Dectective Special trigger question

[JT-AR-MG42]

I put a photo of two on here. Both are .38 special.

The left one is ser. no. 366xxx from 1928. Right one is 490xxx from 1947.

Both guns appear to be stock. Note the different triggers. Does anyone have data on when Colt went from the smooth early trigger to a checkered?
Or if the checkered trigger is original to the '47 gun?

I do know Colt triggers from '50 on were grooved.

I have tried to log onto the Colt forums many times and it just won't let me in!

JT

 

[Terry A]

I don't know the date they transitioned the trigger as you described, but I can provide some helpful tid-bits hopefully.

The Dectective Special's "1st" series was produced between 1927 & 1946.
The changes they made then were to the grip, ejector rod, ect. I don't know anything about the trigger here. The "2nd" series was produced from 1947 until around 1972. The "3rd" and final series went from 1972/73 until 1986, when Colt started it's demise.

During these three periods, small changes were made. To what extent or when the trigger was altered, sorry, can't help you more with that.

My grandpap owned a Dectective Special as well as a Police Positive Special.
My cousin has the DS, I have the PPS. I've always been interested in the history of these two handguns and have several saved articles on them. In the next day or so, I'll go thru what I have and if I can provide documentation as to when the trigger change you've inquired about happened, I'll post it here.

 

[Dfariswheel]

The checkered trigger stopped around the very late 1940's when Colt finally started upgrading to the post-war guns.

In the late 40's-early 50's Colt started assigning letter codes to revolver frames, and the small Police Positive frame became the Colt "D" frame.
During that time, the checkered trigger was changed to grooved as standard production.
Smooth triggers were used previously at times.
Around 1972 when Colt again changed the guns to the new heavy, shrouded barrel, the triggers were changed to smooth.

As is usual with Colt, there is no definite date when one type trigger stopped and another started.