Colt Forum banner

A Pair of Target Revolvers from the 1930's

3K views 27 replies 18 participants last post by  Troystat 
#1 ·
I have been able to find two revolvers that belonged to A.J. Palmer who was a champion target shooter from Connecticut during the 1930s. The first revolver is a New Service Target that was shipped in 1938 and chambered in .44 Russian. This was specially ordered since that caliber was combined with the .44 Special in 1913 and all were dual marked from that point on. Mr. Palmer was very particular however and wanted to shoot only the .44 Russian cartridge so he ordered the gun so it was chambered for just that cartridge. The gun was fitted with a special set of stocks. The second revolver is a Shooting Master chambered in .38 Special and fitted with a high blade front sight and a Micro adjustable rear sight. It is also equipped with a set of wrap around Roper stocks.




New Service Target:










Shooting Master:










 
See less See more
12
#6 ·
Cam,
Does the New Service Target actually have a special order 5 1/2" barrel or is it 6" and the letter is in error? As you know the standard NS Target barrel was 7 1/2" with a very few made with 6" barrels. These are the only barrel lengths I have ever seen on the Target model. If the barrel is indeed 5 1/2" it would have been a special order feature and very, very rare if not unique.
 
#12 ·
Cam,
Does the New Service Target actually have a special order 5 1/2" barrel or is it 6" and the letter is in error? As you know the standard NS Target barrel was 7 1/2" with a very few made with 6" barrels. These are the only barrel lengths I have ever seen on the Target model. If the barrel is indeed 5 1/2" it would have been a special order feature and very, very rare if not unique.
John. I should have mentioned that the barrel is indeed a 6" so I can only assume that it was a typo as most of the .44 Russian chambered Colt revolvers were of the 5 1/2" length.
 
#16 ·
Travis. Here are pictures of both sets from the two guns shown. The set from the NST with the medallions has the small square notches for a jig fixture but it also has vertical milling machine end mill marks and I don't think that Matheis Gagne made the Roper Stocks back then using a machine. Kwill (Kevin Williams) wrote an article on the Ropers and maybe he could give us his opinion. I will e-mail him and ask if he can take a look.

Medallion stocks:




Note milling machine marks:


Roper stocks on Shooting Master:


 
#17 ·
Cam,
Thanks for posting. I will check some of mine, but I am almost positive I have several pairs the have the vertical milling machine end mill marks. I will post some pictures. I am leaning toward Roper in my opinion. However as for the medallions.... I know he did some with them at least for S&W that I have seen in his illustrations. Now did he install these?? I don't know that we will ever know the answer to that one.
 
#20 ·
Absolutely Magnificent additions to an already spectacular collection and lettered to a top rated competitive shooter of yesterday. I notice that the NST has the Shooting Master smooth cylinder latch release and the Shooting Master has the checkered release. Also on the Shooting Master does the letter state that the Micro rear was factory applied? I like that and the build up of the Patridge front sight, that must present a clear sight picture. In addition would the NST barrel be a left over from the 44 Russian chambering days? I notice that it has the bolster barrel and not the straight wall stove pipe that some of the older barrels exhibit. I get excited by all these minute details especially in factory custom guns. Again just outstanding!
 
#23 ·
Absolutely Magnificent additions to an already spectacular collection and lettered to a top rated competitive shooter of yesterday. I notice that the NST has the Shooting Master smooth cylinder latch release and the Shooting Master has the checkered release. Also on the Shooting Master does the letter state that the Micro rear was factory applied? I like that and the build up of the Patridge front sight, that must present a clear sight picture. In addition would the NST barrel be a left over from the 44 Russian chambering days? I notice that it has the bolster barrel and not the straight wall stove pipe that some of the older barrels exhibit. I get excited by all these minute details especially in factory custom guns. Again just outstanding!
You are correct on the cylinder release latches and I wondered if anyone would catch that. I can't say how each gun left the factory but both did have factory work order numbers with them meaning that the factory did something special to each gun. The barrel was made special on the .44 Russian as it has the 1926 patent date on it and the barrels made back in the early time period (1900-1912) had the last patent date of 1905 on the barrel. Given the fact that he was a recognized competitive target shooter and only lived 60 miles from the Colt factory, I would assume that he probably had a few connections there that would help him get whatever he needed. He also was a friend of J. Henry Fitzgeralds and Fitz had whatever he needed inside the Colt plant. In those days Colt really took care of the target shooters around the country.
 
#21 ·
Hi Cam,
Look at these. As you can see they have some sort of milling or router marks like yours. And another thing I noticed that on all the ones I have examined so far that have some type of milling mark also have some numbers or letters on them .."Just like yours" I really see nothing on your stocks that makes me believe they are not Roper. Your even have the wrap around at the trigger frame. Normally only Roper would do this extra step...aka quality and skill!










 
#22 ·
Hi Cam,
Look at these. As you can see they have some sort of milling or router marks like yours. And another thing I noticed that on all the ones I have examined so far that have some type of milling mark also have some numbers or letters on them .."Just like yours" I really see nothing on your stocks that makes me believe they are not Roper. Your even have the wrap around at the trigger frame. Normally only Roper would do this extra step...aka quality and skill!










Travis

Sorry, but I can not see any end mill marks like on mine. In fact, I don't see any machining marks on yours. I talked to Kevin and he says that they may be from Griffin & Howe.
 
#24 ·
Wow those are fantastic guns and grips! I also would lean towards Griffin and Howe on the Colt Medallion stocks. Those are cool, I like them a lot!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top