Looking for WWI vintage bbl

[deltaheavy]

I acquired a 4-digit U.S. Property Colt about a year and a half ago originally planning to use it as a shooter. It had been reblued and polished to the point where some of the original lettering was almost unreadable. I sent it to Bill Adair who did a beautiful job restoring the letter work, and after looking at pictures of his refinishing, I've been seriously considering a full restoration. The major impediment here is that the original barrel is in poor condition. I fired a few rounds through it and noticed that the cases were bulged. That barrel was removed immediately and I've been shooting it with a 60's vintage commercial Colt barrel installed. So if I'm to do this right, I need to find a "correct" barrel for a 1912 vintage Colt. After several months of fruitless Ebay and Gunbroker searching, this is seeming like a nearly impossible task. I figured I'd post here to see if anyone has a suggestion for where I might locate an early production Colt barrel. The gun shows here might turn one up, but I'm not holding my breath...

[Scott Gahimer]

You have discovered how rare an early barrel is. When (or if) you do ever find one for sale, you'll probably discover how valuable and pricey they are. Based on your description of your gun, the barrel might be worth more than the pistol, if it is truly an original barrel in nice condition.

There are so few nice, original guns to start with. Then, take into account ho many of those guns have barrels in poor condition. Add in the number of people who swap out barrels in order to boost value to those who can't tell the difference...and it all adds up to why those barrels are so tough to find and so expensive when they are found.

You might want to advertise on the appropriate board here on this site. But keep in mind, anytime you advertise for something, the price typically goes up...and sometimes the fakes abound.

If it were me, I'd just spend my time looking at all the .45s for sale and examining them to see what barrels they had. You might get lucky and get a gun to go with your barrel. Either way, I suspect the price will be about the same. You can probably negotiate better on a gun than you can a rare barrel. Good luck. Beware of fakes.