Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Pre-war Colt Officer's Model

Added another one to round out the triumvirate of pre-war Colt Officer's Model chamberings. 1935-vintage (with letter from Colt of authenticity and original purchaser), .22 6". As original except an early owner installed King sights. Around 96-98% condition with the slightest bit of muzzle wear on one side. Can't wait to shoot it.



Pictured with its brothers, .32 and .38:



(note the .38 has been restored/ceracoated, great shooter but it's a place holder for one with original finish)

Awesome colt G..

I have 2 like yours..one is a shooter and one is pristine and leads an easy life.

Those early colt .22’s give up nothing to any other revolvers in my opinion

All old Colts are interesting, but I've just never been able to warm up to the old Colt target revolvers. The sights (mainly the front sights) really throw off the esthetics for me.

They arent esthetic guns, they are target guns.

The beauty is in the design; the front patridge sight holds the elevation adjustment and keeps fouling deflected from the pronounced, flat square surface of the front sight picture.

Shoot a ramp or bead front and the sight fades as the gun is continuously fired as fouling accumulates.

Nice Trifecta.
Theyre really sleepers these days, but their popularity when released were for good reason.

There was an OLD dude who used to shoot indoor bullseye matches when I was in a club back in the '80s. He had one of those Colts that had been reworked by someone, who'd shortened the cylinder (to lessen the jump and had another barrel with a longer shank screwed into it. It was an odd looking thing, but he swore by it, and his scores were every bit the equal of any Hi Standard or M-41 Smith the other folks were shooting. I often wonder what happened to that old sixgun when the old coot passed to his reward. It was an interesting looking gun.

That was not an uncommon alteration 80-90 years ago, at least among the well heeled cognoscenti. Hatcher talked about them in his "Textbook of Pistols and Revolvers". (A damned good book by the way, even if published in 1935. A lot of (most of) the knowledge therein is ageless.)

Well, he WAS of that same vintage, but I must say that those years didn't hurt his shooting abilities. I wasn't into bullseye shooting, but I've always respected those who did it. That's REAL shooting the hard way......

Oh Boy. What a nice piece. Congrats, gnoahhh.

Edited to add: Would love to pick up a .38 special version of that model. More than likely would have to be an online purchase, though. Can never find those types of revolvers in decent shape here. They're always beat up or very rough from not being stored properly. However, there is ONE shop where I sometimes get lucky. Mannlicher and I typically hit that one last, since it's the farthest away. I've bought several very nice guns there.

Again, Congrats on a beautiful piece of history.

That's a nice add Gary, congrats!

1927 Colt Officers Model Target in .22. I can't tell you how much I love shooting this revolver. The single action pull is absolute perfection and it shoots better than I can possibly shoot it. My goal is to find its match in .38 Special in the next year.

I hear you, GunGeek!

Yo Dirt!! Here’s my 1915 (IIRC) officers model target in .38
Looks faded towards the muzzle in that pic but it’s not at all, and the blueing is in quite nice shape for it’s age

Dayam, Cert. That's beautiful!

A lot of nice old Colts here. I must say makes me a little envious.
One can't beat those old revolvers.

I have a few ........but always need more.

Nice Gary. You have accomplished my dream of the three. I have the 22 and 38 both made in 37. Both right at 90%. If I found a 32 it would have to been made in 37. What are the odds?

Yeah, it is hard to beat them. One of the things that draws me to them is their utter smoothness, a certain something that is difficult to verbalize but which is the end result of hands-on craftsmanship.

I can visualize long workbenches lit by big filmy/dirty windows (purposely kept that way for light diffusion) at which curmudgeonly old guys sat amongst bins of parts and created works of mechanical art armed with stones and files (and the knowledge to use them). A method of manufacture long absent from today's world and the root of that "certain something".

The older I get the more I realize that humans have lost their way a bit. Used to be form and function went hand in hand, now it's either form follows function or function follows form. Either way, we've lost.

Mighty nice!

Nice score, congrats!

Beautiful!!! They shoot like they look.

Colt only had a few assemblers that were allowed to work on their target revolvers, one of them was John "Fitz" Fitzgerald himself. When he wasn't out teaching law enforcement, he worked at the factory as a gunsmith, and one of the hand assemblers of target grade revolvers.