Help with Colt DA Identity

[old colt fan]

I recently purchased an early Colt DA that has me a little confused. The early double actions changed so much so fast after the 1892 that I'm having a little trouble pinning down the model identification of the following revolver. It's a very early DA marked with the typical Colt info on the top of the barrel with the following patent dates: Aug 5th, 1884, Nov 6, 1888, March 5th, 1895, April 5th 1901. On the side of the barrel it says Officer Model DA .38. The serial number is 265336. It also has the number 407 stamped on the frame below the serial number. The cool thing is this one has the double locking system and the cylinder rotates counter clockwise. The gun is in excellant shape with very little evidence of use. Bore is perfect. The grips are walnut with checkering but no colt medallion. The grips are perfect with very little wear. It has a partrige type front sight and the receiver is flat topped with a rear sight that is adjustable for windage. It has a six inch tappered barrel. The Colt Horse is placed at the extreme edge of the fram just above the girps. Is it .38 Long Colt or .38 Special. The previous owner says he has shot mild .38 special's with it. The gun is tight and has niter blue screws and hammer/trigger. What do I have??????

 

[Old Fuff]

You have the target version of the 1892 Army/Navy .38 service revolver, which are hard to find. It can be identified by the flat topstrap and (windage) adjustable rear sight. The front sight should be adjustable for elevation. I suspect that the checkered walnut stocks are original to the revolver, but check and see if they are serial numbered to the gun on the underside.

It is probably chambered in .38 Long Colt. You can check and see by looking down a chamber to see if it's bored straight through without a shoulder toward the front.

DO NOT FIRE ANY .38 SPECIAL AMMUNITION IN IT EXCEPT 148-GRAIN MIDRANGE WADCUTTER LOADS, AS THEY CLOSELY APPROXIMATE THE .38 LONG COLT. .38 Long Colt ammunition is available, but usually expensive.

It was made during 1906.

 

[old colt fan]

Thanks Old Fuff

Thank you Sir,
The person I bought it from didn't know what it was and I'm not real good with the early DA's. I appreciate your advice on the ammo. I'll stay completely away from the .38 special. What a great forum with nice folks like you. Have a great weekend.

 

[old colt fan]

Bored straight through

Old Fuff,
I forgot to ask. You mean if it's bored straight through without a ring at the end of the cylinder it is .38 LC. Right?

 

[Old Fuff]

Since your revolver was made in 1906 it could in theory be chambered in .38 Long Colt or .38 Special. But the .38 Special was developed by Smith & Wesson, and Colt wasn't about to stamp anything on their revolvers that was associated with "that other company." But never-the-less they did chamber some late production 1892 series revolvers in .38 Special. I know because I have one.

The .38 Special chamber has a shoulder just in front of the case. When you look through the chamber this shoulder casts a shadow, and it appears as a dark ring about 3/4 of the way when looking from the back.

The .38 Long Colt chamber is bored straight through, without a shoulder, so you shouldn't see any ring.

In any case, keep in mind that the revolver is over 100 years old. Cylinders were not heat treated, and while early smokeless powder cartridges were being marketed, so were those still loaded with black powder. That said, a .38 Special load that duplicates the .38 Long Colt should be safe, and is generally more available, and less expensive then the Colt cartridge.

Because there is no shoulder in the chambers of those made to use .38 Long Colt cartridges, most any .38 Special - and some .357 Magnum rounds - will fit. For obvious reasons they shouldn't be used or fired, except for the one I recommended.

 

[old colt fan]

In your dept

Thank you again. I have a feeling I will be bothering you a lot in the future.

 

[Old Fuff]

There aren't a whole lot of Officer Model (target) revolvers around that are based on the 1892 platform, and even fewer that were chambered in .38 Special. The platform itself was introduced in 1892, and discontinued in 1908 although Colt continued to use the Officer Model name into the 1950's.

Smith & Wesson introduced the Military & Police revolver in 1899, and chambered it to use their "improved" .38 Special cartridge. They marked the barrel "38 S&W SPECIAL and U.S. SERVICE ctg's" which stuck it to Colt, as the U.S. service cartridge at the time was the .38 Long Colt. Colt revolvers were simply marked, "D.A. 38." Obviously many buyers would be attracted to the S&W, which fired both cartridges, while by implication the Colt only used the inferior of the two. Sometime during the early 1900's Colt started chambering 1892 model revolvers in .38 Special, but they didn't change the barrel markings until they introduced several new platforms in 1908. Also during the 1900 - 1908 period they continued to make .38 Long Colt revolvers using considerable stocks of parts on hand.