So I inherited a Colt Detective Special in 32 New Police.

It is a beautiful gun and in awesome shape but in researching it I find it odd.

So looking up the serial number in Colt’s database it tells me it was made in 1977. The weird thing is it has an un-shrouded ejector rod which I found info saying that stopped in 1972.

It also has the oversized grips that cover the front strap which would be from the third series and the 32 NP was not offered in the third series.

I suppose someone could have switched the grips at some point and since they don’t serial them to the gun can’t prove it came that way but it has been in my family since new, don’t believe it was ever fired and think it’s exactly the way it came from Colt.

Anybody have any insight?

Just my own thoughts...

An oddball caliber that they may have made on a special run basis.
And parts that were in inventory.  That would only fit that particular gun.

When assembled out of the inventoried parts.
You can have featured that included all aspects of the run ?

I don't know 😕.

Both Colt & S&W were known to do this very thing.

Can't help you with the different parts not matching up to certain dates on your revolver. I just think it is interesting that Colt called this caliber .32 New Police supposedly because they did not want to put .32 S&W Long on their revolvers.

I guess the old parts laying around thing may make sense.

Say they had some 32 NP frames that were never completed out as they were never popular and then were completed and sold as they had customers and perhaps a Gen 2 feame ends up with a born on date after “production stopped” and was built with the later grips because that’s what was available then.

It’s a cool gun and in very nice shape but probably going to move it along to another collector at some point as I’m downsizing and don’t care for things I can’t or won’t shoot.

Others have done the same. When Glock hit the market with their .40's, they used ".40 Auto" on the barrel hood for caliber marking. Seems like Sig did it as well?

I can't imagine Ford having a model with a "Chevy 350" in the name, so I get why they do this.

Colt threw nothing away.

I can see an old N/S barrel being placed on a newer frame in the midst of the worker strife in that era when Colt was trying to get firearms out to the market.

That’s what’s funny is it is an older frame and barrel with a newer grip and a “born on” date according to Colt that was after they quit making that frame and caliber.

As was mentioned; Colt has done very odd things in the past.   For instance, the last official production of the Woodsman was in 1978.  The last factory Woodsman however rolled out the door in 1992, from the custom shop, of course.

I have a Diamondback the just reads “38 SPECIAL CTG.” so Colt can avoid using S&W’s name.

I have since sold the gun on gunbroker and got a decent price for it but actually forget how much.

The guy who bought it said that his wife was actually going to carry it. I feel better about it in that it would have just sat in my safe but I do kind of miss it. It was a very pretty gun.

Colt never threw anything away- I'm sure they had extra barrels because they didn't sell that many in 32 NP. Fun fact you can bore the cylinders out to accept 32 magnum- the cylinder is plenty strong