Posted on 09/01/2020 5:46:41 AM PDT by w1n1
The 19th century's legendary Colt Single Action Army Revolver rides on in the 21st.
Why would anyone today want to stake their life on a gun with a 146-year-old design and a 183-year-old lock work design? Well, there are good reasons, such as power and ease of hitting with the best pointing and fastest revolver ever made. I’m talking about Colt’s legendary M1873 Single Action Army .45 revolver.
Its .45 Colt cartridge was designed to put down a cavalry horse at 100 yards with one shot. The original load was a 250-grain bullet over 40 grains of black powder that gave 1,000 feet per second out of a 7½-inch barrel. The Army was tasked with ridding the plains of the buffalo and the Indians' larder, and the cavalry troops found it great sport to ride alongside a buffalo and kill it with their powerful new Colt pistols. As a grizzly bear-stopper, it was tried and not found wanting.
With a .45 Colt you only need one shot per man and you can immediately turn your attention to his fellows who are also attacking you. If you have a smaller caliber and have to do a double tap, you are probably going to get killed quickly if you have even halfway competent adversaries. This caliber does not need expanding bullets to work.
That's important because expanding bullets don’t always expand. If your bullets are dependent on expansion for stopping power, then you are in for a world of hurt.
Its single-action mechanism first appeared on the Colt Patterson revolver of 1836 in an era of double-action pepper box pistols that no one could ever seem to hit anything with. Samuel Colt reasoned that a gun that was easy to hit with would sell better and be more effective than a noisemaker. His reasoning proved sound and the Colt revolvers were all single-actions until the late 1870s when they marketed their first double-actions.
Then as now, very few men were true masters of double-action shooting, but most quickly learned to hit firing single-action.
While you can empty a double-action revolver faster than a single-action, you cannot shoot it any faster if you take time to point it accurately, so the supposed speed advantage of the double-action is academic at best A gun is only effective if you hit with it and the incredibly good pointing of this gun made hitting easier than it had ever been with a pistol.
A CLOSELY GUARDED secret of the gunfighting trade was the gunfighter's secret grip that made for the fastest and most accurate shooting. As the last living man with this trick, I became the only one to ever put it in print. Why not? I am not likely to face an opponent with a single-action revolver in this day of plastic-frame double-action automatics.
The secret grip begins by cocking the gun with the thumb laid crossways across the hammer, not behind it like cocking a modern double-action. This positions the hand high on the grip, where it has to be for accurate pointing. Cocking the other way throws your grip low on the rounded bottom part of the grips, where accurate pointing is well nigh impossible. Read the rest of Colt Single Action 45 Revolver.
My Colt Python is also a keeper. The action is smooth as a knife through melted butter.
And horse drawn carriages and Model T’s are transportation too.
However, if that is all you have, it can work.
After I am satisfied that I can put every one on target and most in the bull, I'll go shoot'em up.
At real close range, 10-15 feet, OK, point and pull and you will hit the perp {somewhere} most of the time.
You MUST PRACTICE or you will not be able to think correctly when under stress.
It doesn't matter if it is single/double action, semi-auto or single shot, if you panic, things will go badly.
Please, practice shooting your guns that you bought for you and your family's defense.
I think it was Skeeter Skelton who pointed out that the muzzle rise of a large calibre handgun obviates the double action. Cocking with the support hand keeps the shootin’ hand high on the grip for accuracy. Who can shoot a double action 44 magnum any faster than a single action using that technique? Certainly not me! I suppose the dynamic would be the same with 45 Long Colt.
I offer this article, about Skeeter and his 44 specials from revolver guy:
https://revolverguy.com/revolverguy-tribute-skeeter-skelton/
Before my canoe overturned, I had a Dan Wesson .357 Mag double action that I could point with like it was a second index finger. But even that didn’t fit my hand like my dad’s old SAA. There isn’t a prettier pistol made.
“You MUST PRACTICE or you will not be able to think correctly when under stress.”
That’s why I prefer to steer people to a 12 gauge pump.
And 00 buckshot.
And 00 buckshot.
I have that in my bedroom, but it is very hard to carry concealed.
Too bad Colt doesn’t make them anymore. They would sell all they could make.
Not much more difficult than a Colt SA Army:)
Mmmm...they won't be covering up THAT piece of history. The Injuns used very part of the Buffalo; the Troopers left them to rot.
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