Your Favorite SPOOK, CIA, Clandestine Covert Handguns, REAL and FICTITIOUS

That OTS-38 looks like it would make one heck of a nice carry piece in .357 or .38.

Too bad no domestic makes have put together their own take on it.
 
Since the OP included REAL handguns, I admit my preference was a Colt Detective Special, .38 Spl., I carried on two continents '69-'71. Certainly more comfortable than the occasional 1911 (one of my current favorites). Of course, the options were somewhat more limited 40 years ago. :D
 
Helm had to leave his .22 (which was his personal property) behind while staging a crime scene for the police. The agency issued him a 5-shot .38 revolver, their armorers having decided that a .38 was the minimum cartridge with enough power to do the job. He hated the .38s, which he felt were too big and too noisy.
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I recall the general plot, even though it has been a long time since I read 'Death of a Citizen.' Also including the thug gasping his last with five .22s in the lungs in spite of the best the ER could do.

He was showing a woman how to shoot the .38 once, and she wondered about it only holding five shots. "The general feeling is, if you can't do the job in five shots, you probably can't do it in six," was his reply,
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Yes, and another time he got in a convoluted scheme involving pulled bullets, loading a five-shooter out of a six round speed strip, a resulting "squib" and a .38 blowing up like a hand grenade. I give Donald Hamilton points for trying hard, but in his non-fiction it was clear he was a hunter and rifle shooter, not much on pistols.

Interesting way to reload
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While the OTS38 uses the captive piston silent cartridges beloved of the Soviets, the pivoting cylinder is off the Iver Johnson Hyde Model of the 1880s. I don't know why it didn't do better, but everybody knew what a top break was and they sold well.
 
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.38 Super

Seems like I read somewhere tht the OSS had a small order of .38 Super 1911's in WWII that nobody can put their finger on as to how issued or deployed. Sounds pretty clandistine to me.
 
SDC, that is the one! I knew I had seen it many years ago, but I couldn't remember the details. Thank you for finding that.
 
Somewhere in a bunch of mil-surp gear I might still have a USAF survival weapon. Made of aluminum mostly. Unpack it and you have a main body/grip that holds 3-4 screw-in flares, the bottom plate slides to reveal 10 rounds of .22 LR ammo. At the top is a fitting to allow you to insert a knife blade and tighten it into place. Alternatively, you can fit the "action group" to the top. This includes a trigger, a pull & twist cocking lever and a threaded hole. The threaded hole accepts the flares or a steel-sleeved .22 LR barrel about 4-5" long. If I can find it, I'll take a few photos of it.
 
There is documentation that the OSS issued H&R Premier hinged frames in .32 S&W for deep cover field agents.
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