Just before Christmas I picked up an old beater "bubba'd" Colt. Only thing I saw going for it was it was all there, just not in the best of condition AND it had a U.S. frame. Got it for just over 1K.
When I got it in hand I found that while all there, the hammer notches weren't and the barrel had been shortened from the rear so that when cinched into the frame the front sight would have been at approx. 10:30 position. Sad because it was a script address barrel.
Also it is now apparently serial no 1; not bad for a frame that by the inspector markings on it was made in 1890 or '91 and should be in the 138K to 141K range. It started life as a Cavalry model, somewhere became an Artillery model and ended up in the hands of Bubba. After having Dave Lanara take a quick look at it at the OGCA show he thinks the backstrap and triggerguard are from two different Ainsworth era 5 digit Colts now also numbered 1.
I'll post some pics of what it looked like when I got it and a couple of it during it's resurrection, keeping in mind that with the wife out of work I'm just bringing it back to shooting condition at the moment. Full restoration to a Cavalry model will take a while.