Franken Colt Revolver

[MFGordon]

Some years ago, in the 1970s, a gunsmith friend of mine acquired a box of Colt Official Police barreled frames that included cylinders and cylinder yokes. They had belonged to a police department whose headquarters had been flooded. The guns was underwater for a while and afterward someone in the department decided to disassemble and clean the guns. Unfortunately after disassembly all the parts save the barreled frames and cylinders were lost. The now useless guns were later sold sold at auction where my gunsmith friend bought them. He intended to rebuild the guns and sell them but he never got around to it. Years later when he closed up his shop he had to get rid of these frames. He said I could have one, so I picked out the best of the lot. Then I put it aside for another twenty years.

Recently thought I needed another .38 Special revolver and decided to rebuild the Official Police revolver and sought out the parts on ebay. I needed all of the internal parts and the side plate and a pair of grips. Luckily I found a near new parts set that included a six inch heavy barrel and cylinder. One of the few parts missing from the set of parts I bought was the all important side plate. So I continued to look for a side plate and again luckily I found a really inexpensive one on ebay. To my surprise the side plate that had looked blue on ebay turned out to be nickled.

I thought all the parts would simply go together because after all didn't Colt invent interchangeable parts 170 years ago? My gun was manufactured in 1967 and the parts set I acquired were from the same era. Many of the parts simple dropped in but the trigger required a little filing where it was binding against the frame. The extractor star did not want to fit in my original cylinder. The biggest problem has been the nickled side plate which required filing on three of its bearing surfaces . For a pair of grips, a temporary expedient has been a pair of well worn grips that came on a Colt Officers Model Match that I own.

I thought I would polish and reblue this gun but for now I will leave it alone. The gun shoots well at 50 feet with full wadcutters but low. I am not done rebuilding it yet and still need to get some bugs out of the action.

Anyway here are a couple of photos.

[poppy42]

Great project. I would love to find an inexpensive 38 so I can roll some light loads and teach the wife to shoot. I would think something like your Franken Colt would do nicely. I don’t imagine ya have a lot into it. Oh well I’ll find one someday.

[rintinglen]

How cool! I have to confess that I would approach such a project with trepidation. Colts have a lot of hand fitting where a couple thousandths of an inch mean something. Starting from ground zero and having to make it work might be a bridge too far.

[smkummer]

Interchangeable parts for Colts would have applied to the percussion series. By the time the positive lock Colts came out, many parts had to be fitted. That was the main reason the MKIII series was introduced. I bought a barreled/ receiver detective special of late 60’s vintage. I really lucked out that after buying a parts kit the only part that needed fitting was the hand that turns the cylinder. The side plate was from a 1990’s colt Detective Special and is a bit proud in one area but that can be dressed down a bit.

[MFGordon]

The only parts that required fitting were the trigger and the side plate. The trigger needed filing in order to pivot forward and the side plate needed filing on three sides. Since the parts all came from one gun, I think they were already fitted, especially where the rebound lever bears against the cylinder locking bolt.

I've owned Colt revolvers now for close to forty years and am comfortable disassembling them. To me they are quite simple. I think rebuilding a Smith & Wesson revolver would be much more daunting.

[Green Frog]

While I readily admit that I’m not “into” Colt revolvers, I do subscribe to the “Franken-gun” philosophy of gun building. Getting something otherwise unavailable and having everything hand fitted to order gives a certain pride of ownership others can’t experience. I assembled a “Franken-Ballard” that worked out surprisingly well. Congrats on a great project!

Froggie