Colt Government Model Pre-Series 70 BB Marked

Look at the barrel where it meets the bushing and you'll find the detail that puts this Government Model in a small group. It's a "BB" marked gun, the short-lived transitional run Colt built right before the Series 70 launched. Roughly a thousand of these left Hartford carrying the collet-style barrel bushing and the flared, fitted barrel that Colt was testing to tighten lockup and improve accuracy. The BB stamp on the barrel is the tell. Find it, and you've found the bridge between the old pre-70 Government Models and the line that followed.

The pistol carries the full classic dress. Deep Colt blue across the slide and frame, with the bright high polish you'd expect on a commercial gun of this era. The left side of the slide wears the GOVERNMENT MODEL roll mark with the rampant colt and the .45 automatic caliber stamp, all crisp and clean. Up top sit the fixed ramp-style sights, glare proofed in the period correct fashion. The slide serrations are sharp, the hammer is the wide spur pattern, and the grip safety and thumb safety follow standard .45 layout.

The grips are the brown checkered Coltwood panels with the rampant colt medallion set into each side. They show light age but read well against the blue. Chambered in .45 ACP with the 5 inch barrel, it handles exactly the way a Government Model should, balanced and steady through the trigger.

What carries this one past the metal is the paperwork. It comes in the correct walnut grain Colt presentation box with the gold logo, alongside the original Government Model .45 manual and the Colt Industries literature. That kind of complete, period correct package is what separates a shooter from a keeper. For a collector chasing the brief window where Colt was rethinking the 1911, this is the example to hold.