Can someone ID this pistol for me please

[Gumby853]

I started the thread in the revolver forum. Instead of a duplicate post, here is the link.

[James K]

As far as I can tell from the pictures and the serial number, it is a rather badly used Army Special, made in 1924. It looks like it was heavily buffed (maybe was rusted) and then given a bad blue job, perhaps cold blue. The caliber should be .38 Special.

The bad news is that the gun has little value in that condition. Those are not high priced guns in any case, new condition ones only going for $600 or so. In the condition shown, that one might bring $100, but I think most folks probably would not want it at any price.

The family might want to keep it for sentimental value, but otherwise, it would be of little value. As a shooter, it would probably be safe to fire, but stick to standard .38 Special loads, no +P or +P+.

HTH

Jim

[Johnny Guest]

- - - about not shooting warmer loads, even factory loads, Gumby.

I worked with a fellow in avbout '71 who carried his father's old Army Special around with him, as a reserve officer. A couple of us who were into shooting cautioned him about carrying Super Vel JHPs in it--Told him that steel and heat treatments were not very advanced, back when the old revolver was made.

Sure enough, he came in one evening, asking if he REALLY needed to have a new barrel. The forcing cone area behind the frame was split in three or four places, and I couldn't tell if the threaded area of the frame had been swlled ot not. Told him he needed to just use the old Colt for a wall hanger . . . .

Last I saw of the guy, he was still packing the piece, loaded with factory wadcuttrers. Don't know who advised him on that, but I was done with the situation.

[James K]

Hi, Johnny,

To make things worse, at that time Super-Vel stuff was HOT HOT, plus their QC was nothing to write home about. More than one older gun and some new ones disassembled themselves in various and unexpected ways when firing Super-Vel.

I have an Army Special, and it is an accurate gun, as all Colts were (are?). But I would not think of using anything on the hot side. The gun is about 95+%, but has replacement Colt grips. It cost all of $150, which was a steal even at the time I bought it 10 years ago, but shows how little those Colt DA revolvers are thought of in the collectors world. I think that some day they will be "discovered", though, as the SAA's become totally out of reach and people are looking for something else that has Colt on it.

Jim

[jmlv]

Revolver. complete with 6" bull barrel Bomar rib and a set of camo pachmayr presintation grips. Its strictly a wadcutter/cowboy load gun shot for the sheer joy of it. As is my newer made Officers Model Match also in 38 special. These are real sweet shooters when used properly.