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By John MarshallPeacemaker. Frontier Six-Shooter. Thumb-buster.

Hogleg. Equalizer. Model of 1873. Model P Colt. Itwas and is known by many names. Officially,though, it’s the Colt Single Action Army revolver,and it’s one of the most legendary handguns evermade. Few handguns of any ilk can equal either itslongevity or its simple, graceful and effectivedesign. It was prolifically on the hips and in thehands of late 19th Century soldiers, outlaws, law-men, cowboys and ordinary citizens. It was theofficial handgun of the U.S. Army and it was thereat the Little Big Horn with Custer’s troops. WyattEarp used one at the OK Corral gunfight. It wasbrought out of mothballs during the PhilippineInsurrection because no other handgun could topits stopping power against thefanatical Moro tribesmen.The silver screen hasalways been awashwith the smoke fromthis famed Coltrevolver. It’s still beingmade today, hasspawned scores of clonesand inspired similarly configuredrevolvers of more modern design. It stillcan be fastest for the first shot of any gun on theplanet, and the sport of Cowboy Action Shootingcannot do without it today. Most who have han-dled one will admit that no other handgun feels asgood in the hand as the Single Action Army. Itsmystique lives on and refuses to die. This one, forsure, richly deserves to be called a classic.

To trace the origins of the Single Action Army,we have to go back to the Colt Navy revolver of1851. This percussion revolver was to see wideaction during the Civil War on both sides of thatconflict. It was a single-action revolver thatrequired cocking before a trigger squeeze couldfire the gun. It was ideally configured for that pur-pose, and it fit the hand well. Its big hammer spurfell naturally under the thumb for cocking, andwhen it rolled in the hand under recoil, it was inperfect position for a downward twist in the handto cock it again. It was to be the grandfather ofthe Single Action Army.

A little later, in 1855, a significant eventoccurred. A man named Rollin White had patentedthe idea for a bored-through revolver cylinder, inwhich the chambers had holes at both ends. Smith& Wesson purchased the rights to this patent anddeveloped a series of small cartridge revolversusing it. The Colt company yearned to produce acartridge handgun utilizing the bored-through prin-ciple, but had to be content to wait until theWhite/Smith & Wesson patent expired in 1869.Colt immediately went to work and started produc-ing cartridge handguns, most of them small caliber

for self-defense use. In 1871-1872, they produceda larger revolver in .44 Rimfire caliber quite similarto the Model 1851 “Navy.” In all respects exceptone, it was a dead ringer for the later Single ActionArmy. This one had no frame topstrap over thecylinder. The open-top revolver was limited instrength, and so it was further re-designed tobecome the Model 1873, complete with topstrap.Bingo. It was a natural. Inherently stronger, thenew revolver was geared to take more powerfulcartridges. It retained the action of the “Navy”revolver, and kept its excellent grip shape. It wasmade of iron and steel, and was held togethermostly with machine screws. A flip-open loadinggate appeared on the right recoil shield. Ejectionwas by a sliding ejector rod in a housing attached

to the rightside of the bar-rel. A new car-tridge wasdesigned forthe gun. Thiswas the center-fire .45 Colt. Itwas originallya black pow-der cartridgelaunching a255-grain flat-nosed bullet of.454 diameterat over 900feet per second. It was designed as a man-stopper,and quickly achieved that reputation in the bigColt revolver. While just 200 SAAs were sold in theU.S. in the first year of production, Colt recordsindicate that between 3,500 and 4,000 SAAs weresold worldwide in 1873, with many going to Eng-land, Germany and Russia in diverse calibers.

The Colt company approached the U.S. Gov-ernment with the gun, and provided samples fortesting. Colt was quickly awarded a military con-tract. The first Army revolvers were chambered in.45 Colt and featured 7-1/2” barrels. These foundenthusiastic reception with the Cavalry service inparticular. Although somewhat slow to reload, theguns offered the horse soldier five or six shotsquickly. It was common practice to load the gun

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Feb 09 Blue Press Section 2 12/12/08 12:02 PM Page 40