Vista Slim]

A buddy calls and tells me he's got a near NIB Satin Electroless Nickel Series 70 Combat Commander. When I get to his store, it looks like someone had polished it to make it look like stainless -it did look like a good job - the serial number had a"70 SC" prefix.
Technically speaking, there were no Series 70 Commanders/Combat Commanders. Only those that were manufactured during that period. The serial number prefix would place that Satin Nickel Combat Commander as being manufactured during that time period.

Despite good looking brushed stainless look, the gun had a yellowish cast, the trigger, hammer, and insides of both the slide and frame had the frosty appearance of electroless nickel.
Although your buddy represents the pistol as being "near new-in-box", that yellowish appearance would indicate that the pistol has been exposed to numerous cleanings.

Question - did Colt ever make a stainless Series 70 Combat Commander? Trigger is good on this gun, very smooth action, and a set of aged overly thick stags, mostly bark. If the price is right, I may be able to snag it.
My understanding is that Colt didn't manufacture pistols with stainless steel until 1983. If the price is right, that might be an excellent purchase. I owned one of the original Satin Nickel Combat Commanders during the mid-1970s, and have lamented letting it go. Several of the members of this forum have recently acquired Satin Nickel Combat Commanders. You might try a "search", and compare their photographs with the condition of the pistol you're looking at.

[EchoBravoKilo]

I have a satin nickel combat commander from 1976. I love it! Had to put a little white paint on front sight due to middle age eyes, but it's a great pistol. Very tight.

[jeff1124]

Here's a pic of my 1973 Satin nickel Commander with a new XSE light weight on top and an ORM Commander in the middle.
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g207/jeff1124/comms2.jpg
Here is a new NRM SS Commander
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g207/jeff1124/nrm-cmdr3.jpg

[clughog]

Seems like I've seen a number of satin nickel Colts Combat Commanders at the gun shows recently. The colors have run from almost silver to some having a "yellowish" tint. I was told that the color comes from a copper undercoat applied before the final finish (but I don't know that for a fact). Mine was supposedly unfired (I fixed that problem!), but the original box was lost as it lived its previous life in a zippered fabric gun bag...and it did have a fair amount of tarnish but no yellow tint at all. It's a 1976 manufacture like EchoBravoKilo's.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f290/clughog/SatinNickel451.jpg

[OD*]

Hi Norm!

Good to see you here. http://forum.m1911.org/images/icons/icon14.gif

Slim, I gave Norm the "No Series '70 Commanders" in an e-mail earlier. ;)

[JustinTime]

Welcome Norm. Clughog and I are going to be at the big town gunshow next week in Mesquite if you'd like to meet us there. There is a big dealer there with lots of Colts. I'd be more than happy to browse through them with you. I might even show you my best gun...my glock 17, J/K. Anyway send ne a pm on details if your interested.