Can you identify this pistol?

[Zee09]

Prewar 30s CW...

The black at the rear sight -slide and the coloring is close and the barrel diameter could have been diminished as old cameras do...

 

[DuckRyder]

Colt Pistols and Revolvers for Firearms Collectors - Pre-Woodsman and Woodsman Models - Collector's Information

Colt Automatic Pistols is dedicated to collectors and enthusiasts of military and commercial Colt pistols, Colt revolvers, Colt firearms and accessories.

w.coltautos.com

I think it could be a pre woodsman, the barrel isn't quite right. Cant find a short "Pencil Barrel" but if i could i bet it would look like that.

The picture gets very grainy if you zoom it, but you can clearly see the slide/barrel parting line its something in the Colt Woodsman / High Standard vein. It its a colt it might be a high polish blue (aka royal blue) which could appear silver in the right lighting.

It's not a P38 the top of the slide and the area around the barrel is all wrong for that, plus the aforementioned parting line. Its also not a Luger (not even close) and not a PPK/PPKs with a long barrel.

Guarantee it is a High Standard or Colt Woodsman or clone...

 

[Zee09]

Colt Pistols and Revolvers for Firearms Collectors - Pre-Woodsman and Woodsman Models - Collector's Information

Colt Automatic Pistols is dedicated to collectors and enthusiasts of military and commercial Colt pistols, Colt revolvers, Colt firearms and accessories.

w.coltautos.com

I think it could be a pre woodsman, the barrel isn't quite right. Cant find a short "Pencil Barrel" but if i could i bet it would look like that.

The picture gets very grainy if you zoom it, but you can clearly see the slide/barrel parting line its something in the Colt Woodsman / High Standard vein. It its a colt it might be a high polish blue (aka royal blue) which could appear silver in the right lighting.

It's not a P38 the top of the slide and the area around the barrel is all wrong for that, plus the aforementioned parting line. Its also not a Luger (not even close) and not a PPK/PPKs with a long barrel.

Guarantee it is a High Standard or Colt Woodsman or clone...

And it could be a Colt Huntsman or Colt Challenger ..
Often not known but early guns that looked the same as the Woodsman.

 

[DuckRyder]

And it could be a Colt Huntsman or Colt Challenger ..
Often not known but early guns that looked the same as the Woodsman.

Both of these have slanted serrations and more of them IIRC...

 

[Zee09]

Both of these have slanted serrations and more of them IIRC...

But his finger is hiding most of that area and it appears the camera is flashing his finger color onto the rear of the pistol.
The required details just aren't there.

 

[k1xv]

If he was shooting porcupines, it was a .22, not a 9 mm.

I say a Colt Woodsman. Guesstimated year of the photo 1955 puts it squarely in the Woodsman popularity zone.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Prewar 30s CW...

The black at the rear sight -slide and the coloring is close and the barrel diameter could have been diminished as old cameras do...

Think this is the closest match ... key being the wide front sight blade. The rear sight and slide serrations look close too.

 

[Ausfahrt]

Thanks to everyone who chimed in here, I really appreciate it. I think that it's been narrowed down to a Woodsman or a Hi-Standard and those pistols are very similar.

I spoke with my Dad yesterday and although he still doesn't remember the pistol, he says that the photo was taken the summer of '54 when he was 19 and in forestry school and spent the summer manning fire watch towers in Idaho.

In another blast from the past this photo was taken when Dad and the other guys were headed back home in the late summer of '54. Dad took the pic so he's not in it and he says most of the guys were from the east coast and they dropped him off in Missouri on the way back.

 

[leadcounsel]

Prewar 30s CW...

The black at the rear sight -slide and the coloring is close and the barrel diameter could have been diminished as old cameras do...

View attachment 149099

Having carefully looked at it again, I think this is the closest and most likely caliber/gun match to the picture. It would make sense for a young man to have a .22 for small game hunting, not a 9mm as I had considered earlier. The gun outline very closely matches this, especially the vertical line barely visible right in front of the extractor.

As for the odd lighting, as others have stated, sometimes a deep bluing can look gray or silvery in certain lighting, and the angle of the lighting could make the serrations look the correct/original blued/black. It's quite likely the sun is making the gun look stainless, but the serrations and rear sight look black (correct). The barrel, the rounded trigger, the straight receiver, and lack of an obvious exposed hammer, contour where the frame meets the barrel, the contour of the rear slide area... identical as best I can tell.

I think this (or a close variant) is almost certainly the gun in the photo.

 

[2005jettatdi]

maybe a Luger.

Absolutely not a Luger. At first glance, I was thinking P-38, but did not feel good about that analysis. Others nailed it nicely as a Woodsman or varient.

As to the porcupines, when I took my firearms safety class in 1968, walking by myself with my new shotgun to the local junior highschool, we were taught to shoot porcupines to save trees. We were told they rub against young trees and take the bark off.

 

[853okg]

I concur with the Woodsman guess. I own a NIB High Standard and a Luger and it’s neither of those. The Woodsman is one of the finest pistols ever made and I’d love to own one. It’s funny what can imprint on your psyche but ever since I read a great pulp book called The Name of the Game is Death (Dan J. Marlowe) I’ve been enamored.
That, by the way, is an awesome photo. For one thing it looks so modern. The guy looks like a model. Yet at the same time it’s so classic. Just a great pic, and treasure your old man while you can. My Dad was about the same age and would have been in the USMC infantry at the time, not long back from Korea and not too long until Cuba and then Vietnam. I lost him in 95 and miss him every day.

 

[Aredeeem]

Boy, regardless of the pistol, the ultimate enemy is Father Time. I wish you and your Dad fighting against it as long as you can.