Colt NM 38spl

[Brian James]

I purchased a Colt NM 38spl MK III yesterday evening. Its a 84xx serial number. Its not quite NIB, but not far from it. There is sadly no manual with it. As a result, I have a few questions that I'm hoping people may be able to answer for me.

Are the spring inside the Colt 38 the same as other 1911s (ie sear spring, main spring, recoil spring. - for the main and recoil spring, which weight of springs?). I want to purchase some replacement parts and springs just in case there is a failure in the future.

While the pistol groups quite well, are there some common modifications that shooters do in order to "tighten" up them up? I was thinking a barrel bushing, but I am simply making a guess.

Does anyone know where I can find additional magazines?


Thank you in advance,

Brian

[Bullseye Shooter]

The Colt NM .38 uses most of the same internal parts as the .45. Even the barrel bushing is the same. The firing pin will be slightly smaller but you can substitute a 9mm firing pin if your's breaks. The ejector and extractor will be different but Brownells or Clarks Custom Guns should have parts. The sear spring and sear will be the same as the .45.

Triple-K and High Standard both make replacement magazines for the the .38 Midrange. The HS mags are really nice. They bought the tooling from Colt. I saw some a Perry last year. You can buy the Triple Ks from Gunparts.corp and Champions Choice. They are less expensive but I've had to send two of them back to the factory for repair. I would go with the HS mag even though they cost about $20 more.

The .38 has sort of a floating barrel rather than the top lugged barrel of the .45 Govt Model. You may want to Ransom Rest the pistol before you decide to change out the bushing.

My Clark .38 will shoot a inch and half group at 50 yards out of the Ransom Rest with the std 2.7 Bullseye load and 148 grain Hornady HBWC.

Not sure what recoil spring they use in the .38. A .45 Gold Cup uses a ten pound factory spring. I have to use a 7 pound spring in my Clark. I would guess a nine pound spring would be a good compromise, but maybe somebody out there has replaced a recoil spring in a .38 and can let us know for sure.

[2650 Plus]

Being involved in the USAMU tests of this pistol I can say that we never found one that would shoot as tight a group as the amu accurized 38 supers converted to the 38 special wad cutter. This also applied to the Jim Clark accuracy jobs which were very simular. We did use the colt magazine in the conversions with good sucess. Colt described the gun they made as a delayed blow back dut I have no idea how this was supposed to function. Colt hired George Elliason to try to work out the kinks in their pistol but to my recollection he never achieved any real sucess. George was the man that developed and pattened the Bomar sight. It was also marketed as an Elliason sight before Bomar aquired the pattent. Hope this helps you make a good decision about your purchase. Good Shooting Bill Horton

[Dennis]

The chamber of the Mid Range 38 Spl. 1911's was ribbed.
The brass would expand slightly into the ribs providing a delay in the blowback do to the added grip of the case before it relaxed again.
This also caused a very interesting feel to the recoil.

[Brian James]

I recently purchased a Colt National Match MK III (serial number 84xx)and suspect it will serve me quite well for shooting both ISSF Centre Fire and for NRA bull’s-eye matches. The grip safety bites into me a fair amount, so I have order a drop-in Colt beavertail that I am hoping will alleviate the issue.

I have not had an opportunity yet to test the pistol out to 50 yards, but at 20yards it incredibly accurate. From the research I have done, if the accuracy is not ideal changing the bushing will not likely yield any greater improvements. Is my research correct on “rule of thumb” basis? This research surprised me, because I’ve noted the noticed the bushing to be quite loose. I can move it with my fingers with little effort.

Brian

[sillymike]

I've been using one on and off for a few years, it's a nice (interesting) pistol, but I still prefer the M52

I've found that it works best with Federal brass. And oddly enough, I couldn't find a reliable (accurate) load using Dominion brass (which is my favorite for the M52)... I tried going up/down with the powder charge adding/removing crimp, it just doesn't like Dominion brass.

Wolff Springs website list the factory rating for the Colt .38 Spl. Midrange at 14 Lbs.

If you ever need a replacement barrel, there's one floating around on CanadianGunNutz...