
The same Applegate who had the ear of some people at Colt. Applegate who helped found the OSS (precursor to Special forces and the CIA) and was famous, or rather INFAMOUS, for carrying a Fitz Special in 45 ACP. Rex Applegate, who suggested they combine the back of the old safety hammerless with the 38 special chambered Chief’s Special. The story is they made the Centennial at the suggestion of Col. It’s not hard to see that Colt was chasing the market a little, following Smith & Wesson’s 1952 introduction of the Centennial model which later became the model 40 in steel and the model 42 in aluminum. The shroud covered the hammer and made the gun a snag-free gun that retained the ability to cock back the hammer and go at it single action. The hammer shroud could also be retrofitted on guns without it. Within a year they introduced a hammer shroud that was available on all three models, The Detective Special, the Cobra, and the Agent. When the Agents were first made in 1955 the finish was exactly the same as the Cobra, it just had a shorter grip frame and grips, so it was a more concealable gun. Or it’s a short-gripped version of the oh so collectible aluminum-framed old model Colt Cobra. The Colt Agent is an aluminum framed, lightweight, short-gripped version of the Colt Detective Special.
#AB08955 COLT AGENT 38 SPECIAL SERIAL NUMBERS#
I checked the serial numbers through the Sheriff’s Office and made sure the gun wasn’t stolen (it was that good a deal!) and paid the man his asking price plus gas money for meeting me. Here was a very nice classic Colt Agent with most of the finish intact. He met me at the Sheriff’s Office and handed it over and I was floored. Then a new acquaintance offered me a sight-unseen unknown Colt revolver for a great price, and I jumped on the opportunity. This had me looking for something even more jacket pocket friendly to carry, if and when the opportunity knocked. It quickly got a Tyler T grip and a replacement hammer with the spur bobbed to make it a bit easier on the draw. 38 special Smith & Wesson Model 60 with very little wear (none from firing) for a more than fair price. Grant Cunningham’s Protect Yourself with Your Snub Nosed Revolver, Ed Lovette’s The Snubby Revolver, and Michael DeBethencourt’s pamphlet Thirty Eight Straight Tips for Better Snub Shooting all could be considered required reading for the new snub owner or anyone seeking information on the subject. If you are going to run a snub, get some training and get some information. While not overly abundant, they are at least more available than other categories of handguns of similar age. These are the sock-drawer guns, carried-lots shot-little guns, carried-little shot-once guns, and even the never-carried left-in-the-box-of-the-top-dresser-drawer-with-the-receipt guns. Snubs were often bought as the “have a gun” type of guns. There are a large number of perfectly serviceable ones out there, some of which are in like-new snubs. Those hundreds of thousands in circulation also make for an interesting market, because if there is anything a gun guy (or gal) likes, it’s a deal. Especially so, considering that Smith & Wesson, Colt, Kimber, Ruger, Charter Arms, and Taurus are all producing a variety of new guns to add to the hundreds of thousands still in circulation. Highly concealable, easy to operate, extremely reliable, robust, and functional in adverse operational conditions, snub nose revolvers have a staying power in the market. Possibly the most relevant type of revolver in today’s conversation would be the snub. Those arguments against revolvers are nothing new, having roots as deep or deeper as the introduction of the 1911 as the standard sidearm for the United States Armed Forces. I’ll have to admit I fell prey to the arguments against them for years and slowly came around to both their effectiveness and their charms. One of the repeated arguments in gun circles lately has been the viability of revolvers as effective defensive weapons in the modern days of a variety of automatics.
