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Colt Cobra First Issue Nickel -Questions

4K views 26 replies 13 participants last post by  Zorros 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello everyone. I am new to this forum and I am enjoying reading years worth of good advice and interesting stories.

I recently purchased a Colt Cobra made in 1969. It is unfired and has no box. There is a blemish on the Nickel right behind the cylinder.

I have several questions if you wouldn't mind sharing your wisdom and experience:

1) Is the blemish repairable, will Colt re-nickel it or repair it? If so, will they provide some sort of Colt documentation on their work?

2) Should my perspective be to make it a collectable safe queen or does the absence of a box and the blemish make it something I should enjoy owning and shooting with no guilt.

3) I paid $750.00 and I feel good about that price. How was I on the over/under?

Thank you in advance.
 

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#2 · (Edited)
Welcome to the forum!

The cost of refinishing would be prohibitive in my opinion. Plus you now have a refinished gun and thus not original.
I would shoot, carry and enjoy. A good friend (ret KSP det) carries his Detective Spl on occasion for a bit of nostalgia aka old school.
Check the completed
gun acution sites for an index of current market value. To me, $750 is a little more than I would care to invest.
Vic
 
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#8 ·
Thank you Kerz, I appreciate your thoughts and feedback. I thought I might be $50-$75 high on the purchase price and I kicked it around for a couple of days. Then, over a glass of small batch bourbon, the thought hit me: Having a classic revolver, that was fit and finished by hand, and shares my 51 years of life, for about the price of crappy AK47, which I get to consummate with my trigger finger, is the right thing to do. So I did.
 
#3 ·
Hello and welcome to the Colt Forum from West Virginia. Glad you have joined us all here.
 
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#4 ·
Great looking gun. I also would advise not to refinish it. $750 might have been a little high for me, but I have paid too much before for guns that I really wanted. I would shoot it but limit the amount of Plus P ammo in it. Shoot all the standard loads you want and it should be fine.
 
#15 ·
Depending on how it's defined...it could be called either a Second or First Issue. Some call the Cobras prior to 1972 First Issue...'72 is when the barrel was changed to fully shrouded. Some call the long-frame (up until the mid 1960s) the First Issue and short frame the Second Issue.

Basically...yours is a'69 short-frame Cobra regardless of what generation someone wants to call it.
 
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#18 ·
"Issue" alarm! "Issue" alarm! A newby (welcome to the Forum Rasselin!) has been misled into the "issue" issue, and some of you, who should know better, have helped Rasselin along too. I shall post the standard "issue extinguisher" response used when an issue alarm goes off to try to save another soul from being an issue for misuse of terms. Take notes this time class!

The Cobra has a much shorter history than the Detective Special because it did not exist until Post-War. The Cobra was first cataloged in the September 1950 catalog as an alloy-frame version of the Post-War Detective Special, already in its Third Generation by that time. (The “Lightweight Detective Special,” an alloy-frame Detective Special, and a favorite of the Great Pumpkin [irrelevant information Rasselin - sorry], was the VERY brief predecessor of the Cobra.) These early Cobras had the “Dual Tone” finish and plastic stocks. I would call these guns "First Generation." The plastic stocks were changed to wood in the mid-1950s, and the “Dual Tone” finish was dropped. I do not consider the stock material or finish change as another generation, but some might. In 1966, the butt frame was shortened, which is Second Generation. In 1973, a year after the Detective Special got the shrouded ejector rod, the shrouded barrel was introduced on the Cobra, which I count as Third Generation. The Cobra last appeared in a Colt catalog in 1978, and was absent from the 1979 catalog. (I am ignoring the bastardization of the Cobra name caused by the steel-frame "new" Cobra.)

Because there was mention in passing of the Agent, I will close class with a brief mention of the Agent's history.
The Agent has an even shorter history than the Cobra. The Agent first appeared in the June 1955 catalog in blue only with wood stocks. “Dual Tone” and plastic stocks were gone by the time the Agent was introduced. The Agent is basically a Cobra with a very short butt. In 1966, the butt frame was shortened even more, along with all other D-frame Colts, and the stocks only were extended to restore the apparent butt length to that of the original full-frame Agent. In 1973, one year after the Detective Special got the shrouded ejector rod, the Agent also got the shrouded ejector rod. The blue Agent last appeared in a Colt catalog in 1978, and was absent from the 1979 catalog.

In 1983, Colt introduced a "discount" version of the Cobra with matte finish (the price list identifies the finish as “Park.”) called the Agent. I do not consider it an extension of the original compact Agent because it had the full-length butt frame created by using Cobra/Detective Special regular length stocks overlapping the abbreviated butt frame. This version of the Agent last appeared in a Colt catalog in 1986, and was absent from the 1987 catalog.

Class dismissed, but be ready for a pop quiz soon.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Rasselin welcome to the Forum. We are glad to have you. Enjoy your new revolver and shoot it as often as you can.
Here is a Cobra from 1970 with the shorter grip frame.

Agent from 1961
Bought both of these in Ohio at the Ohio Gun Collector Show
 
#24 ·
Rasselin, welcome to Coltforum, and congratulations on your acquisition of a really nice Colt Cobra!

"Unfired" is a much overused, and abused term as applied to handguns. I think it is a serious overstatement, as applied to your handgun.

Check out the checkering on the stocks of your revolver, and compare that to the checkering on mentallapse's wooden stocks shown in post no. 21. The checkering on your stocks is no longer sharp, proving that the revolver has been handled a LOT. I think the not-so-sharp points on the stocks proves that the gun has been fired plenty. I cannot tell in the photo, but I bet that if you examine the ejector rod under a magnifying glass, you will see lots of minute wear consistent with pushing the ejector rod many times, ejecting spent cartridge cases from the fine revolver.
 
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