There have been thousands of pages of text
written about the most famous revolver ever built; the Colt
Single Action Army. Interchangeably called the
"Peacemaker", the Colt is recognized the world over as
the sixgun of the American West. First introduced in 1873 with
the .45 Colt cartridge as the new sidearm for the US Army, the
Single Action Army was a big hit with soldiers and civilians
alike. In its early years, it was contemporary with big
revolvers from Smith & Wesson and Remington,
but in the United States and its untamed western territories,
the Colt was king. There was good reason for this. The sixgun
was handy, rugged, powerful, and simple to use. It could ride in
a holster all day, everyday, in bitter cold or blazing heat,
blowing sand or drenching rain, and when needed, it would work.
It could be called upon to dispatch a rattler, bag some meat for
supper, or to protect a cowpuncher from an ornery bull. More
importantly, the big Colt was called upon to resolve many
distasteful social situations, serving lawbreakers and
peacekeepers equally well.
For about 133 years now, the Colt Single Action
Army revolver has served gallantly all who have called upon it
to do so. Production has been interrupted from time to
time, with the Colt being pronounced obsolete on many occasions.
However, it has refused to die. The Single Action Army has been
copied more than any other revolver ever made, with countless
importers of foreign copies over the last few decades. The
Colt even fathered the highly successful Ruger single
action revolvers, which are basically the Single Action Army
design with improvements to increase strength, durability, and
ease of manufacture. Besides the current crop of imported Colt
copies, which vary in quality from excellent to not-so-good, the
Colt copies from the American made U.S. Firearms are very
good, high quality revolvers (see our previous articles on
the USFA Rodeo, Flattop
Target, and Gunslinger
models). Also, although I have yet to test one, the new
single action from STI promises to be of exceptional
quality. Hopefully, you will see a review of that sixgun on
Gunblast very soon.
Regarding the genuine article, the first one
hundred years of the Colt Single Action Army were those of high
quality sixguns, with quality of those produced in the late
1970s and later varying somewhat. I have seen both very good and
relatively poor examples of the SAA that were built in the last
thirty years. However, all of the sixguns coming out of
the Colt factory for the last couple of years that I have seen
and handled have been very good guns. I have also not seen
much press at all on the genuine Colt lately in the paper
magazines, so I thought that a review of the SAA would be
timely.
I have always loved the Single Action Army
revolvers, whether they be Italian copies, the excellent USFA
guns, or old originals. There is just something about the
Peacemaker that stirs my soul like no plastic-framed high tech
laser-sighted wonder pistol can ever do. There is a place for a
good high capacity nine millimeter pistol, and I own a few, but
I do not sit and fondle them for hours, gently thumbing back the
hammer, if they even have one, like I do on a Colt.
I recently purchased a brand new Colt Single
Action Army revolver chambered for the grand old .45 Colt
cartridge, and it is the subject of this review. It wears a four
and three-quarters inch barrel, which is perfectly balanced for
fast work from a proper holster. The sixgun is finished in
Colt’s polished blue with a color case hardened frame. The
sides of the hammer are polished in-the-white, and contrast
nicely with the blued/ case-hardened sixgun. The Colt
showed up wearing a set of checkered plastic pony and eagle
grips, which look good and offer a secure grip on the sixgun,
but after checking the timing and a couple of dimensions of the
new Colt, I boxed it up and sent it off to Eagle Grips
for a set of Sambar Stags, which were the subject of review
about a week ago. At the time of that article, I had
been shooting the Colt a bit, but had not completed my accuracy
testing of the weapon.
The chamber throats on the Colt measured a
consistent .4545 inch, so while the gun was off to be fitted for
the stags, I ordered some properly sized Keith type bullets from
Frank at Mt. Baldy Bullets.
The ones that Frank sent are the RCBS 270 SAA mold that
is a modified Keith style made specifically for the Single
Action Army revolvers. Mt. Baldy casts their bullets from virgin
alloy that is mixed to their own specifications, and it makes
for a very high quality bullet; not too soft and not too hard,
just right. They are known for accuracy, and that is why I used
nothing but the Mt. Baldy bullets for all of my accuracy
testing. When the shooting began, I knew that I had made a wise
choice.
On a good day, when the light is right and with
a solid rest, I can shoot some pretty good groups. However, it
seems as those days aren’t as frequent as they once were, and
I wanted to know just how good this new Colt could shoot, not
how well I could hold it. Therefore, I placed the Colt into my Ransom
Rest, and went to work on sending some lead downrange. I
had just completed our new Gunblast shooting range, moving from
an open field to up between two ridges. On the new range, I have
good wind protection for rifle work, and have permanent target
frames set in concrete at 25, 50, and 100 yards. For longer
work, I still have to head up to the 300 yard range, but for
anything up to 100, the new range is perfect. The accuracy
testing was done at 25 yards. It was an overcast day late in the
afternoon and the light was failing, but with the Ransom Rest,
none of that mattered. After aligning the rest, I did not even
need to look at the sights, or at the target. I made no
special effort to work up a load specifically for the Colt;
there was no need to. Using my standard charge of IMR
Trail Boss powder, the Mt. Baldy 270SAA bullet, Starline
cases, and CCI 300 primers, the Colt proceeded to place the
bullets on target in very tight clusters. I have to admit to
being a bit surprised, as I did not expect the sixgun to perform
as well as it did. The exact charge of Trail Boss used is
purposely not listed, as it is over the maximum load recommended
by IMR, but it is perfectly safe in a modern Colt. It pushes the
270SAA bullet, which weighs in at just under 280 grains with
Frank’s alloy, to about 730 feet-per-second., with excellent
consistency. The new Colt would group time and time again into
less than one and one-half inches for five shots at twenty-five
yards. Many groups went into less than one inch. Pictured is the
best group of the day, which is six shots just under one inch.
Keep in mind that this ain’t me shooting, but this is the
accuracy of which this gun is capable. With a little load
tuning, it might even do better, but I am perfectly happy with
the results so far!
The Colt Single Action Army revolver is the
definition of the classic sixgun. The four and three-quarter
inch forty-five weighs in at just under two and
one-quarter pounds, balances perfectly, and points naturally.
The trigger pull on the new Colt was crisp, but a bit heavy to
suit me at just over four pounds, so I placed a small plastic
shim under the hammer spring screw, bringing the trigger pull
down to two and three-quarters pounds. The SAA is very
well-fitted and tight, with a barrel/cylinder gap measuring four
one-thousandths of an inch (.004). While the base pin was plenty
tight, I changed it out for a Belt Mountain pin, just
because the latter is much easier to grasp for removing the
cylinder for cleaning.
A good sixgun needs a good holster rig, and
there are many good ones on the market, and a like number of
cheap junk rigs. One of the better ones that I have seen in a
while is from a relatively new maker; Barranti Leather
Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now, Pennsylvania
doesn’t seem like the most likely place to pick up a good
leather rig, but Mike Barranti turns out some fine work.
The holster pictured here is one of the all-time great designs
for a single action revolver, the Tom Threepersons
design. Mr. Threepersons was a western lawman who designed this
holster as a very practical and comfortable way to carry a side
arm. Threepersons was a Cherokee Indian, a rancher, a rodeo
cowboy, and a lawman who worked from Alaska to Mexico, spending
much of his career along the US/Mexican border in the early part
of the twentieth century. He knew about gun fighting, and
holster design. The bottom is closed for good protection, but
the trigger guard and hammer are exposed for quick access. The
holster has a removable retention strap, but Mike will build it
with a hammer thong if preferred. The holster is dyed Saddle Tan
in color, with the calf skin lining and ammo loops on the belt
left natural for contrast. It is certainly a beautiful rig! Now,
here is a good thing that I like about Mike; he listens to his
customer. You would think that all custom leather makers would
do so, but it just ain’t true. For several years, whenever I
would order a new rig, I would always specify twelve cartridge
loops on the right side, as I am left handed. Seems like
it would be simple to do. However, the belt would always arrive
with the cartridge loops in the back, where they are hard to
reach, and tend to lose the ammo when sitting down in a chair or
truck seat. The Barranti rig arrived with twelve cartridge loops
on the right side, just as I asked. As you can see in the
pictures, the cartridges are in a very handy position to access
without looking or struggling to reach. Thanks Mike! The
cartridge belt is double thick for rigidity. Also the tooling is
very attractive, and the whole rig is hand-stitched. This
rig just reeks of quality. It is built of top grade materials by
a true leather craftsman. It is nice to see good quality hand
work these days. This Barranti rig is worthy of hauling around
the finest sixgun available, and I am proud to own it.
To state that I am well-pleased with the quality
of this new Colt would be an understatement. I am very happy to
see that Colt is once again producing sixguns worthy of the
name. The genuine Colt is not cheap; it never was. However, it
is still as good of a value as it ever was. One hundred and
thirty years ago, a man would pay about a month’s wages for a
new Colt Single Action Army. For most of us, it will cost about
half that now. I don’t know what the MSRP on the new Colt is,
but locally they sell for about $1300, and I have seen new ones
at the Tulsa Gun Show selling for about 100 bucks less. For a
few years, I could not recommend buying a new Colt SAA without
first closely examining the sixgun. After shooting this one
extensively, talking to friends who have handled and shot a few
new Colts, and fondling several others (Colts, not friends), I
can now comfortably recommend buying a new Colt revolver to
anyone looking to purchase a new single action. I have seen and
handled several new Colt SAA revolvers in the past few months,
and they were all of excellent quality. This new Colt that I
have here is as good as any SAA being produced anywhere, and
much better than most. It is delightfully accurate, well-built,
and perfectly balanced. One more very important
thing……it’s a Colt.
Look at the various options on the SAA and other
Colt products online at: www.coltsmfg.com.
To order the Mt. Baldy bullets, go to: www.mtbaldybullets.com.
To order a Barranti Leather Company holster rig,
click
on this link.
Jeff Quinn
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