This Old Gun: Colt Detective Special

[1ABNDT]

https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/this-old-gun-colt-detective-special/

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The 2” barreled Colt Detective Special double- and single-action revolver, based off the Police Positive Special, is one of the many classic wheel guns to come from the Hartford, Conn. based manufacturer. First introduced in 1927, it was intended to be used by plain-clothes detectives as a small revolver that was easily hidden while still packing a punch. It’s key features are it’s 2” barrel chambered for .38 Spl. with a six round capacity cylinder.

A chart showing the ballistic differences between the .32 New Police and .38 Spl. cartridges.

Since the release of the .38 Spl. in 1899, it became widely popular cartridge especially for the police market. As a result of the .38 Spl. cartridges’ popularity, the revolver market began to shift away from the older .32 New Police cartridge, which the Colt Detective Special was also chambered for in the beginning of its production run. The .38 Spl. chambering meant that the revolver's design required a longer cylinder and frame to handle the more powerful cartridge.

The Colt Police Positive Special, off of which the Colt Detective Special was designed.

Colt accommodated these needs through the larger Colt Police Positive Special revolver at first, before adapting the design in a smaller size which resulted in the Colt Detective Special. The Colt Detective Special became a favorite carry option for law enforcement as well as armed citizens. The small size made it easily concealable and comfortable to carry while offering the power of the .38 Spl. chambering.

A diagram illustrating the difference between the "square butt" and "round butt" versions of the Colt Detective Special.

By 1932, the design of the Colt Detective Special changed from a "square butt" to a "round butt", making the older "square butt" versions highly collectable. Many carried an example of a Colt Detective Special, including NRA Life Member Charles Lindbergh, who owned a “Fitz Conversion” of the revolver. The “Fitz Conversion,” named after long time Colt employee Jay Henry Fitzgerald, featured some forward-thinking self defense modifications to the Colt Detective Special design including an opened-up trigger guard and a bobbed hammer.

An example of a "Fitz Conversion" Colt Detective Special.

It is though that no more than 100 “Ftiz Conversion” variants of the Colt Detective Special were made. The U.S. Army acquired roughly 5,000 "square butt" Detective Specials for use during World War II, with nearly 3,000 of them sent to the O.S.S. The first issue of the Colt Detective Special ran from 1927 to 1946. The second issue, which featured a 0.8” deeper frame, ran from 1947 to 1972.

The five-shot Smith & Wesson Chief Special, the main competitor against the Colt Detective Special.

In 1966, the Colt Detective Special design had extended wrap-around grips added, offering more controllability to the small revolver. The third issue, featuring a shrouded ejector rod, ran from 1973 to 1986. Throughout its time on the market, the Colt Detective Special competed directly against the Smith & Wesson Chief Special. The Chief Special was another pocket sized revolver built on a slightly smaller frame.

An original catalog listing for the Colt Detective Special.

Due to the slightly smaller frame design of the Smith & Wesson Chief Special, it had a slimmer profile and was more concealable than the larger Colt Detective Special. However, the smaller size also meant that the Chief Special had a smaller cylinder capacity of five rounds compared to the Detective Special’s capacity of six rounds. Colt later brought the Detective Special line back into production from 1993 to 1996, known as the fourth issue to collectors.

The current manufacture Colt Cobra incorporates many of the features from the classic Colt Detective Special.

The fourth issue was not the end of the Detective Special line, as its design elements were worked into a new model, the SF-VI, which was a transfer-bar safety equipped revolver. That design eventually transitioned into the DS-2, made from 1997 to 1998 chambered in either .38 Spl. or .357 Mag. The current Colt Cobra, which was introduced in 2017, is the most recent evolution of that design. For more information on the current Colt Cobra revolver, visit colt.com.

 

[pirate604]

Cool article. Thanks for sharing.

 

[NAA]

I've had both a Colt Cobra & S&W M37 [airweight version of the Chief's Special]. Kept the S&W.

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NAA.

 

[Twisted Canuck]

I'd love to have either the chief's or detective. Such a handy little gun, and with +P and 158 gr hollowpoints, I'm sure it is adequate.

I've got a Police Positive in .38 S&W, with a 6" barrel, and it's a nice shooter. But I think I can throw a rock almost as hard as it shoots.

 

[Master-G]

I’ve got one of the third issue models. It’s great fun to shoot and surprisingly accurate, too. I’m certainly no expert at long-range shooting, but I tried mine prone at 50m once just for fun and put all six rounds in the scoring rings of a PPC target.

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[tobin]

I've had both a Colt Cobra & S&W M37 [airweight version of the Chief's Special]. Kept the S&W.

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NAA.

I had 2 #### Specials and they both went out of time. My buddy had the same thing happen to his. Went to S&W and never looked back.

 

[calmex]

I certainly covet a Detective Special although I have never owned one. I have fired several and although I prefer the S&W action by far, the additional shot is nothing to sneer at in a self-defence scenario. In Mexico, I actually carry a snubby almost 100% of the time and nearly always in a pocket holster. This allows one to walk down the street with an untucked shirt and have one's hands in the two front pockets with the thumbs out and simply appear to passersby like a silly gringo out on the town slumming it. However, the right-hand fingers can actually be wrapped around the grip, ready for an instant draw. If a van suddenly pulls up beside you, the sliding door opening while you are grabbed from behind, you can still draw and shoot the person behind you in the groin and then address the others. Only if they taze you do they get you and since nothing in life is certain, one has to just live with the odds.

That extra shot is important, you just very well may need it. Also, 100% concealment is necessary because nobody is going to give you a permit to walk around armed and since life is uncertain, one should eat dessert first and carry a snubby. And the Colt Detective Special is just concealable enough for pocket carry. I borrowed my brother-in-law's 2nd issue (exposed extractor rod) at a party once in Salamanca -- just because I could -- and traded him my S&W Model 49 Bodyguard for the afternoon and walked around with the DS in my Bianchi Pistol Pocket holster. With the standard 2-panel wooden grip of that series, it works well enough. Any type of add-on rubber grip (there is no Pachmayr Compac Professional grip for the DS) makes the gun too big for pocket carry. What good is that? Any self-respecting S.S. Goon Squad will potentially gun you down without asking questions first when they spot you walking about armed while you are shopping for groceries in the Mega. That totally defeats the purpose of a well-hidden snubby, and let's remember: in MOST of the World, nobody is going to give you a permit to walk about armed. YOU have to give yourself the right to do it and if the rest of the society around you disagrees, best keep it to yourself and keep the gun well hidden. So far, fortunately, Canada hasn't become violent enough to make it necessary to worry about such things. Yet, anyways.

The later versions of the DS with the shrouded extractor rod and bulky rubber grips seem to me a bit big for pocket carry. It's almost as if the gun was redesigned to make it more comfortable to shoot at the expense of concealability. Well, Jeff Cooper once opined that "the Indians do the scalping but the Chief's order the scalping knives" and probably it was a management decision to go down that road although I personally feel that the gun needs to be concealable first and comfortable to shoot second. We try to make the snubbies as comfortable to shoot as possible, of course -- without sacrificing concealability.

In Mexican pistol competition, we do have "snubby courses" and we have two specific classes which are "Snubby" and "Super Snubby". We have boxes we made up with lids that close and latch. The Snubby box fits just about perfectly an earlier Colt DS series gun with the standard wood grip and grip adapter -- either Pachmayr or Tyler-T. Trying to close the box on a DS with the larger Pachmayr rubber wrap-around will fail, pushing you up into the Super Snubby category to compete with the 2-inch Model 10's and 15's and the even larger Model 19/66/686 2.5 inch snubs. 3 inch Model 10's or 19's or 686 guns are too big for the Super Snubby box and fall into the Duty Gun category, as do 3.5 inch N-frames. 3 inch J-frames are Super Snubbies. The box system is not perfect, but it does ensure that anyone shooting in the Snubby event is using something small enough to carry it concealed in an environment where you must really be concealed. Everybody always wants to "game" the system in competition, but the snubby boxes pretty much draw a line on that.

I would love to see Colt come out with a new Detective Special. They can keep the shroud if they want -- I think it's a good thing as bent extractor rods can tie up the gun -- but go back to the 1973 era shroud instead of the big honking shroud they were using at the end there. And get the grip back down to Snubby size, not belt-holster-duty-gun size. Or even just come out with a Stainless 2nd Model with an updated action. I'd sure want one.

As it is, I guess I'll just have to try to find myself an older one and hope to heck that the Custom Shop boys in Queretero can keep it up and running. And of course, I always live in hopes that Mexico will go back to being more peaceful and safe so that one doesn't have to worry about such things as snubby concealability. But it is what it is.

This Mini-Glock is concealable but I don't think I'd carry it in my pocket.

This 2nd Model Colt DS is just barely pocketable, and it's bigger - although not really wider - than the Mini-Glock.

The Bodyguard with the bigger rubber grip is comfortable to shoot, and will just barely fit in the Snubby box. The Compac Professional grip would be better for actual concealment use.

Even so, the bigger rubber grip doesn't show too badly in pockets that are deep enough. I always bought two types of pants: deep pocket for deep concealment and somewhat shallower pockets for a lesser concealment but a quicker draw. On days when I knew I would pass the whole day in my Ice Cream Store I opted for shallower pocket jeans because if I had to draw, my hands would probably be not near the gun and I needed a quicker access and anyway, the untucked shirt would do inside my own store. On days when I'd knew I'd often be on the street, I wanted deeper pockets for better concealment and I'd probably be drawing from the "pocket pool position" and so I dressed accordingly.

My ideal to date is this Model 49 with a Tyler-T in the Bianchi holster.

In shallow pocket jeans, the butt is barely visible but quicker to grab if your hands are away from it. I wore this type of jean only when I knew I'd be mostly in the store and not wandering the street, going bank-to-bank or office-to-office or to City Hall. For those missions, the deeper pocket jeans were preferred and I shopped accordingly. In the local San Miguel Mega Comercial, almost exclusively.

No matter which jeans you use, the untucked shirt covers a lot of print. And if the shirts are pink or somewhat fey, who cares? You're not trying to impress, you're trying to convince the world you're not the threat they are looking for.

 

[Hoss274]

A great "I remember when" post.
snubbies - loved them
Owned a few in my day but sold them as fast as I bought them so no 12.6.
Now they're denied to most of us post c68.

 

[CGS]

I've had both a Colt Cobra & S&W M37 [airweight version of the Chief's Special]. Kept the S&W.

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NAA.

I did the opposite.

I've bought and sold a lot of guns over the years but I still got the ####'s special.

 

[Rod]

I have 3 Police Positives in 38 spec: a 1920's 6", an early 1950's 4" and an early 1950's 2". . The Det Special is a special little gun that holds 6 rds of 38 spec and such a nice gun to hold and shoot.

 

[calmex]

Those all look like they'd be a lot of fun to shoot, Rod.

 

[highlander]

I still have my #### Special also.

The big advantage over the Smiths, besides the sixth round, was that you could, in a pinch, shoot Plus P ammo out of them.

I certainly wouldn't try that in a similar Smith.

 

[maxman1]

It would be great if Colt reintroduced the Fourth Issue of the Police Positive Special, and the Trooper Mk. III, since those would be a simple matter of installing a different barrel on the Cobra and King Cobra.