MFGordon
12-02-2019, 12:13 AM
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.252230252231
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.252230252231