After years of my subversive hints he finally decided to consider letting me own it and I jumped at the chance. I had it for about a year and really liked it. Lately I have been leaning toward carrying a 9mm and I started looking at the BHP with that in mind. The trigger was really too light for carry so I had my trusted local gunsmith raise it to 4.5 pounds. To my horror, I discovered that its previous 3.5 pound trigger pull was a major reason I felt I could drive tacks with it, so I had the trigger weight returned to 3.5 pounds and it was back to the drawing board.

About this time I was mulling over finding a lightweight Colt Commander, thinking yeah, good luck with that. Then Harvey mentioned something about taking his Colt lightweight Commander to a gun show to sell it. If I remember correctly the gun show either didn't happen because of the Coronapocalypse or something, or Harvey couldn't attend it for some reason. I dug through the forum photos and found a picture of Harvey's Commander and my brain locked onto it and started flooding my system with "want-it" pulses. After my beating around the bush on the subject of wanting it, Harvey said he'd consider trading the Commander for his old BHP. I confess I had reservations about not owning a BHP again - not losing just "a" BHP but the one of my dreams - but the devil on my other shoulder reminded me I was really a 1911 guy and I would be an idiot not to jump at the chance for this swap. I did an Internet search to see how many Colt lightweight Commanders were out there and found none. One thing led to another and after a Keystone Cops approved exchange logistics experience, the swap was done.

The Peoples Republik of Washington let me pick it up and take it home just a week or so ago and I have yet to get it to the range. My plans are to shoot pictures of it in its pristine box-stock configuration, and then shoot it and modify it as necessary. I'm hoping the milder 9mm recoil will let me get by with the original parts, but Colts of that era had dismal, semi-invisible sights and heavy triggers, so only shooting it will tell. It's possible that it will end up with a flat mainspring housing, a drop-in semi beavertail grip safety, white-dot sights, and a trigger job. It being a Series 70 gun without the firing pin block, I will also add a titanium firing pin with an extra power firing pin spring. I'd rather not do any refinishing so I will check first for white dot sights that can be swapped with the existing sights without any metal work. I'd rather keep it as original as possible...

So, we'll see how it goes from here.