Border patrol revolvers
- Thread starter Lead hammer
- Start date
Chuckbuster
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I think that's a commemorative gun, is it not?
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Dan I am of the belief that the Colt Border Partol and the Colt Trooper were the same gun. Am I right? When I bought my Trooper new, it was $160. This was the gun that made me embrace S&Ws; I couldn't get used to the shape of that Colt's grip.
Boomer, it depends. Colt made two Troopers, first generation which were essentially Colt I frame revolvers (Police Special and Python were the same frame and lockworks; leaf spring, and they are both descendents of the Army and Navy models, on the .41 frame). Later Troopers were the Colt J frame MkIII (came out in '69 I think, but my memory is getting old and foggy), with coil spring lockworks and sintered metal trigger and hammer (a part that commonly breaks). Basically Colt's attempt to build a cheaper revolver to compete with the S&W Highway Patrolman and Model 19/66 (which, because they had less hand fitting then the I frames, were cheaper at the time). The later MkIII models were the ones which Colt marketed as the Border Patrol, and yes, these are a version of the second gen Trooper. Incidentally, that coil spring lockwork "cheap" Colt went on to become the Mk V, which in turn became the King Cobra which when scaled up a tad became the Anaconda. Colt also made a fixed sight version of the MkIII and MkV revolvers called the Lawman. I'm still looking for a MkIII Lawman snubbie, a 2" bbl'ed 357 is a joy to behold. If anyone has one they want to be rid of, drop me a line. - dan
My experience with both (and I have owned a LOT of revolvers) is that Colts don't go out of time any more often (actually probably a little less then all but their N frame competition) then other makes; but there are no good Colt DA revolver pistol smiths in this country to my knowledge. I pretty much just fix my own, since the border got to be such a pita. Some things are difficult to fix, but when I stop chasing trains I hope to spend more time perfecting my small set of skills on them. - dan
highlander
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Newfoundland
I agree.
Our department was equiped with Colt Official Police revolvers, in 38 Special, back in 1979, when I joined. As our officers were not armed at the time, no one was actually issued their own gun. Requalifications were held yearly and our range had 6 of these revolvers set aside for firearms training/requalifications; so basicly, everyone in the department requalified on the same 6 guns on a yearly basis, and had done so for many years. Needless to say, these guns had many, many rounds fired through them.
The range officer at the time told me that, to the best of his knowledge, none of these range guns had ever been for repairs.
Not too shabby for what was an old gun at the time.
Our department was equiped with Colt Official Police revolvers, in 38 Special, back in 1979, when I joined. As our officers were not armed at the time, no one was actually issued their own gun. Requalifications were held yearly and our range had 6 of these revolvers set aside for firearms training/requalifications; so basicly, everyone in the department requalified on the same 6 guns on a yearly basis, and had done so for many years. Needless to say, these guns had many, many rounds fired through them.
The range officer at the time told me that, to the best of his knowledge, none of these range guns had ever been for repairs.
Not too shabby for what was an old gun at the time.
