There was a thread elsewhere about carrying a single action revolver.

I remember reading about some law men still carrying Colt SAA revolvers into at least the 1920s, apparently by choice, not economic necessity. Some of the old Army supply were broken back out for use in the Phillipines. Semi contemporary revolvers like the Nagant, Reichsrevolver and Italian Ordanance revolver saw use in World War 2, well beyond in the case of the Nagant. All solid frame side loaders, even if some were double action.

I know concealment holsters, prior to cowboy action shooting making the old guns popular again, were sold as late as the 1960s for the SAA.

Were the old Colts still seeing much use as the 20th century matured?

I have been thinking of picking up an Uberti Cattleman or similar, in either .45 Colt or.357 Magnum and carrying it. Seems appropriate given where I live. An enraged elk or errant wolf is more likely by far than an axe murderer.

I would venture to say that other than few hold-outs, Cowboys, and small town LEO's, most had switched to more modern handguns by WWl. I am sure if you really look hard enough you might still find an odd-ball who still carries a SAA for SD but you can always find an exception in every walk of life.

I have personally recently seen two NYPD Uniformed officers carrying Model 10 Revolvers in their vintage leather holsters, but I highly doubt there are too many left who follow suit. The two Officers I saw were both getting ready to retire and had no interest in practicing and qualifying with the new 12.5 pound trigger pull Glocks.

When someone spends most of his life relying on a certain tool that has always performed well and reliably, they have a hard time switching. In a few years guys like me who use any type of revolver will be considered Dinosaurs I suppose.

Colt did offer the .357 Magnum as a factory chambering in the SAA from circa 1935 onward, as competition for Smith and Wesson. Someone must have purchased these. I wonder, were they sold as social guns or as outdoor companions?

HUMMMMMM !?!!!!
Is the question "out of style" or "out of effectiveness" ?
The projectile is not style. Effectiveness is not style.
In many respects "I like Rollers" and in the same breath "I like semi's" and I am not being a fence setter.
For concealability and ease--it is a Semi and that is, hands down, a pure fact.
If it is pure and unabridged effectiveness--that is caliber and that question is not answerable. Arguable--at best.
IF---BIG "IF"---society could accept seeing a gun on the hip--the answer reverses to effectiveness.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

My paternal Grandfather was a County Sheriff and then in a much more risky position, the County Tax Assessor in a large county of NW Arkansas. My father told me that Granddad carried in a crossdraw holster a short barreled SAA in 44 Special up until the Colt 1911 came along and became available. The story was that Granddad then carried the Colt 1911, in 45 ACP of course, in a locally made shoulder holster until his retirement about the mid '30s. My Granddad never got into a firefight with either, but had to put down a few large animals for various reasons with both. Granddad came out of retirement to become the County Coroner. My father said the Colt 1911 was always in a top desk drawer in his office until the day he died. My father always regretted that he didn't get the M 1911 as it disappeared a few days after Granddad was gone. .........

I would speculate the death knell for the SAA as a working gun came with Ruger. The newer guns with larger frames meant that hotter loads could be carried in bear country or as back-up while hunting. To me, the bigger threat has always been moose or, as the OP says, elk.

Wild Bill preferred cap-n-ball well into the era of the SAA. Many people carried Colt's because they worked and you don't mess with what works when your life is involved.

1963 : In a small Florida town I carried a Colt SAA .45 Colt w/ 5.5" barrel.
In this era LEOs furnish their own service revolvers. Also there were a LOT of gun swapping among the local LEOs. I traded a S&W M15 nickeled 4" for the Colt SAA because I liked the .45 Colt caliber plus the Colt was Blued. This ended one night when I was "Dancing" with a large suspect who was holding a 12 gauge shotgun and I was attempting to draw the Colt SAA from the western style holster with the leather loop over the hammer. Afterwards I returned to my Colt Trooper .38 4" in a Jordan Border Patrol holster.

The Colt Single Action Army revolver was only marginally popular following WW2, and was to be discontinued during the 1950's. Then television westerns started becoming not just popular, but enormously popular (every network had several series running, just about one every evening). Demand for the Colt SAA's ramped up dramatically from about 1957 onward, and Colt (having gone through all parts on hand) started manufacturing these again.

Demand was so great that prices went up significantly. At a time when a new S&W M&P revolver was around $50 to $60 the SAA was priced at $125, and Colt still could not meet all demands.

American western films and TV shows were widely distributed and very popular throughout Europe and other continents, resulting in further demand for the revolvers. Gun makers in Germany, Italy, and Spain started cranking out copies to meet that demand, and many have been imported to the US where they have been very popular, providing a less expensive alternative to the Colt products.

Throughout the 1960's Great West Arms offered SAA clones at very low prices (many of the guns seen in American westerns are actually Great West pieces), with ads in gun magazines offering the revolvers both completed and in kit form for the do-it-yourselfers.

The Colt SAA maintained a strong reputation for strength and reliability, not to mention the marketing value of being the "real thing" amidst a flood of copies and clones. Writers and experimenters extolled the virtues of the Colts, such as Elmer Keith's work with very powerful loads in the .44 Special that eventually resulted in the .44 Magnum (many of Keith's loads were well into the pressure range of the magnum, and would have been extremely dangerous in most of the other revolvers of the time).

Colt capitalized on market demand, with the SAA becoming one of the "Cadillacs" of the revolver world. Production was limited, probably by intent, and the prices were always high. Meanwhile collectors were snapping up just about anything they could find, further fueling the market prices.

For the majority of working people the actual Colt SAA was either out of reach financially, or just too valuable for use as a working gun. I think this had more to do with the decline in regular or common usage than anything else.

Lots of folks are happy enough with a Ruger Blackhawk or Vaquero (and they are fine revolvers), or an imported clone, but everyone who knows anything about handguns knows the difference. The Colt SAA will always be the "real thing".

Attached Images

	Colt SAA, Threepersons carved 003.JPG (60.3 KB, 86 views)
	10-27-14 carved etc 019.JPG (57.4 KB, 75 views)

I had a Colt SAA, though mine was of modern production, made in 2003. I picked it up slightly used circa 2008 for around 900 something. It was a nice revolver. I ended up trading it for a Series 70 1911 that was only four years younger than I am.

A bit of web searching this morning suggests that the SAA in original form continued longer "out here" than "back East". The Texas Ranger Museum apparently has a nice collection of carry guns of famous Rangers of old, a large number of which are Colt SAAs, often engraved, and sometimes with pearl grips (yes, pearl, not ivory).

Later, I owned a German made clone, a Ruger, and several Italian percussion guns. I believe the clones have a relationship to the original akin to the 1911 family.

As late as the 1980s, the old time gun writers still referenced the SAA periodically. It was suggested that for someone who knew how to use one there was no faster/more accurate first shot available. This being the dawn of the DA auto wonder nine era, and still the 1873 was remembered. The downside was the painfully slow reload.

As of late there seems a quiet undercurrent of folks buying the clones to use. The German, Heritage Arms, and some Italian guns hover at or below 400. These users are not the sort gun mags are written for.

The 1873s, as close to original as possible, seem to handle faster than the bulkier Rugers. Which I suppose is why the Vaquero came out.

The original Colt SA was discontinued in 1940 or '41 and the original machinery scrapped. It was brought back in 1957 due to renewed interest in the older style guns. I well remember the complaints of a local Colt collector because Colt brought the SA back at a price of $125 which was the going price at that time for a nice original one, and he thought that it would ruin the market for originals.

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Tom
1560

San Antonio,Tx PD bought Colt SAA's in 45Colt in the 1920's.
One lot I recall seeing a factory letter on was for 50 revolvers in the shipment in Oct/1927.
IIRC the individual revolver that was lettered was a 4 3/4"bbl.
They guns were stamped on the butt w/ S.A.P.D. #--
I believe they used them till the 40's when they replaced them with New Service Colts.

I've been collecting and/or accumulating guns for over 60 years and one gun I have never owned is a Colt SAA. They have always been just a little bit more that I wanted to spend. (Kind of like Lugers today, but I've owned any number of them in the past.)

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

I think we're talking about a couple of different issues here. First, are you talking real Colt SAA or just single actions in general? Second, are you talking about general use or use for law enforcement in particular?

Single actions generally, at least in my experience, are still in common use by hunters, campers, cowboy shooters and others. Not so much for self defense, though that enters into the equation, as for general carry, plinking, etc. Colts are far less common mostly because of the cost, though I know at least a couple of outfitters that are still carrying them and have for years. I have often carried a USFA or a Colt .45 single action in the mountains myself. Never could get used to the Ruger "New Model" action and so have largely given up on them.

As for law enforcement use, I think the SAA was mostly phased out by the beginning of WWII. Frank Hamer carried one when he bagged Bonnie and Clyde, and a few other notables carried them up through the '30's, but they were clearly fading away by then. I haven't seen a LEO carry one for a long time now though I know at least one guy who has occasionally done so. Interestingly, Colt's highest production years for the SAA were, I believe, in the 1900-1910 period, and I'm sure a lot of those guns were carried and used until they flat wore out. That would have taken 20 years or so even with daily use, so I'd say the SAA was in fairly common use at least until the 1930's. After that, not so much.

I'm down to one SAA....

And I do carry it for sport and my own amusement.

Never have felt out of place carrying it, nary a time.

2nd Gen. 44 Special...







I did carry this'n while's jerkin pack strings into the hills for to chase the wily wapiti

Modern Colt 'New Frontier' SAA 44 Special


.
.

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

I have heard and read of rural LEOs carrying the single action into the 60s.
Wish I could be more specific, but the exact reference escapes me now.

Deputy Marshall Sam McCloud, Taos New Mexico, carried one while working for the New York Police Department in the 1970s. Carried it "Mexican Carry", inside his waistband, right side, no holster, loading gate open to keep it from sliding down his leg.

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I always take precautions

Working gun? That in itself could use some definition. I know several who carried one simply because their dad and grandfather did. For law enforcement use I have heard that as soon as double action revolvers were reliable the single actions were shelved by most knowledgeable badge carriers, just as reliable self loaders have for the most part replaced the double action revolver. I believe knowledgeable men took every advancement in technology to postpone their deaths. When someone or some animal is trying to murder you, fumbling with a hammer is a good way to make a widow of your wife. Remember seldom does such an encounter happen when you are ready and conditions are ideal. Get some mud, water, blood, snow or snot on that hammer and add some sport to defending your life. But there are other working guns other than law enforcement and these run the gauntlet. A big game guide I know carried one in 32 WCF when packing elk hunters around. The only reason he carried it was because it was his dad's. Said he never could hit anything with the gun, except himself when he accidentally shot himself in the leg after the hammer was hit with the handle of an axe he was using to chop kindling. I carried a Colt for 9 years as a work gun while escorting deer and elk hunters. My Colt was not a SSA but a Woodsman. It could easily qualify as a work gun.

Wasn't this the same actor who played Chester on Gunsmoke?
Jim

Yes it was, but Chester did not carry a gun.

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I always take precautions

In 1972 I was a rookie big Texas City.
Old copper that drove the "wagon" between
the main station and the sub-stations to pick
up various types of "inter office mail".
He joined the PD just after WWI and rumor
claimed he could neither read nor write.
Brass let him be....he had to be 75yoa.

I would get the itch if I could
not reach in the safe and pull out
a Colt SAA.

The Uberti SAA is actually a better looking gun than any of my old Colts. I have been told that the parts from the Uberti are interchangeable with the old Colts and that Colt was using Uberti parts in current manufacture. I do not know if this is true. My Battle of Little Bighorn Uberti customized by Cimarron Arms in Texas is beautiful and actually too nice to shoot.

The Director of an agency I used to work with (that is a suburb of Fort Lauderdale Florida) carried a Colt SAA in 45LC until he left the department in 1995.

He also still used a typewriter instead of a computer.

I love the color case hardened SAAs

wow!!!!!!!!!!!

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Cheers, Charles
SWCA #2442

Gator Farmer,

The "modern" you reference in your title is subjective one would assume. I have a few of these 1st generations, some prior to 1899. 1899 was the "noted" date by many for safe consumption of smokeless powders. Many will tell you it was a few years later than that. I know some "pretty salty" collectors, of note, that considers 1921 the "end of the cowboy era" for the SAA. Others have other thoughts on this matter. Perhaps this is the "beginning of the modern era." I believe there were 357,000 first generations made before Colt pulled the equipment and converted to WWII. Then Ruger gave cause for Colt to re enter with 2nd then 3rd. generations. Obivously, nothing cast in stone here.

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Bill
Dis B. Leaf

In my deceased Father's belonging is a Colt SAA 5.5"barrel blued in the factory box. In addition is an extra pair of pearl/ivory grips.
IIRC Dad purchased it INB in the era of 1980 (?). I do not think it was ever fired.

I remember talking to a Houston PD officer working Point Control around 1972 or 73 in downtown Houston. He was carrying a Colt Single Action Army 45. They wore flap holsters (commonly referred to as suicide holsters) back then, but I could clearly see the butt of his revolver under the flap. I asked him about it and he said you could pretty much carry anything you could qualify with. There was one deputy in San Patricio County that carried a SAA around the same time period. I commented to him that I really liked single actions but they were pretty slow to reload. He told me "it never runs out of bullets". He explained to me that if he was in an extended engagement, he would flip open the loading gate and leave it open. When he fired a round, he would pull the hammer to half cock, eject the empty and reload that chamber. Then he would pull the hammer back to full cock and be ready to shoot. By doing that, the gun would always be full and ready to go in case the bad guys tried to rush him. He figured that if you fired more than a few rounds, you would be behind cover or getting a rifle out of the car anyway.

I carried a Single Action Army 44 Special from 1979 up until 1983. I had a Charter Arms 44 Bull Dog for a backup gun, so if any reloading was needed, that was probably what was going to get reloaded. Most law enforcement shootings were up close and happened pretty fast. You see a threat and how fast you can react to it, draw, and fire and hit your target was more important than volume of fire. 99.9% of the shootings were three rounds or less. If you got caught up in the other 0.1% where more rounds were needed, you were pretty unlucky.

One of the biggest drawbacks I experienced with the single action was that it was either not ready to fire or really ready to fire. When you are trying to cover a suspect during an arrest, it is either cocked (so now you have a 3 to 5 lb. trigger pull with no safety) or un-cocked so it is not ready to fire. I went to a burglar alarm call one night and when I drove up, the front door of the business was wide open. That seemed a little suspicious to me, so I pulled out my trusty SAA 44 and went to the door. Inside this little store, there was a guy sitting on a couch near the cash register facing away from me. I thumbed back the hammer and in my most commanding voice said "POLICE, FREEZE". He didn't move. I then told him not to turn around and to show me his hands. He didn't move. After telling him several more times to show me his hands, he never moved. By now, I have about three pounds of pressure on the 3.5 lb. trigger of the 44. I had just about decided the guy was either dead or deaf. I was probably setting a world record for heart rate and blood pressure. I put my thumb up on the hammer, took my finger off the trigger and walked over to the guy. He was a mannequin. That kind of gave me a hint that going back to a double action might not be too bad an idea. Turned out the door wasn't shut properly at closing time. The wind blew it open and set off the alarm.

The last guy I knew who carried a single action on duty retired around 2008. He could shoot it pretty well and he had the Thunder Ranch pin to prove it. I am the last one in my office carrying a revolver. Most days it is a 627 Pro Series. Today I was in court so it is a 640 Pro Series. Up to now, the most rounds I have ever fired in an engagement is 8 and that was with a rifle. The most with a handgun was 7 and that only happened once when the target and I were both moving. All the other engagements have been over in one round.

Y'all need to enlarge your reading. There was this old gunwriter and Texas sheriff (Deaf Smith County?) we all knew and loved. If not in person, from his writing. Remember Blazing Saddles and them invoking the name of Randolph Scott? Same deal, only better. I think his name was Skeeter.....

He wrote a number of articles where he explained his using the SAA on duty for a number of years. He did that from his official duties in the 1960s and 1970s and 1980s. And he spent a lot of wind defending his selection of the guns. The line I remember best was "Funny, I never felt undergunned with a Single Action".

Those who make derogatory comments about them probably never owned or became competent with one. Those that shoot them soon gain an affection. The guns work. In all fairness, some aren't accurate at all. But those can usually be sold to someone who will spend the time and effort to correct the problem. Some also came in calibers that no one really wanted.

I've made a lot of mistakes in my gun buying career. Once in the late 1990s I passed on a purchase of a rimfire. It had a serial number so low it makes me sick. It was down in the low 100s. And the seller wouldn't come off his $3000 price. Gawd was I stupid.

The last one I sold I blew the money on a diamond for my wife. She does wear it every day.

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Dick Burg

My uncle, who was born in 1920 talked about people coming into the hardware store in the late 1920s (in south Texas) and how they would trade in Colt SAAS for double action revolvers, and the store owner would just toss them into a big pickle barrel. Said you could take your pick out of the barrel for $2 each.

Yes Skeeter wrote about packing a SA while a LEO, but then he could have been effective with a SA .22 LR handgun.
I wouldn't have wanted him shooting at me with a BB gun...

I think the Colt records show a sharp; decline in the sales of the SAA in the period 1900-1915, when DA revolvers were widely available in a large variety of calibers. Lots of people continued to use the SAA, but they were no longer the revolver of choice for the majority of people.

I GOTTA ROLL WITH chief38 ON THIS. AN OCCASIONAL DINOSAUR / DESK JOCKEY MAY BE CARRYING A REVOLVER. WHEN THEY ALL RETIRE, THE ERA WILL BE OVER…..

FOR THE GATOR FARMER, OR OTHERS LIKE HIM, WHO LIVE IN STATES LIKE WYOMING, A LARGE BORE SA REVOLVER IS AN APPROPRIATE SIDE ARM. I WOULD COUPLE IT WITH AN AR IN MY PICKUP TRUCK, FOR USE IN CONFRONTATIONS WITH ILLEGAL ALIENS OR OTHER HOSTILES THAT MIGHT WANDER ONTO YOUR LAND…..

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'Nam 1968-69.DAV,VFW,NRA Inst.

I still use one on a fairly regular basis out in the woods. In the early 2000s my dad was a police firearms instructor. He would occasionally have somebody from some little town or other in the Ozarks come to qualify with a SAA or more commonly a Blackhawk. They had to borrow a DA revolver because the SA couldn't shoot the course. No way you could keep 4 sets of 6 "on time" with a SA.

I was in a greasy spoon in small town in SE New Mexico in the
fall of 70. Deputy came in and I noticed he was carrying a SA.
I thought it was one of the German Colt copies of the time. I was
Army at time so I BS him. Turned out it was Colt, 38 special
plain blue with gutta percha black grips with Colt trademark. He
said it had been in dept. for years and there were several more.
I did a lot of bumming around SE New Mexico and W Texas at
that time and that was only LEO I saw with single action. Most
all I talked to had rifle in car.

Hmmm, lemme see... what is today's date?
Imo, without defining working gun, I think the SAA is every bit a working gun today as it was 100+ years ago.
But kinda along the recent thread about SAA's and self defense, there might be better suited working tools available today.

I know a fellow in MS who tells me it's surprising how many orders he fills for owners of single action revolvers who want one of his pancake designs. I suppose it's a case of nostalgia for many of us, but the single action revolver is still a reliable and effective firearm in the hands of someone who knows how to use one. Neither of my SA Rugers are an EDC, but they get carried a lot when I'm in the woods. Great guns.

[QUOTE=texmex;138553685] He told me "it never runs out of bullets". He explained to me that if he was in an extended engagement, he would flip open the loading gate and leave it open. When he fired a round, he would pull the hammer to half cock, eject the empty and reload that chamber. Then he would pull the hammer back to full cock and be ready to shoot. By doing that, the gun would always be full and ready to go in case the bad guys tried to rush him.

This statement just solved the greatest mystery on TV westerns - Now I know why their guns never run empty.

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and everything Kentucky !!

When I was a kid in the '60s, my uncle was a crony of the sheriff of a small, very rural Virginia county. The sheriff carried a SAA in a shoulder rig.

I carried a single action Ruger cowboy'n back in the 70's. I also concealed carry my old three screw Ruger Blackhawk for several years in the 90's. Never felt under gunned with that old .357 magnum and the 6 1/2 inch barrel. Carried it in a Kramer IWB .

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Riding, Shooting, and Truth