Re: Police Positive 4\" 38spl Date
Ah,Bushwhacker! "Lunchbox Guns"! One of my favorite areas of Colts. For those who want to know,this was a practice that Colt allowed of employees,probably only the skilled fitters,polishers etc.,to build guns on their own time,at the factory. Discontinued models,of which there remained quite a few parts were built,with the workers being charged minimal cost for the parts. No doubt some were done illegally,without permission,but one was risking being terminated from a relatively high paying job. I am most familiar with the New Services that were built right after World War Two ended,probably 1946-early 50's(enough New Service parts remained to assembly two in .45 acp,that Colt sold to Remington for ammo testing in 1954). These lunchbox specials can really confuse collectors! Serial numbers had to be kept for the BATF,but a few unserialed numbered N.S. are believed to have smuggled out illegally! Don't know what the security was at Colt in 1978 or so,when the "hybrid"on this thread may have been built,but I suspect it was a hell of lot stricter than years before. Gun may well have been factory assembled to clean up parts,as were the highly sought and valued S&W .38 M&P target models,built in 1946 to clean up prewar non ribbed barrels,the majority of which were sold to the Mexican Govt,hence its "Mexican Model" nickname. Shipping records might confirm that it(and perhaps a few more?) were sold to a distributor at a "special price"? Who knows,but part of what makes this frustrating,but fun!!! Bud
