Posted: 6/19/2010 5:47:16 AM EDT
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I just inherited a 6" Colt Official Police in 22lr. The gun has a low serial, 10XXX. Best I can find on the net says it's a pre-war, 1936 vintage.
It has what appears to be factory installed Mico adjustable target sights. The top of the frame seems to be made for the sights. It doesn't look like some gun smith hack job. It has a deep blue finish, with the hammer, trigger, and cylinder release all in bright nickle. It's nice and tight, looks to be a 9.5 of 10 condition. I was just gonna shoot it, but it seems to be somewhat collectible. I hate to screw up a nice gun by turning it into a plinking piece. I thought I'd ask some of the Colt gurus here if anyone knows anything about this gun. I know about the Colt letter thing, but I don't want to know bad enough to spend $75.00 (or more) to find out this gun's history. There's a gun show here tomorrow. I think I'll walk it through, and see if any of those wheel gun collectors know anything about it. Just curious.... 
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Colt Official Police .22 10XXXwas made in 1935. The numbers for the .22 OP started at 4000 that year. 1936 started at 11000
Without pictures it's hard to say just what you have but Colt didn't make the Official Police with Micro target sights. Colt's target gun in those days was the the Colt Officer's Model Target, which was the Target version of the Official Police. The OMT was built on the same frame as the OP, and other than the sights and top of the frame, they were the same gun. The Officer's Model Target was a better finished and fitted gun, with an action tuned for the best trigger pull. It was Colt's premium top-of-the-line gun in the pre-war days. The Official Police was Colt's "budget gun" with a lower level of finish and fitting. The OMT of the mid-30's had a 6" barrel with a front sight that was adjustable for elevation. The rear sight was a fairly small sight in a dovetail and was adjustable for windage. The top strap was flat, the back strap and trigger were checkered. All parts were bright blue with the sides of the hammer left "in the white". What you may have is an Officer's Model Target that was re-barreled with a Official Police barrel. Over the years, guns needing a new barrel were often re-barreled with whatever could be found, and the Official Police barrel and OMT barrel used the same threads. No parts were nickel plated, so this gun has obviously been re-worked by a non-factory source. Keys to getting a positive ID on your gun is to check the top strap for a flat top surface with no "gutter" cut for a fixed sight, and a small, rather crude dovetailed Colt sight. Check for a checkered trigger and the back of the grip frame should also be nicely checkered. Check the barrel for a front sight that can be adjusted for elevation. If any of those are different, you probably have an Official Police that's been modified into a target type revolver by a custom gunsmith. If all the features are present, you likely have an Officer's Model Target which has been re-barreled with an OP barrel, which was then fitted with some kind of target sight. The nickel plated parts are not factory. |
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Thanks for the info.
Looking a bit closer at the gun I see a "T" above the serial number, and a "V" under the number. The top of the frame is made for that Micro site. The frame has the usual fixed sight groove from the front, about 3/4 of the way back. Then the groove flares around the base of the Micro sight. You can see that the frame was cast that way, not machined later to accommodate the sight. The trigger is checkered. The frame is not. I tried to take some pictures of it, but my camera sucks, and you couldn't see squat. I'm really starting to get curious about this gun. I might have to spend the money for the Colt research letter just to satisfy my curiosity... 
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