My first 1873 Model P SAA - And yep, it's a Colt

Being raised on John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies and having collected for almost 20 years, with Colts long a favorite (before even my S&W days, in truth), you'd think I would have certainly had one or two Model P/1873s pass my way over the years, but for some reason while I always admired them, I've just never come across one at a time and place that worked out - until the other weekend.

Below are a few snaps of this quite nice (IMO) very early third-gen (1977-78-ish) 5.5" .45 caliber example with original grips. When I came across it the action was stiff to say the least; the bore was sooty with powder residue from God knows how many years ago, and the overall finish was so dull as to make the piece seem almost matte.

But the serials all matched and after a quick disassembly (I know my way around them, just never owned one before!), quickly spotted the 'issues' the seller had gotten in over their head with, all simple fixes in the end: two metal burrs needed to be taken down just slightly on the edge of the hand as well as the interior edge of the hammer - took about two hours work, mostly due to the awkward angles. The piece came to me with the original grips in a bag and horrible plastic one-piece stocks on it - the grip pin was missing, so that was all of ten dollars. Then lastly I noticed the hand would still fail to completely engage without a strong, aggressive cocking motion, or a slow, click-by-click still requiring heavy force. Disassembled once more, the hand spring showed wear and heavy toning under my jeweler's loupe. New spring from Wolf later, and now it cycles through each chamber almost as smoothly as my early-era Python. *Couldn't find a bore light for pics yet, but happily once throughly deep-cleaned the lands and grooves glisten with no pitting - I think it may have gotten a few boxes of non-corrosive and then stuck away for a long time, if occasionally carried.

Serial: 9818XX SA

Once deeply cleaned, the case-coloring really came out nicely as well, I think. Not pristine and shows one or two scuffs (which maybe it's just me, but it's a Peacemaker for cripe's sakes, I want it to have some character!), but for a solidly under 2k, proper Single Action Army I'm pretty pleased with it, and it's a joy to shoot with traditional loads - enjoy the pics folks!

Very nice find! Fortunate to get the original grips with the revolver; replacements are hard to find and final fitting to the grip-frame is always an issue.

The movies and television shows are probably the only reason why Colt SAA revolvers remained in production. The second generation started in 1957, couple of years after Colt announced that they were discontinuing the SAA. With a MSRP of $125 it was not a cheap handgun for that time period, but sales remained very strong.

Third generation came along in the late 1970s. Some little changes to facilitate production (at lower expense), and more than a few issues of quality control.

I haven't looked at Colt's website for a while, but last I heard the SAA can still be ordered with about a year backlog and sticker price around $3500 or so.

Beautiful Colt! I’m noticing one thing that is curious; the hammer looks like a 2nd generation hammer used for a few years starting around the 1960 timeframe - rounded at the top. I believe that Colt subsequently returned to and used the squared off or flat topped hammers later in the 2nd generation series and in all subsequent SAA’s. Compare the pictures below…..

First your rounded hammer, used only for several years starting around 1960 on 2nd generation SAA’s…..


Compared to the squared off or flat topped hammers used on 1st generation, very early 2nd generation, late 2nd generation, and 3rd generation SAA’s…..

Nice Colt.
It cleaned up nice.

Colt SAA is my hands down favorite handgun.

Looks great and you did a fine job. Awesome gun to shoot and admire.

I think the hammer may be a 2nd gen part as well, but have no idea why/how an earlier, generally less common part came to be on the gun. I suspect an earlier owner may have been trying to eliminate the roughness of the action by simply replacing rather than going through the entire frame.

In either case now that it has been cleaned up, the right areas polished, it functions nicely and the rounded top although subtle does offer (IMO) a slightly easier 'swiping directly backwards' motion as compared to the later 3rd gens' hammer (which I've shot quite a few times - in hindsight that could be why this example handles a bit differently to me, though I had chalked that up to only having used a 3rd gen 4.75" with any regularity in the past (an uncle's). Either way, it suits my 'shooter' collection quite well.

I seem to remember hearing that Colt brought out those rounded hammers for the “fanning” crowd, but not sure there is any truth in that.

Very nice find!

I was born a “trader.” Been trading knives, motorcycles, and yea among other things a plethora of firearms since I was a kid. Over the years I’ve owned a few SAA of various manufacturer, but the Colt versions were always unfired trade fodder, so I never fired them. Oh I shot the Italian clones and the 3 screw Rugers. I also had a friend that was good to allow me to shoot his first and second generations that he accumulated over his lifetime.

I don’t do much trading now, but on occasion I still go look for bargains.

Two or three years ago I found a 90%+ 1982 manufactured 4 3/4” .45 in the box. Someone else had handled it enough that I saw it as a “shooter.”

I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine!