Colt Firearms Collector
Preserving our American history

Just look at all of the enthusiasm surrounding the re-release of the Colt Python in 2021. Like many others, I spent years pining for an authentic Python to join my personal collection. But the two times I came across them in the wild, the price tags were far out of my reach. So I struggled on without a Colt to call my own until about a decade ago. That was when I found a Colt revolver that nobody really wants. 

The revolver in question is a Police Positive, one of Colt's small-frame double-action revolvers manufactured from 1907 to 1947. "Now hold up there, Gil!" you might say. The Police Positive is a highly desirable collector's item, with some models selling for as much as $1,200 these days. How can you say nobody wants it?

Well, not all of them command a high price from collectors. With a 40-year production history under its belt, the Police Positive was made in several variants. They were made with barrel lengths ranging from 2.5" to 6", with a polished blued or nickel finish along with wood or hard rubber grips. Caliber options included .22 LR, .32 Long Colt, .32-20 Winchester and .38 Special.

There are two additional caliber options you may bump into that are a bit confusing if you don't know the history of these guns. Namely, the .32 Colt New Police and the .38 Colt New Police. The truth is they don't exist. Colt executives didn't want to provide any advertising for one of their top competitors. So they invented new names for the .32 S&W Long and .38 S&W cartridges so as to avoid stamping the Smith & Wesson logo on the barrels of their guns.

When I found the Police Positive you see here, it was one of two 4" barrel blued models with rubber grips laying side-by-side in a pawn shop display case. It's interesting just how much the caliber a vintage firearm is chambered in can be a determining factor in its value. The other one was chambered in .38 Special, it was in fair condition, and it had a price tag of $600, despite some pitting on the cylinder.

This one was in very good condition. It exhibited a buttery smooth, hand-tuned action that revolver enthusiasts long for. The grips were in great shape, the bore and chambers were clean and most of the bluing was intact with some visible holster wear at the muzzle and along the sides of the cylinder. The price tag was a whopping $129. Why' Because the barrel is stamped .32 Colt New Police, meaning that it shoots the now-obsolete .32 S&W Long.

I fell in love with it on the spot. What was not to love' Here was a piece of shooting history that I could take home for less than a used .22-caliber rifle. It has such sleek, clean, classic lines and such intriguing little details like the checkering on the pull-back cylinder release, the small pony logo stamped on the left side of the receiver and all of the detail worked into the rubber of the grip. This particular model weighs in at 18.1-oz. unloaded, making it feel feathery-light when pointed dow

I was perfectly happy to pay Colt's archives and pay the fee for a letter of authenticity. I learned that this particular wheel gun was made in 1924 as part of the first issue of the series, introduced in 1907, that ran until 1927. I carefully stripped down the revolver and found it to be mechanically sound inside and out.

There was a good deal of dusty, greasy build-up and oxidation under the grip panels, which may not have ever been removed since they were installed at the factory (remember, folks, to clean under your grips once in a while). I took it to a local gunsmith who knows his way around vintage firearms, and he also gave it the once-over and declared it safe to shoot.

I rooted around a few different shops until I found a single box of .32 S&W Long cartridges that had to be rescued from a nest of dusty bunnies. I shot this for the first time with my dad at one of our family's annual Thanksgiving morning shooting sessions out behind my brother's property. Its vintage looks, slim grip and mild recoil brought a smile to our faces. It was one of those wonderful days together that I'll always treasure.

Finding .32 S&W Long ammunition is not any easier than it used to be. But I was able to wrangle up a couple of boxes of PPU (Prvi Partizan) Ammunition's 98-gr. lead round nose loads from a local Cabela's ahead of the latest nationwide ammunition shortage.

So what kind of performance can one expect from a .32-caliber Colt' The Police Positive was able to tap out a best group of 2.39" with a five group average of 2.77" at 15-yards from a benchrest. According to a LabRadar chronograph, the average velocity for 10 rounds of the soft lead slugs was 683-f.p.s. for 102-ft-lbs. of energy at the muzzle.

 The day I was at the range with this gun, I had a few Clear Ballistics gel blocks on hand for some shotgun testing. I had an undamaged section in one block that had been used for a shotshell test and figured I should go ahead and see what this little gun could do. The round-nose bullet penetrated 14.75" when fired from 10' into the bare gelatin. It stopped facing backwards with no noticeable deformation. So is this gun and ammunition combination a defensive power house' Not exactly, especially when compared to today's handgun standards. But it performed better than I expected it to.

I have to admit that I'm a bit in awe of this little Colt Police Positive revolver. Not because of what it can do, or the brand stamped on the grip, though I still take pride in owning an authentic vintage Colt. No, my respect for this piece is based on what it represents. When I look it over, I feel like I'm holding a little piece of history.

It was made without the aid of CNC machines, long before industrial computers aided drafting and without many of the manufacturing systems gun makers rely on today. This gun was built by skilled hands dedicated to hard work in factory conditions that would at the least be considered uncomfortable by today's standards.

With its 100th birthday just around the corner, this Colt revolver not only still works, it has a smoother action than several of the modern guns I've shot. I'll never know the story of this revolver's history before it became a part of my collection.

Was it carried by a beat cop on his rounds, or was it kept close at hand for home defense' Did it help to preserve someone's life, or did it just come out of the safe once in a while for a few pot shots at some tin cans' What I do know is that it's now a part of my family's history, and it didn't cost a small fortune to enjoy it.

Specifications:

Manufacturer: Colt's Manufacturing Co, LLC
Model: Police Positive
Action: Double-Action Revolver
Date of Manufacture: 1924
Caliber Stamp: .32 Police CTG.
Caliber: .32 S&W
Finish: Blued Carbon Steel
Grips: Checkered Hard Rubber
Sights: Fixed
Double Action Trigger Pull:
Single-Action Trigger Pull: 5-lbs. 7-oz.
Barrel Length: 4"
Overall Length: 8"
Cylinder Width: 1.25"
Weight: 18.1-oz.
Capacity: 6 Rounds
Twist: 1:16 RH
Rifle Grooves: 6

A Look Back at the Colt Police Positive

by Dave Campbell - June 15, 2016

The last decade of the 19th century must have been a fascinating time to be alive. New inventions and improvements on current ones arrived on scene in a staccato rivaling the firing rate of a machine gun. Two of the giants in the handgun industry-Colt and Smith & Wesson-were locked in a dogfight as to which company would garner the lion's share of that market. Colt had the lead with its Single Action Army revolver. The company has historically relied on relatively simple, rugged designs, superbly executed to establish and maintain market superiority. Its Massachusetts-based counterpart, on the other hand, hangs its hat on intricate designs with precise execution, that is aesthetically pleasing and with an impeccable finish to set it apart.

Then, as today, customers, both civilian and military, pine for a firearm that is light in weight to lessen the burden of carrying it constantly. They also want it to be powerful enough to be effective, and they want it to be easy to shoot and hit the mark. Those of us who have been around guns for some time know the contradictions, but people still want a 4 oz. gun that hits like a .44 Mag. and is as easy to shoot accurately as a .22 LR target pistol. The companies, alas, continue to try to accommodate this dream.

Colt had already developed the concept of a double-action or trigger-cocking revolver back in 1857. Its first successful double-action revolver was the Model 1887 Lightning. These first revolvers countered Colt's reputation for ruggedness and were rather fragile. The Model 1887 Thunderer was a similar piece in a heavier caliber, .41 Colt. Then, utilizing William Mason's 1865 patent for a swing-out cylinder with simultaneous ejection, Colt brought out the Model 1889 Navy, a.k.a. New Navy DA Model of 1889. Three years later the less-than-stellar Model 1892 Army debuted, followed by the beefy and robust New Service in 1898. Customers liked the New Service for its performance, but, again, pined for something easier to carry all day long every day.

Smith & Wesson continued to nip at Colt's heels, spurring the Connecticut gun maker to relentlessly pursue improving its design. Colt responded in 1896 with its New Police Revolver, a relatively small frame double-action revolver with a swing-out cylinder holding six rounds of .32 Colt cartridges. The frame was derived from Colt's New Pocket Revolver that was introduced the year before. New York Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt chose the New Police Revolver to be the first standard issue revolver to the NYPD in 1896.

After getting its nose bloodied by Smith & Wesson in 1898 with its Hand Ejector Model, Colt hurried to add a device to allow its revolver to be safely carried with all six chambers loaded. The Police Positive debuted in 1907. 'Positive' was derived from Colt's nomenclature for the internal hammer block safety device. The marketing guys at Colt had to do something to gin up the enthusiasm beyond a safety device so they latched onto the notion of a clockwise-rotating cylinder, claiming that it was stronger and less wearing on the crane than Smith & Wesson's counter-clockwise-rotating cylinder. Never letting a good marketing notion go to waste, they further made the unsubstantiated claim that the clockwise-rotating cylinder was more accurate.

The Police Positive did find a lot of favor, especially with door-rattler cops who shot relatively little but carried daily. It carried on the .32 Colt chambering but added the .38 Colt New Police (a.k.a. .38 S&W) chambering for added punch. Sights were a fixed groove in the topstrap and a half-moon blade up front. Barrel lengths were 2 1/2", 4", 5" and 6". Grips were checkered hard rubber until 1924 when checkered walnut became standard. Finish could be blue or nickel. In 1908 the frame was lengthened a bit to accommodate longer cartridges. Chamberings included .32-20 WCF and .38 Spl. These were named the Police Positive Special. Colt's D-frame was further beefed up in 1928, and they began serrating the topstrap to reduce glare. These revolvers are known as Police Positive Second Issue.

A target version chambered in .22 LR with adjustable sights became available in 1910. Later iterations of the target model were chambered in .22 WMR, .32 Long (and Short) Colt, and .32 Colt New Police (.32 S&W Long). Today the target variation carries an 80 percent to 90 percent premium over standard fixed-sight models in the collectors' world.

In 1926 Colt paired down the D-frame slightly and offered the revolver with a 2" barrel chambered in .38 Spl. This was the famous Detective Special and became the mainstay for many plainclothesmen police officers throughout much of the 20th century.

Overall during its 88-year run, more than 750,000 Police Positive and Police Positive Special revolvers were made. The paradigm shift from revolvers to semi-automatic pistols fueled its demise in 1995. The Police Positive is one of the very few Colt revolvers not commanding an extraordinary premium today except for the aforementioned target version. Nonetheless, it is a solid, accurate and serviceable revolver that doesn't wear out the user who carries it daily, and in .38 Spl. still has enough punch to take the fight out of many bad guys.