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According to "Colt's Super .38" by Douglas G. Sheldon, of the 400 Colt Super .38 pistols purchased by the U.S. Government,
LOT 3330
Extremely Rare Documented World War
II U.S. Inspected Colt Super .38 Semi-
Automatic Pistol with Factory Letter,
Shipped to O.S.S. Warehouse - Serial no.
35492, 38 Super Auto cal., 5 inch round bbl.,
blue finish, plastic grips. Per the included factory letter, this pistol was part of a 376 gun shipment to the warehouse and property officer at the Fowler building, a known
warehouse for Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) equipment, in Rosslyn, Virginia on 20 July 1945. This places it as part of a very limited run of late World War II Super 38 pistols ordered by the U.S. government. 400 were ordered total, 24 delivered to Remington and the remainder to the Military Administrative & Supply Division at the Fowler Building
in Rosslyn, Virginia. Douglas Sheldon’s book “Colt’s Super .38” provides some insight into these orders on p. 107-110, though some hard details are absent, including why such
a large portion of the order was sent factory direct to Remington. It is speculated that when the government ordered its batch of Super .38s there was a massive typo in the ammunition order to Remington which made them think they were on the hook to make and quality assure over 32 million rounds of ammo; Remington went in expecting to
need 24 pistols for ammo testing, and likely expected to shoot every last one to death to meet the demand. Once the confusion was sorted out (and after Remington made nearly
2 million rounds of .38 Super), 20 of the pistols were routed through Springfield to the Pentagon, with their final disposition unknown. It has been speculated that the original destination of these pistols was the O.S.S.; the Fowler Building acted as one of their warehouses, and they would have greater need of non-standard weaponry than most government outfits. The final fate of most of the U.S. Super .38 pistols is unknown; out of the 24 Remington-shipped pistols and the 376 Fowler Building-shipped pistols, only 13 (5 Remington,
8 Fowler) were identified in collections by Sheldon at the time of publishing (1997), suggesting that this pistol, which he didn’t list, is fresh to the market. Very, rare in any condition,
this particular U.S. Super .38 made it through the decades in very fine condition. The matching numbered slide is fitted with its original Swartz safety device. The left side of the slide is
marked with the standard two-line address and patent dates, while the right has the caliber marking followed by the Rampant Colt. The left side of the frame has the “G.H.D.” inspection
mark while the right has the serial number and crossed-cannons ordnance marking. The trigger guard is marked “R/VP” and “73” on the left and right respectively. The blued barrel has
a polished chamber hood and is marked “COLT SUPER 38 AUTO” on the lower left. It is fitted with blade and notch sights, narrow checkered hammer, checkered thumb safety, serrated slide stop and arched mainspring housing, a pair of military pattern checkered reinforced grips, and a full-blue magazine with Super .38 marked base. Includes a generic soft case.
CONDITION: Excellent, retains 95% plus of the original blue finish with some light edge wear and scattered light scratches and dings throughout. The grips are very fine with a hairline crack in the right panel, and some lightly scuffed tips on the otherwise crisp checkering. Mechanically excellent. These extremely rare O.S.S. shipped Colt Super .38 automatic pistols are seldom available to collectors. Don’t miss this rare opportunity!
Estimate: 18,000 - 27,500
250
at the time of publication, the author was aware of only 13 surviving examples.