Some of you requested that I post a few pictures. I am working on that, but I am ready to post a pic of my double action revolvers here:
At the upper left is a Colts Officer's Model. Just below it is a Colts Army Special. These are practically the same gun, but the Officer Model is the premium model. It has adjustable sights. The front sight pivots on a pin you can see at the front of the sight base and is fixed by a set screw at the back to set the elevation. The rear sight is dove tailed into the frame. You can see the screw that adjusts for windage. In the top of the sight, there is a set screw to fix the setting. This gun belonged to a old Native American gentleman who used it for target competition. The action has been worked over so that the trigger only seems to require a thought to fire the weapon. There is no perceptible travel to the trigger, either. This makes the gun a dream to shoot. I have the original grips (Colts used to inscribe the serial number on them on the back side).
The Army Special, I have have shot, but do not any longer, since it is in such perfect shape.
In the days when these guns were made, Colts used a bore that required a .354 bullet. (Both of these are in 38 Special.) For shooting lead bullets, I find that shooting 9mm bullets works well. What you want is a bullet that is the size of the throats in the cylinder, right at the end after the chamber. I only use very light loads, because all I use the Officer's Model for is punching holes in paper, and shooting cans and clay pigeons.
At the bottom is a Smith & Wesson K-22 (in .22 LR). I inherited this from my uncle. It is also very accurate, but the S&W action cannot match the smoothness of the Colts. This K frame Smith & Wesson is built on the .38 caliber K Frame, which is the same as the S&W Military & Police Model 10 and the S&W Model 19 in .357 Magnum.
To the upper right is my favorite protection arm, a Colts Detective Special in 38 Special.
These Colts and the large frame New Service all used the Belgian-developed Schmidt Galand action, which they started using after discarding their own double action designs, beginning with the Lightning and Thunderer in 1877 and going up to about the turn of the century. The Schmidt Galand action is the same one used in the Colts Python model. The reason they use other actions now is because of the extensive hand fitting required by these actions.
Unlike a Smith & Wesson, these Colts have the hand connected to the trigger, rather than the hammer. So, as you pull the trigger, the cylinder is always pushed against the bolt locking it so that there is never any play in the cylinder when the round is fired. This way, every chamber lines up with the barrel in the same way, because the play of the bolt in the cylinder locking notch is eliminated.
the Colts design also offsets the bolt to one side, so that the cut for the locking notch is not over the thinnest part of the cylinder, as it is on Smith & Wessons.
Another thing is that the two larger Colts, along with the Python, are built on Colts' I frame, which was intended for the .41 Colt cartridge. This makes them a little bit larger than the corresponding Smith & Wesson K Frame. This increased size allowed Colts to chamber these guns for the 357 Magnum with no problem. S&W Model 19s do not like hot 357 Magnum loads as a steady diet, because they are smaller. This is why Smith & Wesson brought out the somewhat larger L Frame in 357.
Colts smaller frame, the D Frame, is used on the Detective Special. It is a bit larger than the corresponding Smith & Wesson J Frame used in the Chief's Special, so the Detective Special is a 6 round weapon, while the Chief's Special only has room for 5 rounds.
If you look closely at the Detective Special and the K-22, you will note that they are a different color than the two older Colts. That is because all modern guns pretty much use a caustic bluing, which really looks black. The old Colts look really dark blue because they used a more time consuming bluing process. They are more beautiful than the caustic blued weapons. Another premium feature of the Officer's Model is that it was polished with extra care from the factory -- its finish is very nice.
I can't afford to buy modern guns that have the quality of the old ones.
I have some more pictures coming later on.
Regards,
tim
