All I can say is I have no answer! I will speculate that Colt simply used-up some excess inventory and marked the slides with slanted serrations for use on Government Models. I had never seen this before so you have brought up a good question. The Series '70 GM also had vertical serrations except, of course, for the GCNM.

 

never seen this before so you have brought up a good question.

I think so. Am hoping a Colt Government Model wizard will have an answer.

 

All I can say is all three are Bee-You-Tee-Full!

 

They were surplus AMU slides that Colt used up in their commercial production. Remember they're the company that never threw anything away.

 

Especially as they're round-top / slant cocking serrations.

I'm not so sure they're factory guns given the wide difference in serial numbers, but they might be. Someone could have just liked the look and fitted new-old stock slides.

The slant serrations look was introduced on the Colt commercial (pre- Series 70) National Match in 1956. The Army's first hand-made and rebuild National Match .45s got the slant-grip slides in 1963. The really, REALLY HARD Drake GI-contract National Match replacement slides with slants were made only in 1964.

The Regular Army ended Camp Perry and National Matches military support in 1968 as a result of the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations and the Vietnam ramp-up Slides that typically would have become depot re-build "SA" "T" "NM" pistols were going away.

Colt probably didn't want to be stuck with excess (former contract) parts -- maybe ran a few with what was left since the Army had met its requirement.

The Colt Custom Shop wasn't making National Match pistols with the overhanging Center, Elliason, Triangle, or Bo-Mar rear with a shark-fin front sight, and couldn't sell them to the Army to re-build rack-grade guns used up in combat (they don't match the Army drawing and specifications for rack-grade issue guns, which for a while may have required the part to be made to the Army drawing with the part number engraved, i.e., 7790314).

This GI slide is a TZZ, but other 1960-ish replacement slides were stamped this way:

This is a GI National Match (7791435) slide with slanted cocking serrations. It would have been a NO-GO on a standard (Army) pistol:

Recall the pre-70s National Match and "Series 70 Gold Cup" all have a raised top rib and slide lightening cuts.

I had a gunsmith replace the lightened Series-70 slide on a Gold Cup with a Colt/Drake style GI National Match so I could shoot hardball. I ended giving that one away as a gift.

 

I have a 1965 manufactured pre 70 Government model with the slanted serrations. I treasure this pistol over all the other Government models I have owned including the Mark III National Match, Mark IV National Match, Colt Ace, and various other iterrations of the pistol. I carried a beater that was issued to me while serving in the US Army through 1964. I also currently own a 1965 Colt Python 8” barrel with scope. Sold my 1975 6” Colt Python from the Colt Custom Gunshop ‘Tedford Action’ in 1981.

 

A lot of slant grooves in the 318xxx range. I have one and seen a number of others.

 

My 1965 pre 70 is numbered 298XXX.

 

Americanled, I also have recently bought a 1965 Slant Grooved Government model. It's serial is also in the 298,xxx range. It would be interesting to see how close our numbers are.

When researching it a lot of people were saying they were only in 68 or 69, but I finally found this post and a few other internet sites that showed some from 1965.

My question is are their slides lightened like a National Match? Wouldn't that help confirm the source as "leftover National Match slides reporposed", if they are?

I don't have the gun yet, still being shipped, but trying to buy the right recoil spring to shoot it.

 

It is good to hear that you purchased a rare variation of the Government Model. I’m not certain whether the slide is lightened. I no longer have the Mark III (.38 wad cutter) and Mark IV National Match pistols to compare it against. However, the entire pistol is better finished than most anything manufactured from the series 70 and after.

 

Good to hear about the finish. That is what attracted me to the gun in the first place, in the online photos. Then I noticed something strange...the slanted grooves. It also has a high fixed rear sight, like the old National Match ones of the era.

 

 

When I had purchased the .45, it was factory equipped with the traditional low iron sights. I replaced them with MMC iron sights which were slightly higher but with white outline for better target acquisition.

 

Very nice... thank you for sharing

 

I have a couple of guns built with these slides.

Got the slides from a NG armorer. The gun below was built by Bud Price in the early'80s.