Reshaping the hammer and the butt allows the gun to be drawn quickly with little risk of the weapon snagging on clothing. 38 Special Colt Police Positive Special revolver, by shortening the barrel to two inches, shortening the ejector rod, bobbing the hammer spur, rounding the butt, and removing the front half of the trigger guard. John Henry Fitzgerald, an employee of Colt Firearms from 1918 to 1944, first came up the Fitz Special snubnosed revolver concept around the mid 1920s, when he modified a. Īlthough the Detective Special proved to be an instant success when first introduced, lackluster sales saw the elimination of the Detective Special from the product line in 1995. The Detective Special uses a slightly smaller frame than the Colt Official Police or Smith & Wesson Model 10 (K-Frame) revolvers, but is larger than the five-shot Smith & Wesson Model 36/ Model 38/ Model 42 (J-frame) revolvers. 38 Special, considered to be a powerful caliber for a concealable pocket revolver of the day. It was designed from the outset to be chambered for higher-powered cartridges such as the. Introduced in 1927, the Detective Special was the first short-barreled revolver produced with a modern swing-out frame. Made by Colt's Manufacturing Company, this model revolver, as the name "Detective Special" suggests, was intended to be a concealed weapon used by plainclothes police detectives. The Colt Detective Special is a six-shot, carbon steel framed, 2" or 3" barreled, double-action revolver, and the first example of a class of firearms known as "snubnose revolvers". Colt will be able to sell far more of these new revolvers if they’re meant more as a carry piece than a range toy.A Colt Detective Special, Fourth Series, with rubber grips and a shrouded ejector rod But the Python is expensive (these days) for a reason. Yes, we all wanted them to bring back the Python. I think Colt did make the right choice in resurrecting the DS for their re-entry into the double action revolver market. The Detective Special is an old gun, yet it still manages to keep up in this world of wonder pocket pistols due to the demand for small and reliable pistols.
That means you’ll have to adjust your aim if you’re using ammo lighter than 158 grain. And just to make things more interesting, the sights were regulated for the heavier 158 gr slug instead of today’s more common 130 grain slug. If you’re not careful, your knuckles will smack the rear of the trigger guard. The biggest limiting factor is also the primary reason for its existence. Many have jobs where it is quite imperative to carry something as unobtrusive as possible, so a small revolver works perfectly.
COLT AGENT 38 SPECIAL CTG FULL SIZE
You are giving up capacity for it’s small size, but realize not everyone is in the mood to carry a full size service handgun everyday. You can carry more with speedloaders or speedstrips, but stirctly speaking you only have six. If you can accept a few things.įirst off, you only have six rounds. So with such a history, does the handling match up to the hype? Well, yes. Even the French gave their stamp of approval, and issued them to customs agents and border guards. The Royal Hong Kong Police also purchased several, and they served alongside their S&W Model 10s. These were eventually replaced by a licensed SIG P220 from Minebea, though I’m willing to bet there are still quite a few over there gathering dust in the corners of armories. The Japanese military bought many along with several international larger police agencies and those that couldn’t afford the Colt instead bought a clone produced by Miroku. Though popular in the United States, the DS served around the world with law enforcement agencies. The two preferred revolvers of the Royal Hong Kong Police.