[elmersglue]

I've been studying pictures of Colt Cobras and have noticed that there is a difference in the firing pin in the hammer. Some Colt Cobras have a firing pin split key and other colts Cobras do not. Is there a year that defines these differences? Or can anyone tell me the logical processing of hammers on the the Colt Cobra hammer/firing pin succession? Hopefully I worded this to aquire the prober resonse. We'll see? Most Sinceresly, Elmersgule from Belton, Texas

 

[dfariswheel]

There was a short period of a couple of years when Colt used roll pins (actually tension pins, but everyone calls them roll pins) in the hammer to secure the firing pin in the Detective Special, Cobra, and Agent.
This was strongly disliked by consumers, so after a couple of years Colt went back to the the solid pin.

Sorry, I just read the other day somewhere what years the roll pin was used, but I can't remember.

 

[Malysh]

I've done quite a bit of research on this. Colt used spring pins (aka roll pins or tension pins) on D frames like the Cobra, Detective Special, Agent, etal, in the 1966-1969 time frame. I have seen no overlap of 1965 guns or earlier with the spring pin, but I have observed a few 1969 examples with the solid pin. So there is some overlap with the end date of 1969. It's a pretty safe statement to say that by 1970, all production was returned to the solid pin for the hammer.

I never liked the look of the spring pin either, when I was staring at various Colts with solid pins covering 7 decades! It's fine for S&Ws, but not with Colts!

 

[DS326]

As far as Detective Specials go, I have SN 9878xx which the tables show as 1968 although it's lacking the "D" prefix, which supposedly started in 1966 (?), and a 3" DS, SN A332xx which shows as 1969. Both have the solid pins if you're keeping track, Malysh.

Dick

 

[Malysh]

As far as Detective Specials go, I have SN 9878xx which the tables show as 1968 although it's lacking the "D" prefix, which supposedly started in 1966 (?), and a 3" DS, SN A332xx which shows as 1969. Both have the solid pins if you're keeping track, Malysh.

Dick

Dick, thanks for your information. There is always a parts overlap. In the main, spring pin hammers were used approximately for the 3 year period mentioned above