Elderly Colt

[velocette]

Recently bought a well used old Colt revolver. A Police Positive in .38 caliber (S&W).
Revolver locks up tight, proper cylinder / barrel gap, action is smooth and clean, grips worn but not chipped or broken, finish well worn and shows signs of Bubba attack, side plate screws are undamaged, bore has good sharp rifling and minor pitting near muzzle, Made long before non corrosive primers were available in 1918.
Now trying to figure out what to do with it. A bit too old for regular shooting, too new for black powder shooting and not nice enough for collector status.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

I like it. It has character to it IMO. I would load some lower pressure loads for it. And shoot it now and then.

 

[bannockburn]

velocette

I think CoalCrackerAl has the right idea with light wadcutter loads it should be alright if you shoot it in moderation every now and then.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

The PP action is plenty strong for any factory .38S&W loads. Work up some light loads if you like, but its not really necessary.

I would probably cold-blue it, put it in a nice wood display case with a box of ammo and give it as a birthday or XMAS gift.

 

[Jim Watson]

Cold blue, eww.
Shoot as desired, keep it clean and oily.
Back when BSRs were common and cheap, a gunzine writer applied all the numerical figures of merit to .38 S&W, TKO, Hatcher, others less well known. He concluded that it was as effective (or ineffective) as .380. And there are a lot of people happy with .380s.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Cold blue, eww.
Oil it down and shoot as desired.

Well....for a display gun on a budget, lol.

For what its worth, IME, old Colt metallurgy seems to accept cold blue much better than vintage S&Ws, and is reasonably durable-though not nearly as lustrous as the factory finish, true.

 

[Jim Watson]

I think it looks fine for display or use. Hang it up and make up fables about Grandpaw's adventures with it.

A guy once asked me if I were still interested in his HD that I had admired. I said I was. He said, OK, you can have it as soon as it comes back from rebluing. It returned overbuffed and with a purple side plate, I declined the honor.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

Cold blue takes some practice. I restored an Winchester 60 22. The barrel was pitted on the outside. So sanding it removed what was left of the factory blue. It came out better than some of my earlier restores. The OP'S colt looks cool the way it is.

 

[wcwhitey]

I bet you will find it a great shooter! Enjoy!

 

[Meeks36]

Others might chime in on this one but if you are worried about a kaboom and just have to shoot it. Load some BP rounds up. And make some smoke. Just a thought.

 

[Jim Watson]

Black powder in a 1918 Colt? Ugh.
.38 S&W is loaded no hotter than it ever was.
The internet has put the skeer on everybody.

Got one expert saying to cut book STARTING LOADS by a further 10%.

 

[Monac]

I would shoot this gun as much as I wanted to with factory ammunition. They are well made and durable, and 38 S&W is a mild cartridge. They were made in large numbers, so parts can probably be found if they should be needed. I have owned a lot of old revolvers, and I seldom run into that.

The only reasons I would not shoot it would be if the sights or the grips make it a gun that is not fun to shoot. It may have the early, tiny sights, and those grips are very skimpy. Are useful aftermarket grips available?

I would not really consider using it for defense, unless I had to. There is nothing inherently wrong with 38 S&W, but ammunition with modern expanding bullets is not available. Personally, that is what I want for defensive use. Others feel differently, as hundreds of threads and thousands of posts demonstrate.

 

[Walkalong]

The old .38 S&Ws are fun to shoot.

1941 Official Police .38-200. Beautiful as is.

 

[trackskippy]

My first handgun was a hand me down 1920's era PP in 38 special. It was my moms uncles service revolver. I shot the snot out of it as kid, and a lot of that ammo was USGI 38 special. Gun never had any problems with it.

I have a couple of Smiths and a Enfield in 38/200, which is based on the 38S&W case. The Smiths are marked "38 S&W". 38 S&W isn't a hot round, and the one box of Remington factory ammo I bought, seemed pretty anemic.

I load 38/200, which uses a 200 grain bullet. I load 2.5 grains of Unique, which seems to approximate the factory round, and gives about 600 fps. Its a soft shooter. Dont know how much strain it really puts on the gun compared to a 146 grain bullet you usually see 38 S&W loaded with.

If you're worried, since the 38 S&W uses a .361 bullet, but still usually shoots .357 bullets reasonably well (they tend to shoot a bit low to the sights), I would think if you used a .357 LSWC or LWC, and a midrange load, you'd be fine.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

The one time I reloaded 38 S&W for my No. 2 Mk 1, I found an HBWC over 2.7 grains of Bullseye gave excellent accuracy.

 

[Jonny2guns]

Send it to me, and then you won't have to worry about what to do with it. I will make sure it is loved and taken care of....
Looks like a nice find dude!

 

[Paul R Zartman]

Cold blue, eww

Cold blue, eww?
Cold Blue has come a long way...
Check it out sometime, might surprise ya...

 

[Jim Watson]

Oh I know.
The guy who refurbished my guns after the Incident used cold blue, hot blue, and rust blue. Results are indistinguishable. But his technique is like nothing I have heard of elsewhere. And still requires as much polish and prep as any other method for equal results.

 

[Paul R Zartman]

Oh I know.
The guy who refurbished my guns after the Incident used cold blue, hot blue, and rust blue. Results are indistinguishable. But his technique is like nothing I have heard of elsewhere. And still requires as much polish and prep as any other method for equal results.

Preparation is everything, anything to do with metal or wood...probably should include plastic (or poly) now in days...still don't own a real plastic(poly) gun...well there is that Daisy CO2...... I call it my " AS CLOSE TO A GLOCK I WILL GET" Gun

 

[Monac]

Cold blue, eww?
Cold Blue has come a long way...
Check it out sometime, might surprise ya...

I didn't know that, Paul R Zartman, so I nodded my head at Jim Watson's remark. But what I know about it probably dates back to the 1990's, or maybe the 80's. Is it really worthwhile today?

 

[Paul R Zartman]

I didn't know that, Paul R Zartman, so I nodded my head at Jim Watson's remark. But what I know about it probably dates back to the 1990's, or maybe the 80's. Is it really worthwhile today?

I use brownells cold blue, just as much prep as any blue job, and it turns out great...






This shotgun was a bad situation when I bought it...50 bucks

 

[WestKentucky]

I have been watching guns like that on Gunbroker. I love the guns with character like that. Like a rusty old pickup truck, it looks like it does for a reason, and that reason is that it’s been used as intended. Things like that are a testament to what made America great back when things were built to last and built to be used hard. The only thing that has slowed me down on those is not having my C&R yet… and I don’t have C&R yet because I’m moving in 2 weeks. The PP and OP 32 long and 38sw guns are a bargain for a true Colt.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

I didn't know that, Paul R Zartman, so I nodded my head at Jim Watson's remark. But what I know about it probably dates back to the 1990's, or maybe the 80's. Is it really worthwhile today?

This Police Positive Target in .22WRF was completely stripped, polished, and refinished with Birchwood Casey cold blue, then polished again-

Turned out nicely. Not quite factory, but pretty good all things considered.

 

[J-Bar]

The perfect revolver for gun handling practice. Practice drawing, shooting with your weak hand, etc. Do your best to wear it out rather than putting lots of wear and tear on your carry piece or nicer guns. Most handling skills are transferable from one gun to another, and it won’t take long to acclimate from one to the other. And if you give it another ding while practicing, so what?

 

[Paul7]

Cold blue, eww.
Shoot as desired, keep it clean and oily.
Back when BSRs were common and cheap, a gunzine writer applied all the numerical figures of merit to .38 S&W, TKO, Hatcher, others less well known. He concluded that it was as effective (or ineffective) as .380. And there are a lot of people happy with .380s.

Heck, a .38 Special is about as powerful as a .380.