Tag Archives: fitz colt

Dragoon Snubbie?

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Photo and caption via the University of Utah’s collection:

Colt's 1st Model Dragoon Revolver, Serial No. 3262 Stekes Utah Historical Collection

“This was Colt’s 1st Model Dragoon Revolver, Serial No. 3262. This revolver was made in 1848 or 1849 as records show that “a little over 4000 of the first model were made in 1848.” The barrel has been shortened from the original 7 1/2 inch length to 2 1/2 inches. The loading lever has been removed and a new front sight has been dove-tailed in on the barrel. This was a common practice to enable quicker drawing and firing & to carry concealed. The revolver was allegedly brought to Salt Lake City in 1936 by a lady from “Southern Utah,” who said that it had some connection with John D. Lee. It could hardly have belonged to Lee as William Stokes, Deputy U.S. Marshall, who arrested Lee at Panquitch on the morning of Nov. 7, 1874, related that Lee was curious about a similar revolver that he (Stokes) used. Could this perhaps be the Stokes modifed “dragoon pistol?” C.K. Gift of Charles Kelly. “

For reference, John Doyle Lee was famously convicted as a mass murderer for his role in the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre and executed by firing squad at the Mountain Meadows site in 1877.

For further reference, this is what an unmodified Colt Dragoon looks like:

Pvt. Mabry W. Wafer, Company C, First Texas Partisan Rangers Colt Dragoon revolver Texas Historical Society Civil War

Pvt. Mabry W. Wafer, Company C, First Texas Partisan Rangers, shown with his Colt Dragoon revolver, photo via the Texas Historical Society

Dont Twirl This One

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No matter whether you call it a “FitzGerald Special,” “Fitz Special,” “Fitz Colt” or simply just a “Fitz”, doesn’t change that the fact that there is possibly no more distinctive snub-nosed revolver in firearms history. Period.

John Henry Fitzgerald (1870-1944). John Henry Fitzgerald (1870-1944) was the Massad Ayoob of his day. A former career New York cop, competition shooter, and writer, Fitz was a pioneer in combat handguns. He even wrote a pretty advanced book about it entitled, appropriately enough Shooting. Published in Hartford, Connecticut by the G.F. Book Co, it came out before anything written by Elmer Keith or Bill Jordan and when Jeff Cooper was but 10-years old.

Around 1926, Fitz began customizing both full size New Service, Police Positive, and Police Positive Special models to make them small concealed handguns, much like Colt’s then new Detective Special. This modification included shortening the barrel to two inches or less, fitting a new front sight, removing the hammer spur and carefully checkering the top of the now bobbed hammer, shortening the grip, and—unique to this type—cutting away the front 1/3 of the trigger guard and rounding off the now open edges….

Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com