Police issue Colt 38 1920's

Kenziemack · Feb 23, 2018

Hello everyone!
I inherited my great grandfather's Chicago police gun (colt 38 (I think), blue steel, officers model, 5 inch barrel with bullets), original holster, badge, a leather baton, and some type of brass knuckles not brass. I have articles from the Chicago Tribune showing him capturing a gangster (photo) and awards for this capture, with other articles about him from the 1920's I think? I don't know how to tell when it was made, I do have a serial number though. It is soooo cool! I also have a badge of his from the World Fair held in Chicago.

How would I go about figuring out how much it is worth? I want to make sure it is insured.

Thank you, Kenzie

namrelio · Feb 23, 2018

Sorry, your things sound real interesting.

buellsfurn · Feb 23, 2018

Kenziemack said:
Hello everyone!
I inherited my great grandfather's Chicago police gun (colt 38 (I think), blue steel, officers model, 5 inch barrel with bullets), original holster, badge, a leather baton, and some type of brass knuckles not brass. I have articles from the Chicago Tribune showing him capturing a gangster (photo) and awards for this capture, with other articles about him from the 1920's I think? I don't know how to tell when it was made, I do have a serial number though. It is soooo cool! I also have a badge of his from the World Fair held in Chicago.

How would I go about figuring out how much it is worth? I want to make sure it is insured.

Thank you, Kenzie

man i was just going to tell you their going to want pics

Melnic · Feb 23, 2018

Here you go
https://www.colt.com/Customer-Services/Serial-Number-Lookup

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

rfawcs · Feb 23, 2018

Go here http://www.coltforum.com and ask. If any group can answer your questions, they can.

Sundazes · Feb 23, 2018

Nice. That's cool. Def post a pic ...

zoostation · Feb 23, 2018

If you can produce enough provenance on it dating it to Prohibition Era Chicago to satisfy a collector that will add considerable value. How much it's hard to say. One of those "it's worth what someone is willing to pay" deals. But I was a Colt territory rep for six years and can tell you that there are plenty of Colt collectors who will pay crazy money for something they think is unique or historical. And plenty of Colt collectors have crazy money to pay, too.

Now, onto the more mundane. I don't know what Chicago was carrying back then but if they were like most police departments who had Colts it was likely either a Police Positive Special or an Official Police. Colt made both of those guns for decades, producing over 400,000 Official Police units and three-quarters of a million Police Positive Specials. From the turn of the century until just after WW2 Colt was to the police market what Glock is today. They dominated it, mainly due to their Positive Lock safety design, which was much safer than Smith's at that time. After WW2 Smith's improved action that was now simpler to maintain than Colt's and just as safe elbowed them out somewhat.

Generally speaking either model in very good condition from that era is probably going to be worth somewhere around $400-$500, very rough estimate. But your provenance could add thousands to the right collector. It just hard to say how much.

Approximate serial number range and pictures will also help us help you.

Kenziemack · Feb 23, 2018

Awesome information, I am looking for the key, although I might need bolt cutters, that is what moving does. Then I will take pictures and post. I will try to do this, this weekend. I will also research the names of the gangsters he got. Thank you!

AlBeight · Feb 24, 2018

You should try to contact this member:
somd_mustangs

He is a great resource on old Colt handguns.

ted76 · Feb 24, 2018

Copper had a couple in his shop for sale not too long ago, that came out of his collection. Send him a PM, he may know a bit about them.

Biggfoot44 · Feb 24, 2018

Great acquisition OP .

Yes , consult the Colt Collector forum.

I will take exception to Zoo's characterization of Colt dominating the LE market pre WWII . The S&W also did hefty LE business back then . Their most popular product was the Millitary & Police aka M&P , aka .38 Hand Ejector aka .38 H&E .

S&W's M&P was their lead revolver for agency sales, vs Colt splitting between the OP and the PPS .

In those days , was more common for individual Ofc to own their own guns than today , and S&W was more popular with "Gun Guys" . Plenty of document LE usage of various .44Spl , and .38-44 .

What really cause the shift to Colt to S&W was the evolution in training/ qualifying. The old PPC developed by the FBI , and pushed by them as the desireable Best Practices in traing spread quickly . Considered snicker worthy , and very dated nowdays , it was revolutionary in the 1930's .

It actually featured DA shooting , and l sorta human shaped targets . Don't laugh , but before than most LE range work was done SA , thumb cocking.

Short oversimplifification - Colts thumb cock more easily . S&W have smoother DA pulls .

zoostation · Feb 24, 2018

Biggfoot44 said:
I will take exception to Zoo's characterization of Colt dominating the LE market pre WWII . The S&W also did hefty LE business back then . Their most popular product was the Millitary & Police aka M&P , aka .38 Hand Ejector aka .38 H&E .

I didn't mean to give the impression that S&W didn't have a heavy presence in the LE-market pre-WW2. They certainly did and they and Colt were always competing with one another. But the big shift IMHO came after 1945 when S&W introduced the hammer block company-wide. S&W was forced to introduce this design in Navy contract guns during WW2 when one of their revolvers was dropped and killed sailor. Before that their revolvers were an above average risk for accidental discharges if dropped.

The Smith action has/had less moving parts and was easier to maintain than the Colt's action as well. As someone who was still in LE in the (waning) revolver days, I worked for a department where we had the choice between Colt and S&W revolvers. To a man, everyone I knew including me chose Smith. Not because of price, because of reliability concerns, justified or not.

Clovis · Feb 24, 2018

zoostation said:
I didn't mean to give the impression that S&W didn't have a heavy presence in the LE-market pre-WW2. They certainly did and they and Colt were always competing with one another. But the big shift IMHO came after 1945 when S&W introduced the hammer block company-wide. S&W was forced to introduce this design in Navy contract guns during WW2 when one of their revolvers was dropped and killed sailor. Before that their revolvers were an above average risk for accidental discharges if dropped.

The Smith action has/had less moving parts and was easier to maintain than the Colt's action as well. As someone who was still in LE in the (waning) revolver days, I worked for a department where we had the choice between Colt and S&W revolvers. To a man, everyone I knew including me chose Smith. Not because of price, because of reliability concerns, justified or not.

I guess this means the victory models were "less safe"? I was not aware of that information. Thanks.

somd_mustangs · Feb 24, 2018

AlBeight said:
You should try to contact this member:
somd_mustangs

He is a great resource on old Colt handguns.

Sadly, not revolvers

As zoostation points out, provenance will add some mystique and desirability.

As a family heirloom it's basically priceless; make sure to take good clear pics of the gun with the badge and other accessories for insurance purposes. Closeups of S/N, any markings, stuff like that.

iH8DemLibz · Feb 24, 2018

Where da pitchers be at?

somd_mustangs · Feb 24, 2018

iH8DemLibz said:
Where da pitchers be at?

..

Biggfoot44 · Feb 24, 2018

S&W's already had a hammer block , dating back to the earliest days of Hand Ejectors .

The old style hammer blocks were actuated by the hand. New style hammer blocks are actuated by the trigger bar, and are physically beefier.

The infamous " gun dropped by the Navy " fell aprox 85 feet , and was also loaded with cosmoline , inhibiting normal function of the internals . The impact was so severe that the hammer itself broke .No other similar occurences had been reported by the military prior to this .

The improved hammer safety was adopted in the Victories in mid 1942 , and reflected by sn prefix of VS instead of the previous V . ( My VS Victory dates to 1942.)

The new style safety gradually was adopted throughout the S&W product line during the remaining years of the Long Action Era .

More safer-er is a good thing , but the old style is still plenty safe .

Clovis · Feb 24, 2018

Interesting, thanks for that information Bigfoot 44.

Kenziemack · Feb 24, 2018

Thank you!

I will get more information and post to both!

Reptile · Mar 6, 2018

You can plug the serial number in here:

https://www.colt.com/serial-lookup

It will give you the year of manufacture.

With that serial number you can also request a letter from Colt that will tell you when and to whom it was shipped and what features it had. The last time I checked the cost was $100.

Police issue Colt 38 1920's

The #1 community for Gun Owners of the Northeast

Member Benefits:

Member

Ultimate Member

Ultimate Member

Ultimate Member

Si Se Pwodway

Throbbing Member

, ,

Member

Member

Ultimate Member

Ultimate Member

, ,

Ultimate Member

-----

When All Else Fails.

-----

Attachments

Ultimate Member

Ultimate Member

Member

Ultimate Member

Users who are viewing this thread

Log in

Forum statistics