Elderly Colt Revolver

[velocette]

Revolver from long since passed dad. Full sized 6" barrel
Colt D.A. 38 SN 1782 on frame inside swing out, and K1783 on cylinder release latch.
JEH. stamped on left frame next to hammer, above cylinder latch.
KS.M stamped on frame left side above cutout for grips.
Latest patent date is Mar 5 95
No 1 Stamped on butt base with large tall N, small o with a - under the o
a tall 1 (or7) stamped below the No 1 and a - sign aligned with the top of the 1
1902 stamped on the left frame behind the trigger and almost into the cutout for the grips.
Narrow, flat topped target front sight, bent a little to the left. Rear sight is just a groove in the frame.
Wood right handed thumb ledge target grips with made in Italy stamped on them.
Outside finish is poor, insides show virtually no wear, barrel is clean with no apparent pitting. Very heavy DA trigger pull.

What do I have?
Photos to come after Amazon delivers some new batteries for my camera.

 

[Monac]

You have a Colt D. A. 38. The D.A. stands for Double Action. If you do a Google search for Colt D.A. 38, you will find lots of information, like this: https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2020/10/07/wheelgun-wednesday-colt-da-38/

Some of this information will be relevant to your gun and some will not. If you can put up some pictures of your gun, we can really start to tell you about it. If you can at least link to photos or articles with photos that are the most like your gun, then we can tell you more than we can now. But the more we know about your specific gun, the more we can tell you about it in particular.

There are a lot of people here who just like old guns, and they will be glad to see yours and tell you what they know about it.

PS - IIRC, the Colt D.A. went through a lot of changes in a short time, because it was Colt's first swing-out cylinder revolver. If your gun does not have a swing-out cylinder, and you have to load it through a gate on the right side, then you have a Colt Lightning, which is a very different kettle of fish. But I think the 1902 patent date rules out a Lightning. Thanks for giving all the details you included in your post.

 

[Monac]

velocette, if you are still curious about your gun, I might suggest you re-post your question to the Revolver forum. It would be appropriate there too, and a lot more people would see it. You might want to wait until you have some pictures, though.

 

[bannockburn]

vellocette

Sounds like maybe you have the civilian version of Colt's New Army and Navy revolver, made from 1892 to 1907. Other things concerning the gun are: the frame plate is on the right side of the gun (later Colt revolvers would have it on the left side, the cylinder rotates in a counter-clockwise direction, it came in .32-20, .38 Colt Long, .38 Colt Short, .38 S&W and .41 Colt. It could have a barrel anywhere from 2" to 6" long, blued or nickel finishes', and probably had hard rubber grips, though wood grips where also available. Some of the other numbers you see are actually assembly numbers so those parts that were already fitted stayed with that particular gun.

 

[velocette]

Finally got some photos of the old Colt.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Colt New Army, .38LC.
There should be more markings on the bottom of the grip frame, including the actual serial number.

 

[unclenunzie]

It's kind of breathtaking. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Its not in bad shape for what it is. Ive seen them much, much worse. From what the OP is saying it sounds like the lockwork is functioning normally- they are well known for broken springs and worn out hands and cylinder stops.
Mine was the nicest example Ive ever seen in the flesh:

A neat historical peice, but not really a practical shooter. I traded it for a Luger and dont regret it.

 

[Nature Boy]

Reminds me of my Colt New Service 45 LC that I inherited from my pops

 

[velocette]

Well, some more history of the old Colt has surfaced.
In the 1930s, the revolver was issued to a pilot that was flying the US mail named W. Morris Hampson. He was told the revolver was to protect the mail, not himself, according to his daughter.
After some, well, a lot of cleaning and lubrication, the revolver locks up tight and functions smoothly but with very heavy DA and SA trigger pull. About half of the revolver still has some of the beautiful royal blue that Colt was so famous for.
The Colt is destined to be added to a display box in my gunroom as a companion to the 1851 Navy Colt, an 1873 Colt Frontier revolver in .44-40 WCF already there. Clear progression of design.
As an interesting aside, both of W. Morris Hampson's daughters were serious national and international rifle competitors for many years and one still competes and wins today at 70 years old.

 

[AlexanderA]

A neat historical piece, but not really a practical shooter.

Agreed. I had an army-issue Colt .38 in my collection, but couldn't get it to shoot worth a darn. (Mostly because of a bad trigger pull.) I sold it when at one point I was downsizing the collection, and don't regret doing so.

 

[1KPerDay]

Cool!

 

[Kp321]

I think that is the model revolver that led to the adoption of the 1911 in 45 ACP. The round nosed 38’s performed so poorly in the Philippine resurrection the war department went out for bids on a 45 cal pistol.