Colt Detective Special

[uncle jed]

Hello. My cousin just brought home a .38 spec. Colt Detective Special. It has a serial no. starting with P63xxx. Does any one have an idea what year it was manufactured? I already looked online at Proofhouse.com. and the numbers ended in 1978 with no P-series listed. Thanks uncle jed.

[P.K.]

Hello. My cousin just brought home a .38 spec. Colt Detective Special. It has a serial no. starting with P63xxx. Does any one have an idea what year it was manufactured? I already looked online at Proofhouse.com. and the numbers ended in 1978 with no P-series listed. Thanks uncle jed.

No expert but are you sure it's a "P" and not a "B?"

[Char-Gar]

Your Cousin need to put on his glasses and/or use a strong light as there were no P prefix. There were B and F.

[uncle jed]

Sorry to disappoint but it is a 'P', unless they have changed the alphabet since I got ran out of school.

[Got-R-Did]

I looked in my R.L. Wilson Colt serial number booklet and found nothing like you have encountered. The numbers for the Detective Spl are supposed to be included in the Police Positive section, but the 63,000 range of serial number would have been made in 1913. The lettered prefixes start at "D" in 1966, then back to "A" in early 1970, "B" in later 1970 and all the way to "M" in 1976. They then apparently switched to suffixes of "M" and "R" through 1977. This is all I can contribute and it is still a mystery to me. Is this revolver an early one without the shrouded ejector rod?
Got-R-Did.

[uncle jed]

The pistol is a 2' barrel, nickel or hard chrome, short grip with brown rubber or composite grips. The barrel is heavy with shroud over the ejector rod.From the description on various sites it could be from the 80's or the short run in the 90's.

[P.K.]

Post a pic, description in the origional post and #6 sound like two different firearms.

[uncle jed]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_200574e7ac98e6c42a.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2184)

[P.K.]

O-kaaaaay. What I can postulate is that this isn't a "Detective Special" per se. It may very well be a variant known as the "Commando Special", produced from 1984-86.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Detective_Special

[uncle jed]

I looked at several sites with descriptions and pictures, and all of them said the D.S. had parkerised or matte blue finish, or dull nickel. Some of them even had Commando Spacial stamped in the barrel.I will call Colt customer service today to see if they can help. When *I know something I will post it. Thanks, Uncle Jewde.

[Char-Gar]

There was indeed a rebirth of the "Dick Special" after some years in limbo. Every serial number database I know of does not include these. The database cut off point if before the reintroduction of the Detective Special.

So maybe there were some P prefix in this batch of pistols. None of us knows.

It would have been helpful if you would have given us the information about the pistol up front. We could have avoided much of this stuff. I would have known my books cut off before the date this pistol was made.

Frequently folks come to this board asking for help and don't give enough information for an intelligent answer to be given.

[uncle jed]

Thanks for everybody's help and suggestions. I called Colt's customer service this morning and talked to Heather who said it was a 1983 model. As far as not giving all the info up front. I did not have it all to begin with until I started researching. I was able to get my daughter to up load the photo last night after she got in from work. Also I did in the original post state that the Proof house information stopped in 1978, and I was using my reading glasses and a strong light. thank you, uncle jed