I believe the snub nose revolver will be one of the most popular models ever brought out for police and protective use and I feel that I have been very instrumental in bringing thhis about.

John Henry Fitz Gerald

we use guns because they provide lethal force in a very portable package

and if youre carrying it every day you want the smallest package possible

sometimes you just have to have a little gun

this is the colt detective special

from the 20s to the 90s it was one of the premier handguns for serious use

and its story is deeply entwined with a man named fitz

lets use the clam machine to go back to the late 1800s

woogawoogawooga

so fitz was playing with guns since he was like 10

stole his daddys pistol and accidentally shot his friends toe off

this kid wasted no time

he progressed to taking guns apart and building duplicate parts

invented forensic ballistic study

its pretty clear this kid has moxy

so he made friends with cops

became a state trooper

got hired by iver johnson

then hired by colt

hed done so much tinkering its unbelievable

and he was a huge proponent of armed citizenry

im reading his book and he might be my hero

so around 1925 he started making custom colts for the knowledgable dudes of the roaring 20s

like charles limbergh and clyde barrow

the guns were called fitz specials

and they were uh

unorthodox lol

he started with a regular revolver like a colt police special

cut the barrel to 2 inches

rounded the butt

chopped the hammer

dehorned everything

tuned the springs

oh and cut the friggin trigger guard off lol

but everything was specifically to make this the best gun for someone to snatch from a pocket and ventilate a crook

specific advantages of a short barrel according to fitz

• less leverage for the wise guy to snatch your gun out

• less chance for a squib to get stuck in the barrel

• and obviously a faster draw

well it got so popular that by 1927 colt started selling a revolver with a shortened barrel called the detective special

detectives dont have holsters on their hips and were major fans of the design

it was so popular like a million and a half were made

and it lasted until the 90s when colt itself went bankrupt

but the concept didnt die with colt

go to your local gun store and i bet you a box of .38 youll see a half dozen different makers of snubnoses

even in a world with polymer autoloaders the snubnose is going strong

one advantage of the colt over its competitors is it holds six rounds just like its bigger brothers

by comparison a smith and wesson snubby only holds five

and they didnt even start making snubbies until the 50s lol

so what if you dont want any of the copies

what if you need a colt

well with well over a million made i bet you could find one

and i have good news too

colt recently started making revolvers again

and one even has a factory bobbed hammer

it turns out there are certain realities of self defense that transcend time

and the snubnose lives on

pew pew

#click here for previous articles