One of the most collectable Colt 38s around were produced during the Second World War on a special contract for the military and, true to their name, these guns often were used “somewhere behind enemy lines.”
Going back to the early 1900s, the Colt Police Positive and later the Official Police set the bar for medium-framed six-shot double-action revolvers with a swing out cylinder.
These guns, with barrels that ranged from 2 inches to 6 inches and in more than a half dozen calibers that ran from .22LR to .38 Special. As the name would imply, these guns were extremely popular with both uniformed police and security as well as G-men and T-men and the Coast Guard during Prohibition.
When World War II came, Colt garnered a contract for nearly 50,000 .38S&W caliber (.38/200) of their Official Police revolvers for the British military in 1940– while the U.S. was still on the sidelines.
Then came Pearl Harbor and the Colt wheelgun went to war for Uncle Sam.
Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk
