A couple of points about 83s. Willian Mason did patent the action. He is truly an unsung genius in the firearms field having also designed and patented the Colt swing out revolver cylinder; a design that was so good it's virtually unchanged today. I had an 83 at one time that I bought at a flea market for almost nothing. It had a split in the left barrel about 14" ahead of the standing breech. I sold the gun off for parts many years ago.
I'm doing this from memory but I believe that Colt made less than 8000 83's and their serial number records are complete for this model. I believe there are also groups of numbers that apparentely were never used. Colts letters have become progressively more expensive and the last time I talked to the Historian I stated that they are now making more money from the letters than they did on the original sale of the gun!
Jim
