| One of the vivid
memories from my childhood was watching my Dad get-
ting dressed for work. My earliest recollection is of
a large man in a medium blue shirt with a badge and a
row of shiny buttons. I had the special job of making
sure his shoes were shined and ready to meet his
approval. "Getting with the program," Dad
called it. As time passed, he got a promotion to
Detective, and with it the bland (in my opinion)
plain-clothes uniform. I still got to shine his shoes,
which was OK but the cool part for a IO-year-old kid
was Dad's new addendum to his wardrobe. The new gear
was a nickel-plated 2-inched barreled Colt Detective
Special. Dressed with mother of pearl stocks, the
2-inch revolver was carried in Dad's left front
pocket, and his Stag handled 4-inch Colt Official
Police rode on his right hip. Handcuffs were carried
tucked in the rear behind his belt and a really large
switchblade was placed in his right front pocket. He
has passed on now, and I have the Stag handled
Official Police as well his badge and hand- cuffs. The
nickeled Detective Special went by the wayside after
his retirement and, although I never thought to ask of
it, I also never forgot the shiny pocket gun.
In retrospect, I guess many a
cop kid's fathers have carried similar revolvers
simply because the double-action Colt revolver has
long served the long arm of law and order.
Colt has made many types of
revolvers over the years, but the family of small,
solid frame, simultaneous ejection swing-out cylinder
revolvers known as the Detective Special, the Cobra
and the Agent were among the most popular revolvers
Colt ever made.
They are no longer made, but
when found, are still very functional handguns for
personal defense. Small of size, sights and caliber,
they can to be used effectively by competent, range-
practicing owners. The inherent accuracy of these
revolvers is remarkably good considering their short
2-inch barrels, especially when used with good
ammunition. Mechanically, as a family of weapons, they
are strong and very well made; reflecting an era when
Colt was truly building guns not arguing with unions
and such rubbish.
The Cop's Gun
The Detective Special traces its
lineage to the Colt Police Positive Special. The all-
steel snub nose version weighs in at 25 ounces and
holds six rounds of .38 Special ammunition. The steel
frame adds to the weight, but the reward is an
increase in durability over the life of the revolver.
Additionally, the steel frame and extra weight come in
handy in the era of +P ammunition and the hotter loads
often carried for self-defense. The cylinder rotates
counter clockwise and is the opposite of Colt's
nemesis Smith & Wesson. The original factory blue
is excellent and fit and finish are from the good old
days and well done. The warm wood stocks are finely
checkered and well fit and the silver rampant colt
medallions are symbols of an era when all who made
handguns looked with envy upon the rearing pony logo.
They are truly nice old handguns.
The Snake Gun
The mechanics of the Colt Cobra
are the same as the Detective Special, but the Cobra
brought a new angle into play and has an alloy frame.
The cylinder, barrel and internals are made of steel,
and the whole package weighs a nominal 18 ounces. The
long stock tang provides a reasonable gripping area
that is helpful to those with large hands when the
cylinders are fueled with +P ammunition. The regular
bark of the short barrel is accompanied by more
noticeable jump with the weigh reduction.
The Cobra life span would
probably be less than a full steel gun but the
advantages of weight reduction for concealed or
second- gun carry often outweigh longevity in this
type of revolver, which is generally carried more
often than it is shot.
The Spy Gun
The Colt Agent is the smallest Colt package of this
series of concealed carry revolvers. The Agent has an
alloy frame and has the cut down frame in the grip
area to make it even more concealable than its
relatives. Carried as a second or third gun it is a
deep concealment piece often carried in an ankle
holster or coat pocket. Weighing 18 ounces, the six
shot wheel gun can be a handful when using +P
ammunition. I found an old Agent that was pretty beat
up and included a cocked barrel in the frame. I sent
this wag beater to Bill Laughridge of Cylinder and
Slide, who turned it into a true custom updated
self-defense gun. Laughridge and the C&S guys
retimed the cylinder, did what they call a standard
action job that I would call just short of a magic
trick. Not being much of a magic man, I've shot the
gun a lot since, and even with the significantly
lighter double-action trigger, the revolver has
functioned flawlessly. At my request a nice touch of
the C&S gang was the installation of a hammer
shroud which pretty much snag-proofed the small cannon
as it comes out of the pocket. When I got it back the
sights were reset and straight, the barrel was crowned
smoothly at 11 degrees. With a final coating of
Black-T it makes a great concealment package for
long-term carry and use.
It might cross your mind that
this revolver could be considered expensive by some
people's standards in this custom configuration. If I
ever need to use this gun to defend myself, what I
paid for it will be insignificant.
In the '70s, the old Colt format
was replaced with a new model, which had a covered
ejector rod, and larger stocks but even the new models
couldn't survive, and they regretfully went under the
bow of the boat.
In a world of scandium, titanium
and florescent sighted eight-shot hand cannons, these
old Colts seem to be archaic old war-horses. Then
again, they are in fact the precursors to all of the
technology we see today in the world of concealable
handguns. Still often seen at gun shows and on the
bottom shelves at the local gun stores, they are often
passed over by the uninformed. These old Colts are
still excellent tools for self-defense and truly
deserve a second look. Many a bad guy has looked down
the barrel of one of these little wheel
guns, and more than one has gotten a dose of behavior
modification by one of these three guns bearing the
rampant pony etched on the side plate.
If one needed a personal defense
tool, the wise would do well to look at these old
guardians of law, order and personal defense. |
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