Colt Cobra question?

[Dueeast]

Don't know who else to ask, so here goes: My friend has a Cobra with hideous oversized rubber grips. I'd like to find for him the proper wooden grips his gun should have. It's a 2", Ser # 470xx with a 4W underneath. ANY help would be appreciated, including steering me to any other source.

[colt_saa]

The Cobra is built on the Colt D-frame same as the Agent and Detective Special

[sjb66coronet]

I got some originals from Numrich a couple of years ago,for a 60's era Cobra, I think the Agent model grips are different from the Detective Special/Cobra ones.

[bronco45]

Need to know what year Cobra was built. Older ones up to 1966 had a long grip frame and after 66 they standardized the grip frames. Go to proofhouse.org and look up the # and it will tell you the year of birth of weapon.

Then join Colt Forum go to revolvers section or want ad and put in a WTB a set of factory grips for said Cobra. Originals in good shape will not be cheap. Good luck and enjoy the classic snubbie!

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

Colt Forum . I think that the Colt D frame had three or four different sets of dimensions, starting with full grip frame size (equal to grip panels) on the original DS and Cobra. The Agent was shorter (also equal to its grip panels), and the Diamondback and perhaps the later (shrouded ejector rod) Cobra and DS had a different shortened frame. I also have a vague recollection of there being some RB-SB issue in the earliest DS revolvers, but I am not sure, and I also don't remember whether it affected the frame or just the wooden grips. Anyway, if you carefully sight the cited site, you will probably soon learn more than I ever knew. Tell 'em 520 sent you.

[sipowicz]

This ought to wet your whistle for your new snub...

The Colt D Frame Showroom.... D-FRAME PICTURES

[s&wchad]

The "4W" is actually "LW" and is the serial suffix. It's typically stamped on a second line and is often missed when recording the number.

As bronco45 mentioned, there were two different gripframes - full length and short. Your friends gun dates to around 1957 and will have a full length grip frame.

"Coltwood" plastic grips would fit your friends gun, but were supplied on earlier guns (1950 to the mid-50's).




Cobras made from the mid-50's to the mid-60's still had the full length grip frame, but were supplied with wood grips with silver Colt medallions. These are the ones you friend should look for. This is the only photo I have, but it should give him some idea what to look for.



First series Cobras made from the mid-60's to 1973 (when the shrouded ejector rod second series was released) had wrap around grips like these.