Colt Police Positive Target - .22 LR

This past weekend (the 29th) I managed to slip away to the gun show before heading out to Ella Ann's 2nd birthday party.  Of course, the show, for me, wasn't so much my interests except for a couple of tables.  I met a couple of friends and acquaintances there and stopped at Randy Clark's tables because he always has something that catches my eye.  I think he has a particularly good eye for the neat old handguns.  This time didn't disappoint.

One thing he had was a 1964 Marlin 39A Mountie in very good condition.  It would have done, as is, for the rest of anyone's life.  I considered buying it but held out for something really special and moved on to the handgun cases.  I wasn't disappointed.  In the case I spied this Colt Police Positive Target in .22 LR.  It looked pretty pristine in the case but had no box.  Randy asked if I wanted a closer look and I did.

The revolver isn't perfect.  There's a bit of freckling on it but the finish, considering it has survived since 1938, is darn nice.  The metal work has no scratches or dings.  The stocks have no faults.  It locks up tight without any discernible endshake.  It is in such good condition that one has to wonder why the box didn't survive with it.  I asked Randy and he said that he'd gotten from a regular customer who constantly trades guns in and out and finds stuff that he shoots for a while and trades.  One of those always trying something new.  He didn't know where the gun had been before that.  The Colt Police Positive Targets were first cataloged in 1911.  This gun was produced in 1938 and is the later, heavier frame weighing 26 ounces and has the standard 6" barrel. 

When I took the gun out for a quick shooting session with Winchester Dynapoints that had been modified in my Hanned Line SGB tool it didn't fail at 20 yards proving to be "duelist" capable of half a minute of soda can and at 85+ yards it managed to consistently wack my 12" cinder-block face.  Firing Aguila Super-Colibri ammo produced surprising energy on a metal swinging disk target.  That ammo would be great fun in the back yard, where legal. 

My initial impression of the gun is that it is superior to the Smith & Wesson Model 34 although it is about the same size, being just slightly larger.  One of the reasons is that fouling doesn't need to be cleaned out so often in order to permit functioning yet it seems to fully as accurate.  Because the grips are the size of the Police Positive service guns, there is more to hold on to (although the compactness of the S&W 34s is one of their main selling points).  I really need to take this gun squirrel hunting.