Colt Commando revolvers were made for the U.S. military during World War II. Normally they had longer (standard) barrels but some, like this example, were snub nosed.
The Commando feels "more muscular" than the Detective Special because it is. The Detective Special is the small, or "D" framed Police Positive special revolver with a 2 inch barrel which Colt eventually decided to give its own name. The Commando was the medium or "E" framed "Official Police" revolver with a matte finish, no checkering on the trigger or cylinder release button and plastic grips. It was mostly made with the 4 inch barrel with a significantly lesser amount made with the 2 inch barrel.
My Dad had the rare 2" barrel Colt Commando. He was a US Army captain fighting the Japanese in the Philippines during WW2. After the war, I think he gave the Colt to his older brother who was then a captain also in the Philippine Constabulary, The Philippine Constabulary or national police was established when the country was still a US Commonwealth.
@@ObjectHistory You're welcome, sir. I bought a vintage Colt Agent 38 Special revolver a few months ago. It has a shorter grip frame than the Detective Special and Cobra. In very good condition, it's quite accurate and highly reliable with a very smooth double action trigger pull.
Awesome video! I own several older Colt .38s, and they are extremely well-made pistols. Have a 1966 and a 1968 vintage Cobra lightweight, a 1957 vintage Colt Agent, and a 1942 vintage Officers Model Match .38.
great video. I own a colt cobra 2" chrome plated revolver that was my grandfathers and I have my father service revolver from the Philadelphia police dept. It's a Colt official police in 38 special 4" barrel
I have a 2” Commando in the original box that was carried by a intelligence officer in WWII. I also have his Union switch & signal 1911 and standard mfg M-1 carbine
I think one reason revolvers stuck around so long after the semi-auto is the lack of ammunition that will both reliably expand AND reliably feed through a semi-auto. You generally need a very wide meplat back then for reliable expansion (without advanced features like segmented jackets) at pistol velocity and that's easier to do with a revolver as the rounds don't need to feed from a magazine. Even when 9x19mm ammunition was on the market that did reliably feed and expand the reputation stuck around, most police departments had some experience where someone shot an entire magazine into a suspect who kept fighting, the NYPD wasn't convinced that 9x19mm pistols were good enough for issue to patrol officers until 1994. Ironically they didn't start carrying "high capacity" pistols until the same year that the general public were restricted from purchasing newly made high capacity firearms.
Should you have on hand in 2" barrel specimens the Commando, Detective Special, and S&W Victory, there would be distinct differences in mass and size And adding to the trio a 1950s S&W Chief Special, the comparison would be even more dramatic. As well, contrasting production numbers, as you point out there were about 50,000 Commandos, while the Victory counterpart output for the British and US contracts was close to a million units.
That’s an interesting historical note. Will have to look into that. I agree they look better this way (non-shrouded) but I can definitely see the functional point of the shroud if you’re keeping it in a pocket.
Honestly I don't have that anymore, I ditch most of what I dig up for these videos bc otherwise I'd just end up with gobs and gobs of data. If it's something I think I'll need again or use in a book I hold on to it but didn't with the parts list/pic. If you screenshot it and do a Google image search I bet it would come up very quickly.
In comparison to Detective special, Comando is a much beefier revolver. The barrel on a snub version is almost double the thickness of the snub Detective…It’s basically a Detective Special on steroids !!!
Colt revived the Commando name for revolvers during the strike era (1986-1990). However, it was mainly just a parkerized Detective Special. During the strike, Colt did not have enough skilled craftsmen to do the detailed polishing necessary to get the deep blue finish their guns were known for (the even deeper "Royal Blue" finish was reserved for Pythons). These strike-era Commando revolvers were inferior to the Detective Special in fit, finish, and probably function as well. However, because of their relative rarity, they usually "command" higher prices. Also, these guns had synthetic grips that were unique to this model, and the grips alone can fetch eyebrow-raising prices.
