I’ve had a Colt DA or two over the years, sometimes mine and sometimes issued. This one popped up for sale and I couldn’t pass it. For one, it hearkens back a time when we sallied forth with a badge, six-shooter, a 12 gauge pump and the confidence that we could whip the world with them.

It also smacks of Charles Askins Jr., who laid many a contrabandista low with a DA Colt. I grew up reading Askins and love him or hate him, he knew his business. I developed an attachment to his writings early on and 30+ years in ‘the business’ hasn’t changed that.

Finally, it’s an old nickel service revolver with some character marks and I am weak for nickeled handguns. The blemishes don’t bother me because A) I think I can correct most of them, and B) I’m going to use hell out of it.

When I got inside it I found a couple of missing parts; namely, the DA sear detent and the little spring that slips over the trigger return spring to keep it from rubbing the frame as it cycles. Neither keeps the gun from running, but their absence does nothing for smoothness of operation. I will be scrounging up replacements ASAP.

I ran a 48 round revolver course with the Colt, using 158 grain LRN 38’s. The regimen is 12 shots at 25 yards, 12 at 15 yards, 12 in double taps/low ready at 7 and three rounds from retention, with each hand, at 3 yards. Posted a 237/240 with it ‘cold turkey’ so I wasn’t at all displeased.

The gun is regulated perfectly for windage but shoots high with 148/158 grain .38 Specials; I held on the bottom of the orange dot at 25 yards, which are the high shots on the target. It shoots quite a bit closer with magnums. The old ‘Large’ Pachmayrs (which I detest for DA shooting) are worn inside and I suspect some of the elevation problem may be the gun moving inside the grips under recoil. I’m resisting the urge to mess with the front sight until I try another grip. I have cleaned the action up, reset the trigger return spring and clipped a coil and a half off the mainspring. The single action pull finished at 3 ½ pounds and the DA pull is much nicer. 40 rounds of fast DA work, along with examination of fired primers, confirms that reliability was not compromised.

…and didn’t do half bad from 15 feet with CCI .38 Special Shot shells.

The gun shot high with standard 38 loads. Magnum loads loads generally lower, due to the bullet’s shorter dwell time in the bore while the gun is under recoil. So I dug through my reloading surplus and found 50 of Winchester’s generic 158 grain JHP for the 38/357. I loaded them over 14.3 grains of W296 in .357 cases, rated at 1400+ fps from long-barreled revolvers. The old Lawman printed these much closer at 25 yards; so I blacked the sights, moved back to 50 yards and fired six carefully from ‘hunting chair rest’ while holding six o’clock on the 3” target dot. I still have a little sight work to do, but the revolver shoots well enough to warrant the effort. I measured the group several times and never got a reading over two inches. I am really liking this old Colt.