« previous next »
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: .32 Colt Police Positive?  (Read 2264 times)

280plus

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 19,131
  • Ever get that sinking feeling?
.32 Colt Police Positive?
« on: July 19, 2013, 04:22:55 PM »
So I think. 2.5" barrel, no markings whatsoever on the gun. POSSIBLY someone has sanded/ground the finish and all markings off. ALSO the left side has open areas where you can see the innards, it does not appear that there is a plate missing or anything. As a matter of fact the plate itself is what has the holes. Is it possible this was a sales demo model? Seems fairly tight to me. Walnut grips so 1923-1947 according to what I've found. Barrel appears to retain its bluing but frame is a brushed raw finish. Neither blued nor shiny nickle. Cylinder is the same finish. What do you guys think? Apparently a preferred carry gun by many according to the interwebz
Report to moderator   Logged
Avoid cliches like the plague!

Brad Johnson

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 18,137
  • Witty, charming, handsome, and completely insane.
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2013, 04:46:19 PM »
IIRC the 2" barrel PP was only available as a .32 caliber.  Could be some collectability for the .32 / 2" combo but I don't know Colt PPs well enough to say.  If you can see the innards then someone has lost the side plate.  The missing side plate and the frame finish you describe make me think someone may have tried a hackjob wire-brush refinish project, losing the side plate in the process.

As for CC?  No.  All I can say about .32 Colt for defense purposes is that it beats throwing rocks, but only just.  Similar size/weight snubbies chambered for a much more effective cartridge are plenty available.

I say pass unless you're getting it for free.

Brad
« Last Edit: July 19, 2013, 05:04:30 PM by Brad Johnson »
Report to moderator   Logged
It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

280plus

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 19,131
  • Ever get that sinking feeling?
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2013, 04:58:52 PM »
Nope, the plate is 100% absolutely there. I'm tellin' ya, it's a cutaway demo. Could be very early if it is. Or a previous owner machined the plate themselves.
Report to moderator   Logged
Avoid cliches like the plague!

Brad Johnson

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 18,137
  • Witty, charming, handsome, and completely insane.
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2013, 05:03:22 PM »
Quote from: 280plus on July 19, 2013, 04:58:52 PM
Nope, the plate is 100% absolutely there. I'm tellin' ya, it's a cutaway demo. Could be very early if it is. Or a previous owner machined the plate themselves.

Ah, okay.  I misunderstood.  I though you meant the whole side was open, not just select areas. 

Could be a demo.  Could be a gunsmith teaching tool.  Sounds like an interesting piece.

Brad
Report to moderator   Logged
It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

AZRedhawk44

  • friends
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,987
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2013, 05:14:38 PM »
I sure wouldn't carry something that had exposed lockwork like you're describing.  Its value as a utilitarian carry piece is severely compromised, and its value as a pretty safe queen is obviously gone as well.

Meh.  I'd pass.
Report to moderator   Logged
"But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."
--Lysander Spooner

I reject your authoritah!

280plus

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 19,131
  • Ever get that sinking feeling?
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2013, 05:15:11 PM »





Report to moderator   Logged
Avoid cliches like the plague!

280plus

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 19,131
  • Ever get that sinking feeling?
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2013, 05:19:47 PM »
I wasn't planning on carrying it. It's an inheritance and I'm just trying to figure out what I have here.
Report to moderator   Logged
Avoid cliches like the plague!

Brad Johnson

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 18,137
  • Witty, charming, handsome, and completely insane.
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2013, 05:20:51 PM »
I don't think that side plate is factory anything.  If it is then someone at Colt needs to be kicked for such a miserably poor fitting job.

If the lockwork is tight I'd be tempted to have it refinished and keep it in the safe as a nice conversation piece.  The grips would be in great shape if it weren't for chunk out of the bottom-front.

Brad
Report to moderator   Logged
It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

RoadKingLarry

  • friends
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 21,841
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2013, 05:26:30 PM »
The "brushed finish" looks to be a wire wheel hack job to remove rust. It even looks like the top edge of the grips were in place as the wire wheel was applied.
Other than that it's an intersting piece.

Report to moderator   Logged
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.

Samuel Adams

280plus

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 19,131
  • Ever get that sinking feeling?
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2013, 05:29:53 PM »
I wanna shoot it! :)

It came with about a 1955 Ruger MkI Standard if that's any consolation. Seems like it's in good shape, not all shot out.
Report to moderator   Logged
Avoid cliches like the plague!

Tallpine

  • friends
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 23,172
  • Grumpy Old Grandpa
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #10 on: July 19, 2013, 09:59:35 PM »
An early example of open architecture  =)
Report to moderator   Logged
Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward toward the light; but the laden traveller may never reach the end of it.  - Ursula Le Guin

K Frame

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 44,636
  • I Am Inimical
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #11 on: July 20, 2013, 09:16:58 AM »
I SINCERELY doubt that Colt did the sideplate cuts.

They look like they were done by a drunken crack addict.

Colt has made cut-away guns in the past, and the quality of the cutting has uniformly been first rate.
Report to moderator   Logged
Carbon Monoxide, sucking the life out of idiots, 'tards, and fools since man tamed fire.

lee n. field

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,624
  • tinpot megalomaniac, Paulbot, hardware goon
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #12 on: July 20, 2013, 09:20:09 AM »
Quote from: 280plus on July 19, 2013, 04:22:55 PM
So I think. 2.5" barrel, no markings whatsoever on the gun. POSSIBLY someone has sanded/ground the finish and all markings off. ALSO the left side has open areas where you can see the innards, it does not appear that there is a plate missing or anything. As a matter of fact the plate itself is what has the holes. Is it possible this was a sales demo model? Seems fairly tight to me. Walnut grips so 1923-1947 according to what I've found. Barrel appears to retain its bluing but frame is a brushed raw finish. Neither blued nor shiny nickle. Cylinder is the same finish. What do you guys think? Apparently a preferred carry gun by many according to the interwebz

Demo for education purposes.

looking at the pics, umm, yeah,   not super smooth.  There's a history there, but what?
Report to moderator   Logged
In thy presence is fulness of joy.
At thy right hand pleasures for evermore.

280plus

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 19,131
  • Ever get that sinking feeling?
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #13 on: July 20, 2013, 10:30:00 AM »
Right. Nobody knows anything about them. They found them in the bottom of a packed box. My big question is why no markings on it at all? Were they wire brushed off and if so does this constitute a substantial reduction in the barrel's strength? In other words, should I be shooting it? The Colt came with 6 .32 NP rounds in an envelope that said "bullets". Does this lack of markings render the gun somehow "illegal".

Report to moderator   Logged
Avoid cliches like the plague!

Regolith

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 6,171
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #14 on: July 20, 2013, 07:53:02 PM »
Quote from: 280plus on July 20, 2013, 10:30:00 AM
Does this lack of markings render the gun somehow "illegal".

The only thing it's illegal to remove, AFAIK (and (IANAL, so take it for what it's worth), is the serial number. It also depends on when it was made.  They started requiring serial numbers and made it illegal to remove them in 1968. So many cheap guns made prior to '68 didn't have serial numbers.

If the gun had a serial number but it was removed prior to '68 I believe it's legal...but proving it might be problematic. If it was removed after '68, drop that thing like it's a hot *expletive deleted* rock. Preferably somewhere deep.
Report to moderator   Logged
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. - Thomas Jefferson

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. - William Pitt the Younger

Perfectly symmetrical violence never solved anything. - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth

Brad Johnson

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 18,137
  • Witty, charming, handsome, and completely insane.
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #15 on: July 20, 2013, 09:23:08 PM »
Some guns had serial numbers stamped in strange places like under he grips. Also check the butt of the gun. Sometimes it's there.

Brad
Report to moderator   Logged
It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

Jim147

  • friends
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 7,607
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #16 on: July 21, 2013, 12:03:53 AM »
The cuts make me think trade school teaching piece.

jim
Report to moderator   Logged
Sometimes we carry more weight then we owe.
And sometimes goes on and on and on.

BAH-WEEP-GRAAAGHNAH WHEEP NI-NI BONG

Matthew Carberry

  • Formerly carebear
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 5,281
  • Fiat justitia, pereat mundus
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #17 on: July 21, 2013, 08:13:28 PM »
Call Colt. They don't have a public email anymore but you could probably get one to send the pics to. I'm sure someone there would be interested in seeing it.
Report to moderator   Logged
"Not all unwise laws are unconstitutional laws, even where constitutional rights are potentially involved." - Eugene Volokh

"As for affecting your movement, your Rascal should be able to achieve the the same speeds no matter what holster rig you are wearing."

280plus

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 19,131
  • Ever get that sinking feeling?
Re: .32 Colt Police Positive?
« Reply #18 on: July 22, 2013, 08:07:36 AM »
Thanks Matt, good idea. The patina on the gun is such that it's fiarly obvious it was wirebrushed a long time ago. Also hard for anyone to prove when it was done. I did remove the grips and found a "5"in one spot and a "2" in another. Those are the only markings. I looked everywhere on it.
Report to moderator   Logged
Avoid cliches like the plague!
Pages: [1]
« previous next »