questions about colt lightning rifles

[judety]

I've been looking at the colt lightning rifles to purchase and have noticed that some have a, what looks like a slide release on or in the triger guard. They seem to be only on the 38 cal. rifles only, and out of the dozen or so I've seen about half of them have the slot in the trigger guard but the release is missing. Can anyone educate me on these and is the parts just missing on the ones with out the lever. Thanks!!

[Chaffee]

Neither of mine ('93 .38-40 & '98 .22) have anything in the triggergaurd except the trigger and no slots in the gaurd. Same with my repro. Mabey some had what you describe, but I haven't seen them.

[johngross]

From The Colt Rifle 1884-1902, by Ted Tivey (page 15).

"Early production models were fitted with a bolt locking device, which was fitted into the forward curve of the trigger guard and consisted of a flat bar to lock the bolt in the closed position when the rifle or carbine was not in use.

During improvements of the first models to the loading, feeding, and ejection systems, the bolt locking device proved impracticable and was discarded in 1887. Many Lightning models will be found up to approx. 23000 serial number without the bolt lock but the trigger guard will still have the cutout."

John Gross

[judety]

Thank you very much!! Great Help!