POTD: Cut Away Trigger Guard – FBI Colt “Fitz Special” Detective Special

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a revolver with the front of its trigger guard removed on purpose. This is a 1937 Colt Detective Special in 38 Special, built in the factory Fitz Special configuration and shipped to the FBI’s New York office.

The recipe came from Henry Fitzgerald, who ran Colt’s service department and had strong opinions about fighting guns. Cut the barrel down, bob the hammer spur so nothing catches coming out of a pocket, round off the butt, and cut away the front of the trigger guard so a finger goes straight to the trigger. He did it first on larger frame guns, and it caught on with people who carried for a living.

The cut guard is the part that gets argued about, and reasonably so. It is faster, and it also leaves the trigger sitting out in the open on a double action revolver with a fairly light pull. This one letters with a 3 pound trigger. Fitzgerald’s answer was that the people carrying these knew what they were doing. Modern thinking on holsters and trigger coverage went the other direction, and hard.

The factory letter shows it went out on 2 June 1937 to Rhea Whitley, who worked cases including the Dillinger hunt and the Lindbergh kidnapping and resigned that September. Two inch barrel, bobbed hammer, rounded frame, and nothing on it that is not there to make the gun come out fast.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“F.B.I. Shipped Colt Detective Special ‘Fitz Special’ Revolver.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/223/fbi-shipped-colt-detective-special-fitz-special-revolver. Accessed 1 Aug. 2026.

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