The Colt Detective Special is a carbon steel framed double-action short-barreled revolver, a class of firearms known to gun enthusiasts as "snubnosed", "snubbies", or "belly guns". As the name "Detective Special" suggests, this class of gun was used as a concealed weapon by plainclothes police detectives. When it was introduced in 1927, the Detective Special was unlike anything on the market at the time, prior concealable revolvers were either of "break top" design and chambered for comparatively weak and low-powered cartridges, or were larger revolvers customized by shortening the barrel and grip frame. The Detective Special was the first premium grade swing-out revolver designed from the outset to be carried concealed and capable of chambering the .38 Special, a high powered cartridge in the 1920s.
The Detective Special is by design a shortened and somewhat streamlined Colt Police Positive Special, sharing that revolver's slim 'D' size frame and six round capacity. It is a smaller revolver than the Official Police and the Smith & Wesson 'K' frame revolvers, such as the S&W Model 10; however, it is slightly larger than the five-shot 'J' frame Smith & Wesson revolvers that were introduced in the 1950s. During the 30's and 40's the Detective Special was one of the most popular and well respected concealable sidearms, and many were used as props in numerous Film Noir classics, as well as lesser detective dramas for television and film. It defined and evinced in many ways the quintessential concealed revolver of the period, and remains one of the few small ‘packable’ wheelguns which “offers an extra sixth round of protection.
