Who can tell me anything about this old pistol I inherited?  It's a nickel plated 4 inch serial number is 617xxx.  Is the caliber 38 special or Colt?  Hoping to find a Colt specialist as this is my first and only Colt.

Thanks for any help.

Not much information to go on without pictures. Over the years Colt made numerous revolver models in .38 Special. Your best bet is to log in to one of the various Colt collector forums that has a photo gallery and use that to identify what model of revolver you have.
Gary

They shoot nicely and were quite popular for a good while in police holsters.

I had one but my hand was way too big to enjoy shooting it so I traded it. I should have kept it.

Like previously mentioned we need more information on any markings and pictures would help.   It is possible it is an old Colt military black powder revolver from the late 1890’s to a more modern Official Police or Police Positive from the 20’s to 50’s.   There were 38 short Colt cartridges, 38 Long Colt and 38 Colt Special aka 38 S&W Special cartridge.


Here is a link to a Colt revolver forum where you can look at various Colt revolver pictures.


https://www.coltforum.com/threads/colt-new-police-police-positive-and-police-positive-special-photo-thread.33644/

Without pictures it'll be tough to help, unless the caliber is marked on the barrel.

Need to be more specific with name and yes pictures would help.

Colt made the police positive ( 38 S&W also called 38 colt new police- not 38 special)
They enlarged the frame a bit to later make the police positive special ( though some were still made for the shorter cartridge)
They made the official police a heavier frame in 38 special

Colt in those days didn’t want the smith and Wesson name on their guns, so they called cartridges different names like above.

I do not believe they made any of the official police or police positive series in 38 long colt.