# 1951 Colt Detective Special .38 CTG Help



## boogiebassman (Sep 1, 2014)

I recently bought a 1951 Colt Detective Special .38 CTG. It is stainless with a gold trigger, hammer and cylinder release mechanism. I am more of a vintage guitar guy than a gun guy so I was hoping that someone on here could help me out with some information about this gun. I am just kind of curious to know if the gold plating is original? Also, does anyone have an idea of how much this gun might be worth in this condition?

https://plus.google.com/photos/114587244041108894334/photo/6054200733682220418
https://plus.google.com/photos/114587244041108894334/photo/6054200479250743906
https://plus.google.com/photos/114587244041108894334/photo/6054200841100138994
https://plus.google.com/photos/114587244041108894334/photo/6054201041627710114
https://plus.google.com/photos/114587244041108894334/photo/6054202666537777474

You can also email me at [email protected] if you would prefer.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

I can't access your pictures.

I doubt that gold plating is original. But I don't know for sure.
Contact Colt's: For an unreasonable fee, their archivist will tell you when your pistol was made, to which distributor (or retailer) it was shipped, and whether the plating is original.

With that information in hand, an approximate value can be estimated.

While you're at it, find out from Colt's whether your pistol is chambered for .38 New Police (same as .38 S&W) or for .38 Special.
That ".38 CTG" marking leads me to suspect that it's a .38 New Police gun.


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## lefty60 (Oct 13, 2012)

Yes! what Steve said!


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## hillman (Jul 27, 2014)

.38 NP - made in 1951? WTF for?


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

A second thought, as the result of *hillman*'s comment:

Yeah, it probably is a .38 Special.
Colt's just wouldn't press ".38 Special" into their barrels, because it was a S&W cartridge (".38 S&W Special").
So instead, they used circumlocutions like ".38 CTG" and so on.

But check it out anyway, just to be sure. (It won't cost extra.)
Lots of Detective Specials were made in .38 New Police.


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## glenwolde (Mar 29, 2013)

They didn't make stainless guns in 1951, so it's probably nickel plated. Odds are the gold is not factory original, but anything is possible.


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## Hauptmann (Aug 2, 2014)

*Could it be chambered for .38 S&W?*

My dad's Colt Detective Special was in .38 S&W, which was much shorter than .38 Spl. I think I remember that each cylinder bore had a circumferential groove about 2/3 of the way toward the forcing cone, which probably corresponded to the end of the .38 S&W case. This would have been to prevent the longer .38 Spl. from being loaded. Why he was issued a gun in that punk cartridge I don't know. I do know that the .38 DS was also available in .38 Spl., but that may have been a later option. Dad could have been issued that gun as early as 1947, because that was the year he became a Postal Inspector.

BTW, I thought that the .38 New Police was the model name of one of the pre-1955 Colt revolvers, and not the name of a cartridge. If I remember correctly, the .38 NP was chambered in .38 Spl. But then, memory is the second thing we old guys lose (I can't remember the first thing).


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## Hauptmann (Aug 2, 2014)

*Could it be chambered for .38 S&W?*

...


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

The Colt's New Police revolver was chambered for the Colt's New Police cartridges.
There were two: the .32 New Police, which was the same as the .32 S&W Long; and the .38 New Police, which duplicated the .38 S&W cartridge.

If the snubbie was in .32 New Police, it was called the "Banker's Special." In .38 New Police, it was the "Detective Special."
Later, the Detective Special was offered in both .38 New Police and .38 Special. In its last years, it was made only in .38 Special.


(When I was a kid, the NYPD cop on our beat was armed with a Colt's revolver in .32 New Police. Yeah, that's right: .32, not .38!)


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