The Colt Trooper is a medium frame , double-action revolver featuring a six-round cylinder, chambered for .22 Long Rifle, .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, .38 Special, and .357 Magnum caliber cartridges . Designed as a less expensive alternative to the upscale Colt .357 and the later Colt Python and Colt King Cobra , it was marketed to law enforcement agencies as well as civilians.
118-508: Introduced to the firearms market by the Colt's Manufacturing Company in 1953, the Trooper and its high-end cousin, the .357 Magnum, were introduced with the intention of addressing the medium frame revolver market, as law enforcement officers had long complained about the weight of earlier models. The two guns were seen as ideal in size and handling characteristics for the .38 Special and its big brother
236-619: A (rare) 3-inch (7.6 cm) barrel was offered during the Second and Third Series. One early variant based on the DS frame was the Colt Banker's Special . First produced in 1928, it was chambered in .38 Colt New Police (.38 S&W) and .22 Long Rifle. Few were made, particularly in .22LR caliber. The Banker's Special was popular with railway clerks, who often carried them on mail and parcel freight trains prior to World War II. During World War II production
354-492: A checkered hammer spur and cylinder latch, a "half-moon"–shaped front sight, and an overlapping screw and locking pin set-up on the right side of the frame. Grip panels were wooden. A rounded butt on the metal frame became standard in 1933, but pieces with the original square butt (like that of the Police Positive Special) continued to be produced into the 1940s. The Second Series ran from 1947 to 1972. The ejector-rod
472-461: A concept favored politically, but that had little interest or support among handgun owners or police departments. This research never produced any meaningful results due to the limited technology at the time. Colt announced the termination of its production of double-action revolvers in October 1999. The boycott of Colt gradually faded out after William M. Keys , a retired U.S. Marine Lt. General, took
590-558: A design for a semiautomatic pistol , which debuted as the Colt M1900 pistol and eventually evolved into the M1911 . Prior to America's entry into the war, orders from Canada and the United Kingdom swelled the backlog of orders to three years. Colt hired 4,000 more workers, making a total of 10,000 employees—and its stock's price increased by 400%. By 1918, Colt had produced and sold 425,500 of
708-699: A few years. Colt historian RL Wilson has described this as the major blunder of Sam Colt's professional life. Rollin White left Colt's in December 1854 and registered a patent on April 3, 1855, in Hartford, Connecticut, as patent number 12,648: Improvement in Repeating Fire-arms . On November 17, 1856, White signed an agreement with Smith & Wesson for the exclusive use of his patent. The contract stipulated that White would be paid 25 cents for every revolver, but that it
826-509: A fire destroyed most of the factory, including arms, machinery, plans, and factory records. On September 1, 1865, Root died, leaving the company in the hands of Samuel Colt's brother-in-law, Richard Jarvis . The company's vice-president was William B. Franklin , who had recently left the Army at the end of the Civil War. With the Civil War over and having no new military contracts, Colt's Manufacturing
944-452: A gold-tone). An optional hammer shroud was available from the factory to prevent the hammer from catching on clothing. Transition from the First to Second Series was gradual, with some post-WWII Second Series guns retaining short ejector rods and checkered hammers. Because of this, assigning a given revolver to a particular issue is best done by serial number. During the 1960s, the grip frame of
1062-587: A large number of M1917 water-cooled machineguns . The company had a workforce of 15,000 men and women in three factories and production ran on three shifts, 24 hours a day, and won the Army-Navy rating of "E" for excellence. Colt ranked 99th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. However, the company was losing money every year due to mismanagement, an embittered workforce that had been stretched to its limits, and manufacturing methods which were becoming obsolete. As
1180-627: A major role in the popularization of the revolver and the shift away from single-shot pistols. Although Samuel Colt did not invent the revolver, his designs resulted in the first very successful model. The most famous Colt products include the Colt Walker , made in 1847 in the facilities of Eli Whitney Jr. , the Colt Single Action Army , the Colt Python , and the Colt M1911 pistol, which
1298-416: A name other than Colt. Samuel Stone acquired a firm that manufactured plastics and renamed it "Colt rock" as well as a company that manufactured electrical products. Colt weathered the financial crises of the time by cutting the work week, reducing salaries, and keeping more employees on the payroll than they needed. These measures kept the company in business but ate up the cash surplus they had acquired during
SECTION 10
#17329021369021416-501: A polymer-framed, rotating-barrel, 9×19mm handgun with a magazine capacity of 15 rounds. It was designed by Reed Knight, with parts manufactured by outside vendors and assembled by Colt; its execution was disastrous. Early models were plagued with inaccuracy and unreliability and suffered from the poor publicity of a product recall. The product launch failed and production of the All American 2000 ended in 1994. This series of events led to
1534-618: A rear-loader) but also started, as of 1858, to convert cap & ball percussion guns into rear-loaders, even with formerly Colt manufactured revolvers. But the Colt's company itself was prevented by American laws from infringing the Rollin White patent and all along the 1850s and 1860s continued manufacturing percussion guns. In 1860 it produced a new revolver model for the United States Army . This Colt Army Model 1860 appeared just in time for
1652-447: A renewed focus on product development. This resulted in the M4 carbine and Colt 22 pistol, two of the most successful new product offerings in the late 1990s, capturing 50% market shares in the first year of production. The 1990s brought the end of Cold War , which resulted in a large downturn for the entire defense industry. Colt was hit by this downturn, though it would be made worse later in
1770-669: A replacement for the Detective Special. From its introduction, the Detective Special used Colt's Positive Safety Lock ( hammer block ), first featured on the Police Positive; the mechanism interposes a bar between hammer and frame until the trigger is pulled, preventing accidental discharge if the hammer is struck (e.g., if a dropped gun falls onto its hammer) with the trigger forward. First and early Second Series Detective Specials are becoming highly sought after by collectors, particularly if they are in prime condition and still have
1888-557: A serial-number range 5800 to 7900. In November 1865, Franklin had attempted to purchase a license to the Rollin White patent from competitor Smith & Wesson. White and Smith & Wesson would take no less than $ 1.1 million, but Franklin and Colt's directors decided it was too large an investment on a patent that would expire in 1868. In the meantime, Colt turned its attention to manufacturing goods other than firearms, such as watches, sewing machines, typewriters and bicycles. In 1868 Rollin White requested an extension to his patent, but
2006-554: A slightly smaller frame than the Colt Official Police or Smith & Wesson Model 10 (K-Frame) revolvers, but is larger than the five-shot Smith & Wesson Model 36 / Model 38 / Model 42 (J-frame) revolvers. Although the Detective Special proved to be an instant success when first introduced, lackluster sales saw the elimination of the Detective Special from the product line in 1996. John Henry Fitzgerald, an employee of Colt Firearms from 1918 to 1944, first came up with
2124-428: A solution. The Richards conversion was performed on the Colt 1860 Army revolver. The caliber was .44 Colt and the loading lever was replaced by an ejector rod. This conversion added a breech plate with a firing pin and a rear sight mounted on the breechplate. Cartridges were loaded into the cylinder one at a time via a loading gate. Colt manufactured 9000 of these revolvers between 1873 and 1878. In 1873, Colt performed
2242-408: A subsidiary of Czech holding company Colt CZ Group . It is the successor corporation to Colt's earlier firearms-making efforts, which started in 1836. Colt is known for the engineering, production, and marketing of firearms, especially during the century from 1850 through World War I , when it dominated its industry and was a seminal influence on manufacturing technology. Colt's earliest designs played
2360-404: A subsidiary of New Colt Holding Corp, LLC. In 2013 Colt Defense acquired New Colt Holding Corp., in part to protect a licensing agreement set to expire in 2014, where Colt's Manufacturing sold sporting rifles marketed to consumers that were manufactured by Colt Defense. This formed a single company to develop, manufacture and sell firearms under the Colt name for all markets for the first time since
2478-567: A two-tone color scheme with dull Colt Royal Blue on the flat surfaces and a black bead blasted texture on the edges and cylinder flutes. Both Target and Service versions of the Trooper were available, the Target models sporting hand-filling Walnut grips , larger and wider target hammers , and adjustable iron sights . Service versions featured smaller more basic hammers and stocks, and fixed sights. Barrel lengths available included four inch in .22 caliber and four and six inch in .38 Special;
SECTION 20
#17329021369022596-422: A village near the factory away from the tenements which he named Coltsville and modeled the homes after a village near Potsdam . In an effort to stem the flooding from the river he planted German osiers , a type of willow tree in a 2-mile long dike. He subsequently built a factory to manufacture wicker furniture made from these trees. The 1850s were a decade of phenomenal success for the new Colt corporation. Colt
2714-526: Is the longest-standing military and law enforcement service handgun in the world and is still used. Though they did not develop it, for a long time Colt was also primarily responsible for all AR-15 and M16 rifle production, as well as many derivatives of those firearms. The most successful and famous of these are numerous M16 carbines, including the Colt Commando family, and the M4 carbine . In 2002, Colt Defense
2832-466: The Fitz Special snubnosed revolver concept around the mid 1920s, when he modified a .38 Special Colt Police Positive Special revolver, by shortening the barrel to two inches (5.1 cm), shortening the ejector rod, bobbing the hammer spur , rounding the butt, and removing the front half of the trigger guard. Reshaping the hammer and the butt allows the gun to be drawn quickly with little risk of
2950-559: The American Civil War . The New York Daily Tribune denounced Colt and his company by asserting, “the traitors have found sympathizers among us, men base enough to sell arms when they knew they would be... in the hands of the deadly enemies of the Union... Col. Colt’s manufactory can turn probably 1,000 a week and has been doing so for the past four months for the South.” This article even chided
3068-580: The British Army placed an order for 5,000 of these revolvers for army issue. Despite a following order later in the year for an additional 9,000 revolvers, Colt failed to convince the British to adopt his revolver as the issue sidearm for the army. Colt began to realize that British sales were failing to meet his expectations. Unable to justify the London factory's expenses, Colt closed the London factory in 1856. Over
3186-667: The Colt Armory in 1855, a manor that he called Armsmear in 1856, and employee tenement housing. He established a ten-hour day for employees, installed washing stations in the factory, mandated a one-hour lunch break, and built the Charter Oak Hall, a club where employees could enjoy games, newspapers, and discussion rooms. Colt ran his plant with a military-like discipline, he would fire workers for tardiness, sub-par work or even suggesting improvements to his designs. In an attempt to attract skilled German workers to his plant, Colt built
3304-578: The Colt M1877 . Following this, he once again teamed up with Richards to produce a larger-framed version, the Colt M1878 Frontier. It was Colt's first large-frame, double-action revolver. It combined the front end of the Single Action Army revolver with a double-action, 6-shot frame mechanism. It was available commercially in numerous calibers. The 1870s and 1880s provided sales opportunity to
3422-568: The Colt Magnum Carry , this model was only produced for a year before the entire production of Colt revolvers (excluding the Colt Python ) ceased in 2000. Therefore, ultimately ending the Detective Special line. Interest has arisen over the use of higher-pressure (+P) .38 Special ammunition in the Detective Special. In their more recent owners manuals, Colt authorized limited use of +P ammunition in steel-framed revolvers (including earlier versions), citing 2000 to 3000 rounds before recommending
3540-478: The Colt Walker , ensuring Colt's continuance in manufacturing revolvers. In 1848, Colt was able to start again with a new business of his own, and 1855, he converted it into a corporation under the name of Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Connecticut. Colt purchased a large tract of land beside the Connecticut River , where he built his first factory in 1848, a larger factory called
3658-564: The Gatling Gun , capable of firing 800–900 .30 Army rounds per minute and used with great effect at the Battle of San Juan Hill . The M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun or "Potato Digger" was built by Colt. The Colt–Browning was one of the first gas-operated machine guns, originally invented by John Browning. It became the first automatic machine gun adopted by the United States and saw limited use by
Colt Trooper - Misplaced Pages Continue
3776-517: The Great Exhibition of 1851 at Hyde Park, London and ingratiated himself by presenting cased engraved Colt revolvers to such appropriate officials as Britain's Master General of the Ordnance. At one exhibit Colt disassembled ten guns and reassembled ten guns using different parts from different guns. As the world's leading proponent of mass production techniques, Colt went on to deliver a lecture on
3894-666: The M9 Pistol . The Colt OHWS handgun was beaten by H&K for what became the MK23 SOCOM , it was lighter than the H&;K entry but lost in performance. Colt did not get to compete for the XM8 since it was not an open competition. Current M16 rifles have been made primarily by FN USA since 1988. However, Colt remained the sole source for M4 carbines for the US military. Under their license agreement with Colt,
4012-608: The Patent Arms Manufacturing Company of Paterson, New Jersey, Colt's Patent . The first firearm manufactured at the new Paterson plant, however, was the Colt First Model Ring Lever rifle beginning in 1837. This was followed shortly thereafter in late 1837 by the introduction of the Colt Paterson . This corporation suffered quality problems in production. Making firearms with interchangeable parts
4130-597: The Rollin White patent by utilizing a unique cartridge. Colt continued to produce the .41 Short derringer after the acquisition, as an effort to help break into the metallic-cartridge gun market, but also introduced its own three Colt Derringer Models, all of them also chambered in a .41 rimfire unique cartridge. The last model to be in production, the third Colt Derringer, was not dropped until 1912. The first metallic cartridge breech-loading weapons sold by Colt's were those Derringers, in 1870, that were formerly conceived by
4248-706: The "9.65mm handgun", the Detective Special was used by the military police officers of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces along with the M1911 pistol designated as the "11.4mm handgun", replaced by the Minebea P9 semi-automatic pistol, the Japanese license-made SIG Sauer P220 . A small number were used in some prefectural police headquarters of Japan including the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department . The six-shot Colt Detective Special
4366-504: The .22 was intended as a ‘practice’ weapon and also came in a six inch. All the Troopers from this series had hammer mounted firing pins . The Trooper was targeted at the entry-level and Law enforcement service-level segment of the firearms market while the highly polished and expensive 357 model revolver was intended to be their premium offering. Both models shared the same forged and labor-intensive hand-fitted internal lockwork. After
4484-577: The .357. Offered as an alternative and competitor to Smith & Wesson ’s Model 28 "Highway Patrolman", the Colts were lighter and handier. The original Trooper was a heavy-barreled version of the Officers Model Match and was based on Colt's medium I frame . It was offered in .22 Long Rifle and .38 Special chamberings . Manufactured with fine carbon steel , it was available in both blued and nickel-plated finishes. Early blued Troopers boasted
4602-482: The 15,000 units between April 1921 and March 1922. The stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression resulted in a slowing down of production for Colt. In anticipation of this, company presidents William C. Skinner and Samuel M. Stone implemented a diversification program similar to that done at the close of the American Civil War . Colt acquired contracts for business machines, calculators, dishwashers, motorcycles, and automobiles; all marketed under
4720-475: The 1990s by a boycott by the shooting public in America. In 1994, the assets of Colt were purchased by Zilkha & Co, a financial group owned by Donald Zilkha . It was speculated that Zilkha's financial backing of the company enabled Colt to begin winning back military contracts. In fact, during the time period it won only one contract, the M4 carbine . However, the U.S. military had been purchasing Colt carbines for
4838-407: The 2003 completion of the restructuring. Colt Detective Special The Colt Detective Special is a six-shot, carbon steel framed, 2-inch (5.1 cm) or 3-inch (7.6 cm) barreled, double-action revolver , and the first example of a class of firearms known as "snubnose revolvers" . Made by Colt's Manufacturing Company , this model revolver, as the name "Detective Special" suggests,
Colt Trooper - Misplaced Pages Continue
4956-502: The Astros. The 1980s were fairly good years for Colt, but the coming end of the Cold War would change all that. Colt had long left innovation in civilian firearms to their competitors, feeling that the handgun business could survive on their traditional revolver and M1911 designs. Instead, Colt focused on the military market, where they held the primary contracts for the production of rifles for
5074-478: The Colt company via the spread of European-American society ever further westward across the continent, and the demand for firearms that it engendered in various ways. As white Americans displaced Indians from the Indian Territory , both sides were eager for firearms. On the white side, both the U.S. Army and civilians were customers of Colt. The Army carried Colt revolvers through the last of its Indian Wars . On
5192-530: The Detective Special. Colt filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992. After reorganization, the company restarted production of the Detective Special in 1992. The post-1991 Detective Special is sometimes called the Fourth Series, and featured "composite" (rubber), wrap-around grips with a gold medallion. Only a two-inch barrel was offered, in blue or hard chrome finish. The new production run continued only until 1996, when Colt introduced its stainless-steel SF-VI as
5310-618: The Federal Government for not taking action against Colt: “Every man who makes arms should be watched, and if he will not work for a fair equivalent for the Government, his manufactory should be taken away from him.” Despite secession and growing tensions between the North and the South, “Colt’s sales to Alabama, Virginia, Georgia, and Mississippi in 1860 alone were at least $ 61,000 (today’s equivalent of about 3.35 million).” Until just days before
5428-516: The Indian side, Colt weapons were captured when possible, or bought from whoever was selling. Even among whites in towns where Indians had been vanquished, a thriving demand for guns existed, from the criminals to the police to self-defending civilians. Memoirs of Americans including Walter Chrysler and Jack Black speak of what it was like growing up in Western towns where most people had guns and open carry
5546-574: The National Arms Company, but Colt's also started developing its own rear-loading guns and cartridges. In 1871, Colt's introduced its first revolver models using rear-loaded metallic cartridges: the .41 caliber Colt House Revolver (also known as the Cloverleaf for its four-round cylinder configuration) and the .22 cal Colt Open Top Pocket Model Revolver . However, Colt's wanted a more powerful practical handgun loaded with metallic cartridges so
5664-585: The New Jersey corporation by 1842. Colt made another attempt at revolver production in 1846 and submitted a prototype to the US government. During the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), this prototype was seen by Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker who made some suggestions to Colt about making it in a larger caliber. Having no factory or machinery to produce the pistols, Samuel Colt collaborated with
5782-521: The Open Top started in 1872 and stopped in 1873 when the Single Action Army model started to be delivered to the US Army. However, the Open Top was already a completely new design. The parts, for example, would not interchange with the older percussion pistols. Mason moved the rear sight to the rear of the barrel as opposed to the hammer or the breechblock of the earlier efforts. The caliber was .44 rimfire and it
5900-403: The Rollin White patent neared expiration, Colt moved to develop its own metallic cartridge revolver. It was 1868 when Colt's first effort toward a metallic cartridge revolver was by conversion of existing percussion revolvers. The first of these conversions was patented on September 15, 1868, by Colt engineer, F. Alexander Thuer as patent number 82258. The Thuer conversion was made by milling off
6018-597: The Second Series Detective Special was shortened, matching that of Colt's other snub-nosed pistols, the Cobra and Agent . Despite this alteration, the Detective Special's overall grip size remained unchanged, as Colt fitted the Second Series with new, lengthened gripstocks that extended below the frame. The Third Series ran from 1973 to 1986. A new shroud extended down from the barrel, enclosing and protecting
SECTION 50
#17329021369026136-567: The U.S. Marine Corps at the invasion of Guantánamo Bay and by the 1st Volunteer Infantry in the Santiago campaign during the Spanish–American War . In 1901, Elizabeth Jarvis Colt sold the company to a group of outside investors based in New York and Boston. During World War I , Colt surpassed all previous production achievements. John Browning worked for Colt for a time and came up with
6254-478: The U.S. military awarded the contract for future M16 production to Fabrique Nationale . The strike finally ended when an agreement was reached on 22 March 1990. Some criticized Colt's range of handgun products in the late 1980s as out of touch with the demands of the market, and their once-vaunted reputation for quality had suffered during the UAW strike. Colt's stable of double-action revolvers and single-action pistols
6372-580: The U.S. military designation system, whose terms are in the public domain . Colt has entered in several US contracts with mixed results. For example, Colt had an entry in the Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR) program of the 1980s, but along with other contestants failed to replace the M16A2. Colt and many other makers entered the US trials for a new pistol in the 1980s, though the Beretta entry would win and become
6490-568: The UAW itself. The new Colt first attempted to address some of the demands of the market with the production in 1989 of the Double Eagle , a double-action pistol heavily based on the M1911 design, which was seen as an attempt to "modernize" the classic Browning design. Colt followed this up in 1992 with the Colt All American 2000 , which was unlike any other handgun Colt had produced before—being
6608-474: The US military could not legally award second-source production contracts for the M4 until July 1, 2009. In 2007 Colt won a contract to produce M4 carbines for the US military worth $ 71 million. In 2008 this was followed by a $ 151 million order for 89,000 M4 carbine rifles. In a 2002 restructuring, Colt's Manufacturing Company, Inc, spun off Colt Defense , LLC, to supply military, law enforcement and security markets. Colt's Manufacturing Company itself become
6726-473: The US military. This strategy dramatically failed for Colt through a series of events in the 1980s. In 1984, the U.S. military standardized on the Beretta 92F . This was not much of a loss for Colt's current business, as M1911A1 production had stopped in 1945. Meanwhile, the military rifle business was growing because the U.S. military had a major demand for more upgraded M16s; the M16A2 model had just been adopted and
6844-650: The Whitney armory of Whitneyville, Connecticut. This armory was run by the family of Eli Whitney . Eli Whitney Jr (born 1820), the son of the cotton-gin-developer patriarch, was the head of the family armory and a successful arms maker and innovator of the era. Colt used a combination of renting the Whitney firm's facilities and subcontracting parts to the firm to continue his pursuit of revolver manufacture. Colt's new revolvers found favor with Texan volunteers (the progenitors of later Texas Rangers cavalry groups), and they placed an order for 1,000 revolvers that became known as
6962-436: The World War I years. In 1935, after employees voted to disband a labor union , 1,000 workers went on strike for 13 weeks. Strikers became violent, attacking workers and detonating a bomb in front of company president Samuel M. Stone 's house. The company set up a barracks, dining room, and recreation room for workers within the Colt Armory during the strike. On June 3, 1935, the National Recovery Administration ruled that
7080-569: The basic/entry-level offering, and the Trooper in .357 Magnum. New members of the line up included the Lawman, Metropolitan Police, and Border Patrol. The MK III series was discontinued in 1983. The Lawman was a .357 Magnum 'service grade' or 'police issue' version of the Trooper, and somewhat of an economy model intended for law enforcement looking for cheaper sidearms or private armed security. The Lawman came with fixed sights and no ejector rod shroud. Early Lawman revolvers came with thinner hammers and narrow triggers, but most Lawman revolvers come with
7198-480: The beginning of the 20th century, the MK IIIs used a new ‘J’ frame and had no parts interchangeability with older models. The new revolvers employed transfer-bar lockwork system, so that the revolver could fire only if the trigger was deliberately pulled completely to the rear. The springs used in the Mark III internals were also an improvement. Unlike the older flat style, they were coiled and made entirely of corrosion -resistant stainless steel . The .357 Magnum Trooper
SECTION 60
#17329021369027316-419: The capability of firing .38 Special ammunition as well. In the late 1960s, Colt began to be concerned with a decline in its market share because of price increases brought about by the high labor costs inherent in its manufacturing processes. In response, an entirely new product line of revolvers dubbed the MK III series debuted in 1969. Intended to be the first major advancement of Colt's designs since
7434-419: The company put forward William Mason, who in 1871 began work on Colt's first .44 caliber metallic-cartridge revolver: the Colt Model 1871-72 Open Top . The company registered two patents for the Open Top, one in 1871, the other in 1872, the same patents mentioned in the markings of Colt Single Action Army revolvers , a nowadays legendary and long produced model, improved and based on the Open Top. Production of
7552-575: The company sold 107,000 of the Colt Army Model 1860 alone, with production reaching 200,500 by the end of the war in 1865. During the war, Colt's was still prevented by the American laws from infringing Rollin White's patent. Nevertheless, the war made a huge fortune for the company, allowing Sam Colt to become America's first manufacturing tycoon, though he did not live to see the end of the war; he died of rheumatic fever on January 10, 1862. His close friend and firearms engineer, Elisha K. Root , took over as Colt's company president. On February 4, 1864,
7670-424: The company thrived during the conflict. Sam Colt had carefully developed contacts within the ordnance department, signing the very first government contract for 25,000 rifles. Colt's Factory was described as "an industrial palace topped by a blue dome", powered by a 250-horsepower steam engine . During the American Civil War , Colt had 1,500 employees who produced 150,000 muskets and pistols a year. In 1861 and 1863,
7788-461: The company was within its rights not to deal with the union and the strike ended. In the year following the strike, the factory was hit by a hurricane and flood. Many company shipping records and historical documents were lost as a result. At the beginning of World War II , Colt ceased production of the Single Action Army revolver to devote more time to filling orders for the war. During the war Colt manufactured over 629,000 M1911A1 pistols as well as
7906-445: The company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1992. In 1992, the creditors, state and shareholders enlisted the aid of turnaround specialist RC (Ron) Whitaker to overcome the bankruptcy challenge. He developed a new team to address the company's situation. In addition to creating a positive working relationship with the UAW to introduce new techniques like cellular manufacturing, operator quality assurance and single-piece flow, they developed
8024-474: The diminished lock times increased accuracy. Exterior modifications included a compact grip frame with rounded grips; other changes were engineering-based with the goal of simplifying and facilitating production. and all 9mm cartridges Colt%27s Manufacturing Company Colt's Manufacturing Company, LLC ( CMC , formerly Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company ) is an American firearms manufacturer , founded in 1855 by Samuel Colt that has become
8142-488: The ejector rod, and the front sight was changed to a full ramp. New, oversize wood gripstocks were introduced that covered the front frame strap. The Third Series featured improvements to the revolver's internal lockwork as well. As with the previous two Series models, a few nickel-plated guns were produced, and a 3-inch (7.6 cm) barrel variant was again offered. In 1986, facing stagnant sales numbers as well as rising production and labor costs, Colt discontinued production of
8260-443: The escalation of the Vietnam War , Robert McNamara shutting down the Springfield Armory , and the U.S. Army 's subsequent adoption of the M16 , for which Colt held the production rights and would sell over 5 million units worldwide. Colt would capitalize on this with a range of AR-15 derivative carbines. They developed AR-15-based Squad Automatic Weapons, and the Colt SCAMP , an early PDW design. The Colt XM148 grenade launcher
8378-448: The facilities that he recorded his favorable comments of Colt's revolvers in an 1854 edition of Household Words . Most significant, the Colt factory's machines mass-produced interchangeable parts that could be easily and cheaply put together on assembly lines using standardized patterns and gauges by unskilled labor as opposed to England's top gunmakers. In 1854 the British Admiralty ordered 4,000 Navy Model Colt revolvers . In 1855
8496-516: The factory. The DAO or 'Bobbed Hammer' Detective Special was otherwise the same as the standard Fourth Series Detective Special. In 1997, Colt released the SF-VI/DS-II (Small Frame, 6 round/Detective Special 2) is a Detective Special with a stainless steel frame and simplified for easier manufacturing in both .38 Special and .357 Magnum. In 1999, the .357 Magnum version of the SF-VI/DS-II was renamed
8614-540: The famous Browning -designed M1911 . Because the factory could not keep up with demand for this pistol, the US Military decided to accept Colt New Service revolvers in caliber .45 ACP, called the M1917 revolver , as a substitute weapon. Competing manufacturer Smith & Wesson made double-action revolvers in .45 ACP, which were accepted and issued by the U.S. military under the same name. Colt produced 151,700 revolvers during
8732-425: The famous Colt "Royal Blue" finish. The Detective Special was initially available in both bright blued and nickel finishes; a stainless steel finish replaced the nickeled option during the Fourth Series. For the Second Series, caliber options were .32 New Police, .38 New Police, and .38 Special; only .38 Special was offered for the other Series models. The standard barrel length was 2 inches (5.1 cm), but also
8850-600: The first model was in the newest caliber known as the .45 Colt . The revolver was chosen by the Army in 1872, with the first order, for 8000 revolvers, shipping in the summer of 1873: The Colt Single Action Army or "Peacemaker", also known as the Colt Model 1873, was born. This revolver was one of the most prevalent firearms in the American West during the end of the 19th century and Colt still produces it, in six different calibers, two finishes and three barrel lengths. In
8968-411: The first shot at Fort Sumter, Colt received orders from various states, some participating in secession. In his memoir on Colt, written in 1866, Henry Barnard reported, “before the rebellion broke out, Col. Colt, foreseeing that his weapons must ere long be in double demand, had made all preparations to extend his factory.” The American Civil War was a boon to firearms manufacturers such as Colt's, and
9086-509: The gun be returned to the factory for inspection. Many believe that this was due to potential liability rather than engineering requirements, as the standard pressure ammunition of yesteryear was about the same pressure as modern +P ammunition. SAAMI lowered the pressures in 1972. Due to the good concealment qualities of the revolver, the Colt Detective Special was used as a weapon mostly by plainclothes police detectives, though it
9204-518: The helm of the company in 2002. Keys salvaged Colt's reputation and brought Colt from the brink of bankruptcy to an international leader in Defense production. In 2010 Gerald R. Dinkel replaced Keys as CEO of Colt Defense LLC, while Keys remained on the board of directors for Colt Defense. Colt has to compete with other companies that make M1911-style pistols such as Kimber and AR-15 rifles such as Bushmaster . Bushmaster has subsequently overtaken Colt in
9322-410: The introduction of the more expensive Python in 1955, Colt discontinued the basic .38 Special Trooper in 1961, and to did away with the .357 moniker , so they renamed it Trooper. The new offering retained the .357 magnum chambering and frame-mounted firing pin, but kept the entry-level revolver's more subdued finish. The Trooper continued to be offered in .22 Long rifle, and like all .357 Magnums, offered
9440-520: The military needed hundreds of thousands of them. In 1985, Colt's workers, members of the United Auto Workers went on strike for higher wages. This strike would ultimately last for five years and was one of the longest-running labor strikes in American history. With replacement workers running production, the quality of Colt's firearms began to decline. Dissatisfied with Colt's production, in 1988
9558-703: The new market of metallic cartridge rear-loading pocket revolvers, Colt's not only introduced its three Derringer Models (as of 1870) or the Colt House and the Open Top Pocket (the last two as of 1871) but also introduced in 1873 a subsequent design called its " New Line " revolver models, based on William Mason's patents. After the success of the Colt Single Action Army and Colt's conversion of existing percussion revolvers to Richards-Mason conversions, Mason went on to design Colt's first Double-action revolver ,
9676-518: The next few months his workmen crated and shipped the machinery and disassembled firearms back to America. Though the U.S. was not directly involved in the Crimean War (1854–1856), Colt's weapons were used by both sides. In 1855 Colt unveiled new state-of-the-art armories in the Hartford and London factories stocked with the latest machine tools (some of which were of Colt's devising), many built by Francis A. Pratt and Amos Whitney , who would found
9794-592: The next half century. Prominent examples included F. Pratt and A. Whitney (as mentioned above); Henry Leland (who would end up at Cadillac and Lincoln); Edward Bullard Sr of the Bullard firm; and, through Pratt & Whitney, Worcester R. Warner and Ambrose Swasey (of Warner & Swasey ). In 1852 an employee of Colt's, Rollin White , came up with the idea of having the revolver cylinder bored through to accept metallic cartridges. He took this idea to Colt who flatly rejected it and ended up firing White within
9912-418: The number of AR-15s sold on the civilian market. Colt suffered a legal defeat in court when it sued Bushmaster for trademark infringement claiming that "M4" was a trademark that it owned. The judge ruled that since the term M4 is a generic designation that Colt does not specifically own, Colt had to pay monetary reimbursement to Bushmaster to recoup Bushmaster's legal fees. The M4 designation itself comes from
10030-470: The original Pratt & Whitney tool building firm a few years later. For example, the Lincoln miller debuted to industry at these armories. Colt had set up libraries and educational programs within the plants for his employees. Colt's armories in Hartford were seminal training grounds for several generations of toolmakers and other machinists , who had great influence in other manufacturing efforts of
10148-425: The past 30 years (See Colt Commando ). During a 1998 The Washington Post interview, CEO Ron Stewart stated that he would favor a federal permit system with training and testing for gun ownership. This led to massive grassroots boycotts of Colt's products by gun stores and US gun owners. Zilkha replaced Stewart with Steven Sliwa and focused the remainder of Colt's handgun design efforts into " smart guns ,"
10266-462: The point became universally accepted that such manufacture was possible and economical. Colt opened his London plant on the River Thames at Pimlico and began production on January 1, 1853. Many English people saw Colt's advanced steam-powered machinery as proof of America's growing position as a leader in modern industrial production. On a tour of the factory, Charles Dickens was so impressed with
10384-677: The prototype for the Colt Detective Special , the first production two-inch snubnosed revolver. Even after the introduction of the Detective Special in 1927, Fitz continued to make custom revolvers for special clientele. Colt was so impressed with the Fitz Special that they decided to produce a sightly less radical version, the Detective Special , which is simply a shortened and somewhat streamlined Colt Police Positive Special . The Detective Special proved to be an instant success and
10502-399: The rear of the receiver and replacing it with a breechplate containing six internal firing pins. The cartridges were loaded through the mouths of the chambers. Colt made 5000 of these but they were not well accepted. Colt found the mechanism so complex it included a spare percussion cylinder with each revolver. Colt tasked its superintendent of engineering, Charles Richards , to come up with
10620-695: The request was rejected. He then turned to the Congress , but the request was again rejected, this time by the Senate and on the initiative of President Ulysses Grant , in January 1870. This led the patent to expire, allowing competitors to develop their own breech-loading guns and metallic cartridges. Following this, on that same year of 1870, Colt's bought the National Arms Company , a Brooklyn, New York company known for manufacturing derringers and for circumventing
10738-604: The same conversion on the M1851 and M1861 revolvers for the US Navy in .38 rimfire. Another of Colt's engineers, William Mason , improved this conversion by placing the rear sight on the hammer and, along with Richards, he was granted patents in 1871 to convert percussion revolvers into rear-loading metallic-cartridge revolvers. Those converted revolvers are identified as the "Richards-Mason conversion". There were approximately 2100 Richards-Mason M1860 Army conversions made from 1877 to 1878 in
10856-514: The same year. Also in 1955, Colt released one of the most famous revolvers in history, the Colt Python . In 1958 Penn-Texas merged with Fairbanks-Morse to form the Fairbanks-Whitney Corporation and in 1964 the conglomerate reorganized as Colt Industries. In 1956 Colt resumed production of the Single Action Army revolver and in 1961 began making commemorative versions of their classic models. The 1960s were boom years for Colt with
10974-456: The standard MK III Trooper hammers and triggers. Initial guns came with narrow service grips, but most come with larger target grips. Nickel finished guns came with Colt medallion-equipped Pachmayr "Signature" rubber grips. The Lawman came with a heavy barrel in lengths of two inch and four inch only. Early versions of the Lawman with the two inch barrel had an exposed ejector rod; but later models with
11092-586: The subject to the Institution of Civil Engineers in London. The membership rewarded his efforts by awarding him the Telford Gold Medal . Colt's presence in the British market caused years of acrimony and lawsuits among British arms makers, who doubted the validity of Colt's British patent and the desirability of the American system of manufacturing . It took many more years and a UK government commission before
11210-654: The two inch barrel have an attribute unique to the Lawman, the only Lawman barrel equipped with shrouded ejector rod, resembling something of a larger third-generation Colt Detective Special . As with the MK III Trooper, the MK III Lawman was produced from 1969 to 1983. 1982 - 1985 As with the MK III, the Mark V series was an entirely new product line of models which included Official Police, Lawman, and Trooper variants. The MK V series
11328-498: The war as well as 13,000 Maxim-Vickers machine guns and 10,000 Browning machine guns with an additional 100,000 under subcontract to other companies. Since Auto-Ordnance had no tooling for production of the newly developed Thompson submachine gun, John T. Thompson , in August 1920, entered into contract with Colt's to manufacture 15,000 Thompson 1921 submachine guns . The contract was signed on August 18, 1920. Colt's tooled up and produced
11446-463: The war ended and demand for military arms came to a halt, production literally ceased. Many long-time workers and engineers retired from the company and nothing was built from 1945 to 1947. Mismanagement of funds during the war had a serious impact as the 105-year-old firm faced possible bankruptcy. In September 1955 the board of directors voted to merge Colt with an upstart conglomerate called Penn-Texas, which had acquired Pratt & Whitney Machine Tool
11564-407: The weapon snagging on clothing. The halved trigger guard facilitates quick trigger acquisition, even for shooters with large fingers or gloves. Although historians disagree, it is believed that somewhere between 40 and 200 Fitz Specials left the Colt factory, made from various Colt revolvers, by Fitzgerald himself. The Fitz Special was the precursor to the modern snubnosed revolver and specifically
11682-572: Was a program run by the Air Force to replace the M1911A1. The Beretta 92S won, but this was contested by the Army. The Army ran their own trials, leading eventually to the Beretta 92F being selected as the M9. In the early 1960s, Colt threatened legal action against Major League Baseball 's new Houston franchise, the Colt .45s , citing trademark infringement. In December 1964 the team backed down, renaming itself
11800-424: Was also a popular off duty and backup firearm for uniformed police officers. It was used by bodyguards for personal defense and shooting sports. The Colt Detective Special was a popular weapon before the semi-automatic pistol replaced the revolver in many police departments, government agencies, and militaries. Myanmar Police Force and some other countries are still using them as officers' sidearms. Designated as
11918-448: Was based on a new, slightly smaller ‘V’ frame, similar in size to Smith & Wesson's ‘K’ frame. Changes from the MK III models were minor and many parts remained identical. Internally, Colt did away with the sintered iron MK III lockwork in favor of cast parts, and improved the trigger action with new components and a shorter hammer fall. These improvements made the MK V triggers smoother, while
12036-586: Was briefly in Chapter 11 bankruptcy , starting in 2015 and emerging in January 2016. The company was bought by Česká zbrojovka Group in 2021. In April 2022, Česká zbrojovka Group announced it had changed its name to Colt CZ Group. Samuel Colt received a British patent on his improved design for a revolver in 1835, and two U.S. patents in 1836, one on February 25 (later numbered U.S. Patent 9430X ) and another on August 29 ( U.S. patent 1,304 ). That same year, he founded his first corporation for its manufacture,
12154-714: Was common (such as in Kansas and Missouri, which were considered "out West" at the time—now considered the Old West ). Colt finally left the "loading gate concept" for a swing-out cylinder on its revolvers with the Colt M1889 Navy revolver, which resembled the Colt M1878 and was based on another design by Mason. The model was produced for three years between 1889 and 1892 and eclipsed by the Colt M1892 chambered in .38 Long Colt . The M1892
12272-413: Was created by Colt's design project engineer, gun designer Karl R. Lewis. The May 1967 "Colt's Ink" newsletter announced that he had won a national competition for his selection and treatment of materials in the design. The newsletter stated in part "In only 47 days, he wrote the specifications, designed the launcher, drew all the original prints, and had a working model built". At the end of the 1970s, there
12390-462: Was discontinued, and the type was not revived following the war's end. The Colt Commando Special was a version of the Detective Special with a matte finish and rubber grips; produced from 1984 to 1986, it was chambered in .38 Special and weighed 21.5 oz (610 g). During the Fourth Series production run of 1992 to 1996, Colt offered the Detective Special with an optional de-spurred 'bobbed' hammer and double action only lockwork, direct from
12508-513: Was forced to lay off over 800 employees. The company found itself in a precarious situation. The original revolver patents had expired, allowing other companies to produce copies of his designs. Additionally, metallic cartridge revolvers were gaining in popularity, but Colt could not produce any because of the Rollin White patent held by rival Smith & Wesson . Likewise, Colt had been so protective of its own patents that other companies had been unable to make revolvers similar to their design. As
12626-416: Was intended to be a concealed weapon used by plainclothes police detectives . Introduced in 1927, the Detective Special was the first short-barreled revolver produced with a modern swing-out frame. It was designed from the outset to be chambered for higher-powered cartridges such as the .38 Special , considered to be a powerful caliber for a concealable pocket revolver of the day. The Detective Special uses
12744-422: Was longer and had a groove in its knurled tip; a three-inch-barrel variant was offered, with a yet longer ejector rod. The cylinder latch was smooth, and the trigger spur serrated. The right side frame screw has no locking pin, and the rear half of the front sight is a serrated ramp. The grip panels were plastic in 1947, but were changed back to wood starting in 1955 (first with a silver-tone Colt medallion, and later
12862-457: Was made until 1996. Colt's Detective Special went through several issues or series. The First Series was produced from 1927 to 1946. Compared to later production models, the First Series used a narrower frame, with reduced clearance between the frontstrap of the gripframe and the rear of the trigger guard. Other distinctive features included a shorter ejector rod with an ungrooved, knurled tip;
12980-590: Was replaced by the New Service Double Action revolver in 1899. In caliber .45 Colt, the New Service was accepted by the U.S. Military as the Model 1909 .45 revolver. The New Service revolver was available in other calibers such as .38 Special and, later in the 20th century, .45 ACP (as the M1917 revolver ) and .357 Magnum. Under a contract with the U.S. Army, Colt Arms built the Model 1895 ten-barrel variant of
13098-505: Was seen as old-fashioned by a marketplace that was captivated by the new generation of " wondernines " – higher capacity handguns chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum , as typified by the Glock 17 . Realizing that the future of the company was at stake, labor and management agreed to end the strike in an arrangement that resulted in Colt being sold to a group of private investors, the State of Connecticut, and
13216-408: Was split off from Colt's Manufacturing Company. Colt's Manufacturing Company served the civilian market, while Colt Defense served the law enforcement, military, and private security markets worldwide. The two companies remained in the same West Hartford, Connecticut location cross-licensing certain merchandise before reuniting in 2013. Following the loss of its M4 contract in 2013, the reunited Colt
13334-593: Was still rather new (it had reached commercial viability only about a decade before), and it was not yet easy to replicate across different factories. Interchangeability was not complete in the Paterson works, and traditional gunsmithing techniques did not fill the gap entirely there. The Colt Paterson revolver found patchy success and failure; some worked well, while others had problems. The United States Marine Corps and United States Army reported quality problems with these earliest Colt revolvers. Production had ended at
13452-514: Was submitted to the US Army for testing in 1872. The Army rejected the pistol and asked for a more powerful caliber with a stronger frame. Mason redesigned the frame to incorporate a topstrap, similar to the Remington revolvers, and placed the rear sight on the rear of the frame; he consulted with Richards on some other improvements. The first prototype of the new gun was still chambered in .44 rimfire, but
13570-470: Was the first to widely commercialize the total use of interchangeable parts throughout a product. It was a leader in assembly line practice. It was a major innovator and training ground in manufacturing technology in this decade (and several after). Soon after establishing his Hartford factory, Colt set out to establish a factory in Europe and chose London, England. He organized a large display of his firearms at
13688-455: Was the premier offering of the new product line, featuring a heavy barrel with a solid top rib as well as a shroud which protected the ejection rod. A new ammunition chambering option, the .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire , also became available for the first time. The MK III series incorporated a number of models, several of which were updates of existing designs. Classic models included the venerable Colt Official Police chambered in .38 Special as
13806-475: Was the standard issue sidearm of Crime Wing inside Hong Kong Police Force , replaced by SIG Sauer P250 after years of use. The Colt Detective Special was the first revolver issued to French customs agents, meant to replace the old Browning 10/22 and MAB D pistols. They were used from 1975 to 1988, being progressively replaced by Smith & Wesson revolvers (mostly the S&;W model 13) along with French Manurhins and
13924-465: Was up to him to defend his patent against infringement as opposed to Smith & Wesson. During the 1850s and 1860s, Rollin White had been permanently trying to keep control on his breech-loading system patent, bringing a lawsuit to any breech-loaded manufactured gun. He nevertheless obtained an advance against royalties for using his patent from Smith & Wesson, a company that not only introduced its first revolver in 1857 ( Smith & Wesson Model 1 ,
#901098