Posted: 12/28/2006 11:14:42 AM EDT
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A coworker of mine sold me a Offical Police .38 special.serial#4803**.The pistol has a 3" barrel & ugly brown plastic grips with the Colt pony logo on them.(I've never seen the brown ones before).the finish is around 60%,Lots of bluing missing on the strap area,barrel's muzzle & side from holster use. the cylinder is showing light pitting.It(cylinder) also has a place on it where,it appears to have been dropped or struck with something & dented,not very big, but things such as this -bothers me. Other than that.It is very tight,screws look untouched.timing is good & the bore looks great-no pitting. My question is, would I hurt the value, if I have it reblued ? I'm not a collector of old firearms & would trade it,since it's a .38.But need to know-Leave it as is or to reblue it. Sorry about the long read - For the question. & Thank's in advance !!! jimmo |
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There's a problem; Number 4803** is not an Official Police range serial number, it's an Army Special number. That serial dates to 1922. The year started at 466000, and ended at 501999. The Colt Army Special was made from 1908 to 1927. Since the Army never bought the gun, in 1927 Colt re-named it as the Official Police and made it until 1969. Since the Army Special and Official Police are the exact same gun with different names, parts are 100% interchangeable. It's not uncommon to find Official Police barrels installed on Army Specials, or Army Specials on Official Police models. As an addition problem, neither the Army Special or the Official Police was made with a 3" inch barrel. To be sure, measure the barrel from the front face of the cylinder to the muzzle. If the barrel is actually 3" inches, it's been cut down. The brown plastic grips were used by Colt during WWII and after the war up until the early 1950's. These were called "Coltwood" by Colt and were some type of early plastic. The grips tend to shrink and crack. In the condition you describe, and re-barreled with the wrong barrel, there's no collector value at all, so re-bluing will have no effect on value...... Have at it. |
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Thankyou for your information.& Yes I stand corrected on the barrel.In my haste to measure,then post.I took the measurement,from the front of the frame vs. measuring,behind the entire front frame section.And it does indeed have a 4" Barrel. In my hands now,I can only imagine the stories this old piece could tell,if only she could speak.& for some reason, I think of the hand gun & the one bullet that Barney carried,when I look at it....yeah,I know.I'm wierd.  jimmo |
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Colt actually invented the swing-out cylinder, double action revolver in 1889, and that early gun went through a number of changes to refine the design. Finally, in 1908 Colt got it completely perfected with the Army Special. The Army Special is the direct ancestor of every Colt that followed, right up to the Colt Python. The design changed so little over the years, you can take many parts from a 1908 Army Special and install them in a 2003 Colt Python. The Army Special was Colt's mid-frame revolver design right up until most of the old style action guns were discontinued in 1969. Among the Army Special-based revolvers, were: Official Police. Officer's Model target guns. The Colt 357. Original Trooper. Python. So, the Army Special is a historic revolver that gave birth to a lot of later Colt's, and in the Official Police was THE "official" police revolver right up to the mid-1960's. |
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dfariswheel-A Big Thankyou to you Sir.Lot's of good information on the early Colt revolvers. I've decided to have the pistol refinshed.Bluing would be correct for this model.Somewhere I saw of a pic of the Army Special - It's finish seemed to be a Mat or phos/ park. I'm going to ask for a light grey park. I'll try and post the final pics when the work is done.Give me a few weeks. jimmo |