That, of course, brings us to this month’s feature website.  Located at http://www.coltautos.com is Sam Lisker’s Colt Automatic Pistols Home Page.  This site is billed as "The Internet Resource for information on pre-war Colt automatic pistols."  And boy, is it full of goodies!

The website itself is set up as a frames page so the only thing you will need to get around properly is a frames capable browser and the URL listed above.  This works out great for me – now I don’t have to type all those http’s throughout the balance of this article!  The next thing I noticed about the site was the background.  The background graphic element is a "Colt Rampant Horse" in blue.  The color and density of this image look great until you plop some text over them.  Then it makes reading the text a bit of a chore.  Personally, I would like to see this background image lightened just a tad or eliminated altogether.  (I really had to get the "background thing" out of the way as it is my only real criticism of this website!)

The following Colt automatic pistols are covered in varying degrees of detail at the coltautos.com website.  The Model 1900, Model 1902 Sporting, Model 1902 Military, Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless, Model 1903 Pocket Hammer, Model 1905 Military, Model 1907 Military, Model 1908 Vest Pocket, Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless, Model 1909, Model 1910, Model 1911, and my favorite, the Model 1911A1.  In addition to these autos there are off-site links provided to both the Colt Woodsman page located at http://www.colt22.com, and Ray Meibaum’s Colt Single Action page located at http://www.coltsaa.com.  Both of these Colt reference websites are very well done and definitely worth a browse.

Several of the Colt Auto Pistols featured at this site are presented with a variety of informational links in place.  The information is logically arranged into four categories:  collector information, disassembly instructions, parts identification and production dates/serialization.

As an example take a look at the information presented on the Colt Model N 1908 Vest Pocket hammerless .25 ACP.  The opening page shows a nice black & white photo of the gun.  In fact there are several B&W images used throughout this site.  Personally, I like the retro B&W look.  It makes the details stand out and provides compact image file sizes for speedy downloads.  Along the top of the page are links to the balance of the reference material.  This particular gun has each of the four category links in place. (Not all guns at this site are covered with this great detail.)  For more information about what is contained in each section, read no.

The Collectors Information Section for the Colt Model N 1908 vest Pocket Hammerless is one of the most comprehensive on the website.  Based upon the scope of this information, I would guess that Sam was heavily involved collecting this particular model Colt.  There are pictures of factory cutaway guns, cased pairs, engraving patterns, finishes & inlays (color photos), grip variations, mechanical variations, pre- vs post-war comparisons.  Each graphic element is followed by a complete text description of the features to look for.  Basically, you get a "Monarch Notes" version of Mr. Lisker’s Colt collecting expertise and experiences.

The Disassembly Instruction Section for this gun is pretty self-explanatory.  No big surprises, just a nice illustration and some verbiage.  Read it once, and you should have no trouble dismembering the little pocket pistol.  I suggest you try it blindfolded just for fun.

The Parts Identification section contains both a complete parts diagram/exploded view and a parts listing.  In addition, Mr. Lisker indicates he may be in a position to supply parts for this gun and that you can e-mail him directly at slisker@coltautos.com for a listing of his current parts inventory.

The Production Information section contains both year made and serialization data in a tabular format.  This should be good enough for most people.  However, there is also a link on the main site menu that gives the current contact for factory research and letters at Colt.  Please be sure to review the Colt historical record request information page as there are charges associated with researching a particular gun.

In addition to the information presented at the site, you have the opportunity to shop for and purchase books directly through Coltautos.com.  Well maybe not directly…it appears that Mr. Lisker has set up a strategic alliance with the web-based bookseller Amazon.com.  For those of you not familiar with Amazon.com, you should make a point of checking them out.  They are huge and they grow bigger every day by soliciting specialty internet sites to run books for them at a discount in exchange for a percentage of sales.  This is certainly a worthwhile arrangement for a small specialty site like coltautos.com,  Just think, instant access to published products and big company buying power without any investment in infrastructure.  What a great concept…a simple exchange of web-space for a pain-free revenue stream.

To sum up the Colt Automatic Pistols Home Page, I would have to say…Instant Education!  If you missed the course on Colt Auto Pistols, then this is the next best thing.  This site is a wonderful resource for pre-war Colt Auto information.
 

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