Turk, the Commando Special is basically a no-frills parkerized Detective Special. It has a steel frame, cylinder and barrel, and, aside from a lack of the deep blue polished finish found on the DS, inherited all of the fine qualities of its better-known namesake. Colt made them during the 1984-86 timeframe in an attempt to cut production costs on the otherwise expensive DS. The model was dropped from production in 1986 along with most other short-barrel small-frame Colt revolvers. The regular Detective Special hung on a few more years and came back under other names and with some internal changes (SF-VI, DS-II), but the grand old DS was just too expensive to build and couldn't compete in the dwindling snubby revolver market.
Post-1972 Colt snubbies (DS, Cobra, Agent, Commando Special) are suitable for limited use with +P loads, according to a manual I saw at one time. I've read other TFL threads on this topic where it's been stated that the aluminum alloy Colts were rated for 1,500 rounds of +P while those with steel frames were rated for 3,000 rounds, after which they were supposed to be returned to the factory for a check up.
