View Single Post
 
Old 02-13-2017, 10:00 PM
Texas Star Texas Star is offline
US Veteran
Absent Comrade
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Texas
Posts: 20,362
Likes: 24,260
Liked 16,154 Times in 7,408 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by italiansport View Post
The 38spl preceded the 357 magnum by many years. All of the later ones are chambered in 357 magnum but will of course handle 38spl as well. Keep in mind that the COLT SAA was also offered in 32 multiple calibers(32-20 for example) and in 22 before the smaller version was ever made for this caliber.
Jim

I was referring to postwar production, which began in .38 Special and .45 Colt. I thought the former should have been in .357.


I don't see the appeal of small calibers in this gun. I suppose the .32-20 shoots flat and one can own a rifle in the same caliber. But he could do that with a .38-40 or .44-40 and hit harder. I suppose ammo was cheaper and recoil less than with heavy calibers. People in the old days usually didn't shoot as much as many do now, and practicing with a .45 was probably expensive for the average man. Some people don't handle recoil well, either, not that I've found the SAA to kick a lot.


The Colt SAA got around. It was used enough by British officers in India that some depots stocked .44-40 and .45 Colt ammo. The leading shooting authority Lt. Col. Vincent Fosbery, VC, said that the .44-40 was the best "stopper" that he saw used in battle on the NW Frontier, in what is now Pakistan and over the border into Afghanistan. I respect his report, but he didn't mention whether he'd seen the .45 Colt used much. (See, "The Peacemaker and Its Rivals", by Parsons.)


Those who've read Sir Henry Rider Haggard's book, "King Solomon's Mines" will recall that the expedition, in South Africa, carried Colt SAAs, in "the heavier pattern of cartridge." That would be .45, as the only other chambering likely was then .44-40. The book was published in 1883, by a man who'd fought in the Zulu War of 1879. He had a lot more gun savvy than did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was woefully inept in choosing guns for Sherlock Holmes and the Challenger expedition of, "The Lost World."


Haggard also had his heroes carry Winchester rifles as well as heavy British double rifles.


If you can find, "Watusi" on DVD (I can't; I saw it in a theater about 1963) you'll see that hero Harry Quartermain, played by George Montgomery, also had a Colt SAA. I believe he shot a crocodile with it. I think a similar scene was in the 1950 version of, " King Solomons Mines". That Colt was wielded by Stewart Granger, as Alan Quartermain.


BTW, the movie misspelled "Watutsi". Members of that tribe were included. They portrayed the fictional Kukuana tribe of the book by Haggard. However, anyone who has studied the Zulu knows that he drew on that tribe for much of his inspiration. I wrote a college paper on the Zulu and picked up on that.


I have (somewhere) a book on guns in early South Africa, and it shows ads from the 1880's depicting Colt SAA revolvers.


I do not, however, think they were appropriate for the Sherlock Holmes series. Dr. Watson carried his old service revolver, but the make and model were never specified. I doubt that Doyle had any idea of what it might be. My guess is a .450 Adams, but I'd have wanted a SAA in .45 Colt if I was after the Hound of the Baskervilles. BAD doggie!

Last edited by Texas Star; 02-13-2017 at 11:03 PM.
Reply With Quote
The Following User Likes This Post: