Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Please Help me ID this revolver

So my grandpa handed down a few of his toys today. But there is one revolver that I can't ID. It had a custom barrel and had the cylinder does not lock up. It just spins freely. Don't know if its worth putting money into to fix, or if its just one to throw into the safe. He said it worked before but doesn't know what happened. It has not names or engravings just a serial number.

Used to be a Colt Detective Special/Police Positive from the looks of it. Was thinking it was a last model Detective Special. The cylinder should lock up and the barrel is definitely not right. Looks over sized and bulky. Ryan

Yeah its a custom barrel for sure. and it was converted to 45acp to be used with moon clips. It is not in shootable condition.

If it's in the larger frame then my thoughts would be a Colt New Service, it's hard to tell how big it is in the picture. They built them in 45 ACP so it may have just been the barrel that's been replaced. It's an odd one. Ryan

Here is a larger picture. The 1911 is full sized above it as well as a Commander above that.

Yup, New Service with a weird barrel. The lower barrel shroud is screwed to the barrel, and the barrel looks like it was milled from something else, maybe a short piece of leftover barrel blank. That barrel really does nothing for the Colts lines, does it?

Find a good gunsmith who can turn it into an honest revolver. A New Service in .45ACP is a great revolver. If the barrel's in good shape and fit right, just have it profiled so it doesn't look hideous, fix the internals and game on.

By the way, the M1911 looks like an old match bullseye gun, is that what it is?

The bottom one is a Union Switch and Signal. Grampa said he had target sights put on it before he realized what he had. eventually turn it back to stock.