Pistol_purview

This all chrome 80 series Colt in .45 ACP was built by Rich Stoddard as his personal carry gun. This pistol was purchased from his estate after he died in 2018. The gun was built in 1991 and features hand checkering, Barsto NM barrel, Ed Brown hammer and thumb safety, lowered and flared port, S&A grip safety, reliability tune, deluxe trigger job, and hand filed magwell opening. One of the best gunsmiths in the country made it to protect his life, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know. To honor the man, it is now shod in its forever grips—double diamond hand checkered cocobolo by Craig Spegel. Stoddard entered the military out of high school and served in Southeast Asia. Upon completion of his military service, he attended and graduated from the Colorado School of Trades. He subsequently worked at Colt from 1974-2012 as a master pistolsmith. For those of you who are bad at math, that’s 38 years. He was responsible for making special order guns, primarily the “O frame” 1911’s. He also built many prototypes and show guns. He was fortunate to learn a great deal from the old school gunsmiths, many of which had worked at Colt in the 50’s and 60s.