colt hammerless semi auto 1908

F

floyd barrett

Inactive
just purchased a colt 380 hammerless semi auto.pretty good condition,shoots great,has a little rust on the frame like pitted.not much.the barrell is pitted a little.what i liked about it was the serial number in the 8000's.doing research on it,lots of gangsters carried them.my question is .is that the thumb safety has a small screw next to it acting as a locking device to the safety. in the pictures i see on line,none of the guns have this.was this an added feature for certain police,military or whatever.
 
We would like to see pics of your gun. The early models had a screw in the righthand end of the safety shaft to keep the safety in place, but I have never seen one with a screw like you describe. It may have been some owner's idea for some reason.

Jim
 
Going by memory because I no longer have the article...
Some divisions of the Royal Hong Kong police carried Colt autos.
Their thumb safeties were blocked and the pistols were carried in condition 3.
Loaded with six rounds, at that.

Other agencies? Maybe, but I don't know for sure.
 
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I don't believe I have ever seen one with such a screw. It sounds like a local personal modification, not from the factory nor was it a wide spread practice. Someone, somewhere did not want the safety to be accidently engaged. With my expedience with them, that was not very likely and with a cartridge in the chamber, I would damn sure want the safety engaged. :eek: If they were RHKP they would be so marked.
 
Oops, not Hong Kong.
I found a fuzzy picture of a Shanghai Municipal Police Colt Hammerless with safety blocked off. Little description, caliber not stated and agency markings not visible or mentioned.

Now a search on SMP brings up mention.
http://www.coltautos.com/mmsmp1.htm

It should be marked and numbered for the SMP and have a funny little barrel positioning spring added by the department armorer.
 
Recalling that the Hong Kong police issued Enfield revolvers with safety locks, Jim Watson's explanation sounds logical.

Jim
 
The SMP pistols appeared to have SNs in the 80,000s or higher (starting 1925), not the 8,000s as the OP mentioned, making it a much earlier pistol (1911?).
 
380 colt

thanks for the info.i will post some pictures of the 380 colt.doing further research i believe the Shangi police department used these guns.they called it the shangi safety.it must have added .i will post some pictures.thanks
 
I too would really like to see pictures. SMP pistols were marked above the right grip and also on the rear top of barrel ( with a R ) , I wonder if they were so ill trained that the powers to be thought the user would forget to take off the safety, does it have a lanyard loop?
 
As I recall, the SMP carried autos in condition 3, racking the slide on the draw. The safety was blocked to keep it from being engaged either inadvertently or by a cop who thought he knew better than Fairbairn.
 
Fairbairn regarded safeties as a dangerous nuisance, and had them pinned permanently off.
The SOE agents he trained were also taught to fire every string from Condition Three.
 
Another Shanghai Police .380

According to R.L. Wilson's Book of Colt Revolvers page 423, 3,671 Model 1908 Colt 380's were shipped to the Shanghai Municipal Police Department. Standard features were a lanyard loop and a bridge over the top of the rear slide.

I have no idea what R.L. Wilson means by a bridge over the top of the rear slide. My Shanghai Police marked 380 has the hole that becomes visible when the safety is disengaged, but mine has no screw in the hole. What this hole is for, or whether this gun had a screw in the original hole, I have no idea. I don't know how original my gun is. It has the magazine with the witness holes, but the gun appears to have been reblued.

I wish I knew how to post a picture on this site. Maybe somebody could figure it out for me.
 
For some reason I missed the last couple of posts explaining what the hole was for. I can see why a previous owner took the screw out. I wouldn't think of saying that I knew more about combat shooting than Fairbairn, but if I carry that model Colt, I want a safety that I can engage.
 
That article says that the "keyhole" spring on the left side is to "prevent jams", a bit odd since no other pocket model seems to have needed such a thing.

I suspect that the spring, or some sort of plunger driven by it, is intended to keep the barrel from turning and thus prevent unauthorized disassembly. Probably the screw was peened over on the inside to prevent removal.

Jim
 
Maybe so. The ColtAutos article says the magazines had inspection holes on the front and back so the sergeant could check for live ammo. Apparently Shanghai cops were prone to selling their ammo and filling the space in the mag with an empty.
 
Spacecoast,

The serial number on my 380 is in the low 89,000 range. According to R.L Wilson the Shanghai versions were made in the ranger between 88,000 and 132,000, which places them between 1928 and 1940. Apparently, special features and all, they were not ordered in one lot.

40-82
 
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