This may be the rarest of all the Colt SA .22's. It's a GS series New Frontier model G2241 for which a leftover (albeit unembellished) barrel from the John Wayne "The Duke" special edition was fitted, this being most likely in early 1984. The blade front sight, as opposed to the normal ramp type, is the giveaway.

Don Wilkerson's estimate is that only 100 to 150 of these were made. Colt's records show that 4,899 of "The Duke" New Frontiers were shipped, and it seems probable that an even 5,000 could've been the original production target. Thus a conjecture that there might've been a minimum of 101 surplus barrels to be used up isn't unreasonable.

I have the original box and paperwork to go with this, and there's no obvious indication or disclosure that the barrel was atypical. Apparently they were just "snuck in" there with the rest.

One of these turned up in a Rock Island Auction some years ago, and while the accompanying factory letter doesn't mention its nonstandard configuration, the hammer price strongly suggests the buyer (and at least one competing bidder as well) recognized it for what it was. See: Colt New Frontier Revolver 22 LR | Rock Island Auction

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SWCA #590
"Colligo ergo sum"

For some reason this post does not have white print against the gray background, making it very hard to read.

I checked several other posts, and they appear normally. Anyone have any ideas how to clear this one up?

TIA

There was nothing out of the ordinary regarding the manner in which this was posted. It should present normally.

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SWCA #590
"Colligo ergo sum"

Unusual gun...
A lot of members use "Dark Blue Large Font" style.
It displays like this:

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IMG_7450.jpg (81.8 KB, 305 views)

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"I also cook."

That's interesting about the number of those likely produced. I have one as well along with the box. Anyone else have one ??

I don't. I did not change any of my settings. All the other threads on the forum presented properly.

The original post is still presenting gray. Moot point on that since I was able to read it, with a lot of close reading to make out the print.

I just don't want it happenng again, especially given that I had not changed anything that would cause it to present that way.

Can you post a photo?

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SWCA #590
"Colligo ergo sum"

I had a 1960's production New Frontier I receiver as a Christmas present from my brother in about 1970. It had the regular sight and two cylinders, Screwdriver/key chain, box and papers. In the mid 80's I got $450 trade at a LGS.

Ivan

Just select all and it will appear. On a Windows machine, CNTRL-A will do it. It looks goofy, but readable.

Here is a pic of mine, I covered the last digit of the serial number how close is yours?

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	IMG_2600.jpg (147.2 KB, 38 views)

Not very, over 900 later (I've since added a photo of my box). Yours is the lowest serial number that I'm aware of. These seem to be sprinkled in over a rather wide range, G21627X to G217550. If anyone has (or has seen) one yet higher or lower, please chime in.

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SWCA #590
"Colligo ergo sum"

Nice! I have a few of the Colt .22's and they are super nice high quality revolvers. Most were made in small production runs but not as low as the OP example. I found the New Frontiers to always be accurate and I used to split playing cars in half with one. Can still do that too!

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IMG_0217.jpg (67.3 KB, 37 views)

IIRC, the Colt Frontier series from the 1960s had fixed sights. The 1970s NEW Frontier .22 series had adjustable sights.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

And the Peacemakers were fixed.....

The adjustable sight .22 New Frontier revolvers can be divided into two groups - the G series which were made during the 1970's and the GS series which in the 1980's constituted a resumption of production and incorporated a safety (more on that later).

The G2241 (.22LR) and G2441 (dual cylinder) models of the G series initially had 4 3/4 inch barrels. However, by 1972 the barrel length had been pared back to 4 2/5 inch so that the muzzle was nearly flush with the end of the ejector rod housing. Despite this, these guns (in both the G and later GS series) continued to be represented as having 4 3/4 inch barrels. As all G series barrels were crowned, a magnum cylinder could be later added to the guns originally shipped with just the .22LR cylinder.

Any GS series gun, although neither marked on its (uncrowned) barrel nor on the cylinder as specifically being so, was designed for use with .22LR ammunition only. Fitting a magnum cylinder to these is contraindicated.

As mentioned above, all GS series guns will have an internal crossbolt safety. In the spirit of giving Colt the benefit of the doubt, I will only say that the operation of this device is less than intuitive and its efficacy at best questionable.

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SWCA #590
"Colligo ergo sum"

In doing a little online research this evening, I found a reference to another of these late New Frontiers with the blade front sight, it being reported as bearing serial number G2188XX. That extends the upper end of the range of known serial numbers for these by quite a bit.

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SWCA #590
"Colligo ergo sum"

If having trouble reading is an intermittent color issue, with a Windows computer left click on the text and drag across the text; this makes the background blue and the words more legible. I have to do this perhaps once every few months.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

I tried that and it works Thank you.

It still begs the question of why it happened to begin with.

Interestingly, Goony's post #15 presented gray, #16 presented normal.

Thank you MurphyDog, my erroneous post is gone.

I have a couple of these that have not seen daylight in several years. Guess I will need to go digging to see what I have.

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"Tastes just like chicken"