Childhood Dream: Colt Dick Special

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44caliberkid

New member
When I was 12 or 13 years old, I had a magazine (might have been Shooters Bible) that had a picture of the Colt Detective Special on the cover. I stared wantonly at that picture, hoping someday to have one. That day is today. Looks like new, unfired. Does anyone know if the white inlay on the front sight is factory? It was made in 1975.
 

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M

mk70ss

New member
Inlay in the sight is not factory. But either way, the gun is gorgeous! Congrats
 
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B

Butzbach

New member
First handgun I ever fired.

My Dad had a DS with the smaller checkered grips. I remember firing it with him holding over my hand circa 1965? It was on the side of a dirt road on some kind of Sunday drive or family vacation. I must have been pretty young. Just the one shot. I recall my ears ringing.

A few years later he flashed it to me and had me walk on his left side during a trip to Hudson’s in downtown Detroit. No carry permit. Just the permit to be judged by 12 instead of carried by 6.
 
4

44 AMP

Staff
After scrounging around to find a couple of speed loaders for mine (Agent/Cobra) a friend pointed out that S&W K frame speedloaders will work. and, gosh, he was right! :D

The whilte on the sight is aftermarket. Otherwise, the gun looks cherry. If you're into Colts, nice find!
 
4

44 AMP

Staff
Is it just me, or does anybody find it odd to call a gun a "dick special"?
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Its just you. :D

"Back in the day" (as they say now), Police detectives were "dicks". Private Detectives were Private Eyes or Private Dicks. So the snubnose revolver most often carried by them became the "Dick Special". Might also have something to do with the most famous "detective" in the land, at the time, Dick Tracy, who debuted in the comics in 1931.

It's not, and never was a direct sexual reference.

Some of us still remember a time when "dope" had nothing to do with drugs and "gay" had nothing to do with anything sexual.
 
K

KyJim

New member
Some of us still remember a time when "dope" had nothing to do with drugs and "gay" had nothing to do with anything sexual.
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Our state song is My Old Kentucky Home. A good number of years ago, the legislature rightfully agreed to change the line "the darkies are gay" to "the people are gay." So far, crickets about any further changes.
 
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bamaranger

New member
Congrats

The later DS Colts with the shrouded ejector rod have always had a cleaner, more desirable lines to me, than the earlier unshrouded models. A shrouded DS has been on my want list for some time, but I've had to settle for a Chief's Special.
 
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Aguila Blanca

Staff
That's a very nice example of a "Dick Special." Like bamaranger (and, apparently, UNlike most other folks), I much prefer the DS with the shrouded ejector rod.

I have always wanted a pristine Detective Special and a pristine Diamondback to go with it.
 
R

Ricklin

New member
Plus the cylinder spins the right way. Very nice, I too have an eye out for a Dick Special, since I have zero S&W's it is rather late to start now.
Always been a Colt guy.
 
4

4V50 Gary

Staff
Earlier ones didn't have the ejector rod shroud. Later ones like yours do. Best of all, you have the older Colt action that is closer to the Python than the Trooper III.
 
B

Butzbach

New member
Is a Colt Magnum Carry on the same frame as a DS?

44 AMP said:
After scrounging around to find a couple of speed loaders for mine (Agent/Cobra) a friend pointed out that S&W K frame speedloaders will work. and, gosh, he was right! :D

The whilte on the sight is aftermarket. Otherwise, the gun looks cherry. If you're into Colts, nice find!
Click to expand...
44 amp, always wondered about the speed loaders. I never wanted to get tossed from a gun show for trying one of my K Frame speed loaders in a DS. The perfect back up gun for a model 65? I THINK SO! I really wish you hadn’t posted this info. For the record, put me down for unshrouded with the smaller (that’s read “PROPER”)grips.

PS
Is a Colt Magnum Carry on the same frame as a DS?
 
B

Bob Wright

New member
Old joke: Grandmother addressing her grand daughter: There are two words I never want to hear you say. One is "swell" and the other is "lousy."

Sweet young thing: "Okay, grandmother. What are they?"

In my home, in the South, we were admonished never to use slang expressions, especially those referring to another person. It was just "common."

I grew up that way at my mother's instruction, and later called my own daughter down for using the term "fuzz."

We were products of a gentler time. I even had trouble with the Colt "Cop-And-Thug" terminology.

Bob Wright
 
D

Dfariswheel

New member
"PS
Is a Colt Magnum Carry on the same frame as a DS?"

The frame and cylinder are the same general size, but the actions are totally different. No parts will interchange.

The New Cobra and New King Cobra also have the same general size frame and cylinder as the original Detective Special.

Of course slang was different in different areas, but way back then police detectives were "Dicks", private eyes were Gum Shoes or Key Hole Peepers.

Gum Shoe was either because they spent so much time walking they always had chewing gum on the soles of their shoes, or they wore gum soled shoes so they could sneak up and down hotel halls.

From the 1930's through the 1950's the Colt Detective Special was so much used by police, it was known as a "cop gun" and anyone carrying one was suspected of being a cop.

Virtually every cop in those years owned a Dick Special and it became almost a badge of office.
Detectives would often open the coat and flash the gun instead of a badge to identify themselves.
 
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