POTD: The Etchen Colt Detective Special – A Cop Gun in a Tuxedo

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a working cop gun that somebody put in a tuxedo. The Detective Special showed up in 1927 when Colt cut the Police Positive Special down to a two inch barrel. That was the whole idea. Six rounds of 38 that would ride under a coat all day without printing, sold to plainclothes detectives, bank guards and anybody else who needed a gun they could forget about until they could not. It was plain on purpose. Colt built the thing to be carried hard, worn out and replaced.

Which is why this one stops you. Somebody sent a snubby through the factory engraving shop before the war, and the estimate floating around is that only two ever got that treatment. Engraving a Detective Special in 1939 makes about as much sense to me as engraving a hammer. Colt was decorating Single Action Armies, New Services and 1911s for men who wanted a presentation piece to hand somebody. Nobody was dressing up the gun a detective threw in a coat pocket every morning.

This one went out to Abercrombie and Fitch in New York in July of 1939, back when that store was where sporting money got spent, and it carries an inscription to Etchen on the back strap. The story riding along with it says Ad and Plinky Topperwein presented it down in San Antonio. Winchester’s exhibition team handing a Colt to a trap champion is a good scene no matter what you think of the gun.

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!

“Trap Shooter F. R. Etchen’s Colt Detective Special Revolver.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/1236/trap-shooter-f-r-etchens-colt-detective-special-revolver. Accessed 31 Aug. 2026.

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