I saw this at my LGS yesterday, and put it on layaway while I investigate it a bit.

It's a Colt Official Police 38, with a 4" barrel, and service stocks. The S/N 698973 (no prefix) would seem to indicate it was made in 1943 unless I'm reading Proofhouse incorrectly.





Anybody know anything more about it? It doesn't appear to be a military model. I don't see any military type markings on it, and the finish seems to be blue rather than Parkarized I'd expect to see on a wartime gun. Am I missing something on Proofhouse?

It's as tight as a drum mechanically, so I don't think the price is too bad at <$400.00.

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John 3:16 .

Proofhouse is not often very accurate. I think it is more likely that this gun shipped in 1942. Quite a few blue OPs were shipped to military destinations or the DSC before the changes that turned the OP into the Commando. Without any Ordnance stamp it is unlikely to be military but only a Colt Archives letter can determine that for sure.

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Kevin Williams SWCA1649 HF208

Whatever it is, $400 is a fair price today.

Thanks. I'm not really concerned about rather it was military or anything like that. I'm not a collector, I'm just curious about such things.

I figure almost any gun in decent shape is worth $400.00 these days.

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John 3:16 .

Looks like a great condition, all original shooter grade Colt. Considering the price, I would snatch it up if mechanical solid and sound.

You pretty much have a fixed sight Python that only shoots 38spl, but everything else is the same. Even looks like original service stocks.

The pencil barrel .38 special 581 of the Colt world? My buddys dad has a 143 OP with Pachs on it I cleaned up for him. I want it.

The E-frame Colts have been around since 1908, and I think the OP continued to be made until about 1969. They are actually a little beefier than the S&W K-frame. And as a result, also a little heavier. They were the most commonly used police revolver for a long time. The Python uses essentially the identical frame and mechanism, except the Python's firing pin is in the frame rather than in the hammer. The Python frame is called the I-frame.

Cajunbass, you might want to letter that one. I have a Colt OP in the high 685000 serial # range that shipped 1/17/42 to a defense contractor plant. I can imagine that there were some pretty jumpy plant guards worried about saboteurs just a few weeks after Pearl Harbor.
Not many handguns made it into civilian hands after December 7th, 1941. Many will letter as having shipped to defense plants or police departments. Nice gun by the way.

Looks like a beauty!!

War time blued OP's were shipped to many P.D.'s stateside.

You can order a Colt letter for $150.

It's actually half that, $75, for the Official Police.

According to Paul, one of the Colt archivists, just a few special-order OP's shipped 1943 to 1945, and he thinks they were all made in 1942. He also confirmed that both Proofhouse and the Colt online serial look-up are not reliable for the war years and in some cases, like the Commando, just wrong.

Until early March 1942, Colt sent sizable shipments of OP's to the DSC warehouse in Washington, to be distributed. Then the DSC got out of the shipping business and simply cleared contracts to be shipped direct to eligible end users like defense plants or police agencies. Some of these also were authorized to go through traditional commercial wholesalers to those destinations, so even a DSC contract gun may letter to a civilian dealer. I have OP 696000 with a DOB of March 26 and a DOS of March 28, 1942, to Murta Appleton in Philadelphia, part of a 25-gun shipment destined (based on other circumstantial evidence) for the Pennsylvania State Police.

That gun has some blemishes that'd prevent me buying it, but I guess the price is okay these days. You may be able to use metal polish to clean off that hammer.

The USAF had some blued Official Police guns in the 1960's. I think we got them from the Navy, although S&W Victory models were by far more numerous.

I carried both OP and Commando guns occasionally, but quit because Colts often need the barrels turned slightly to get the sights on target. Chas. Askins told me that he had to do this to almost almost all of the Colt New Service .38's that he ordered for the USBP!

I once got an OP whose sights were so off that I was worried that I might not qualify with it. The range master let me swap it for a Victory Model and I salvaged the day, but my score at that point was so bad that I barely made Sharpshooter.

You will also discover that your Colt will wear the cylinder timing much faster than a Ruger or S&W.

These guns have historical interest, but I'll buy no more Colts after owning some and seeing those in Air Force service!

Colt's .41 frame, used here, is about like S&W's L frame, and holsters for one fit the other.

Colt did have better metallurgy, at least until S&W began assigning model numbers in 1957. Holster maker Chic Gaylord wrote in 1960 that a S&W rep assured him that Model 10's were then made of a new, stronger steel. Gaylord had told readers that a hot .38 handload, safe in a Colt, would blow up a S&W M&P.

The M&P/Model 10 is a smaller gun with thinner chambers, but if one blew up with a load safe in a Colt OP, that must have been a serious overload for the cartridge. I wouldn't want to fire it even in a S &W Heavy Duty .38-44. Or, for that matter, in a Colt NS or SAA, although they'd tolerate much hotter loads than a Model 10. But the M-10 will withstand loads well beyond anything that should be fired in any .38 Special!