Pennsylvania Game News - March 2017 - 62

centerfire cartridges.
This handgun, with a 7-inch barrel,
was larger and stronger than the earlier
models.
The Schofield model, chambered in
the .45 S&W (Schofield) and released in
1875, incorporated improvements to the
Model 3, and was adopted for military
use for a short time. The top break, in
theory, made the Schofield easier to load
on horseback.
When the Rollin White patent expired
in 1873, Colt brought out the Single
Action Army revolver, also known as the
SAA, Model P, Peacemaker, M1873, or
Colt .45.
Carried by many "cowboys" of the
American West, this revolver became one
of the most popular handguns of all time.
Between 1873 and World War II, more
than 350,000 were manufactured.
Waning civilian interest, and military
demand for double-action revolvers and
semiautomatic pistols, put an end to
production.
The Colt Army revolver was designed
with a solid frame and a six-chamber
cylinder, and would become the military's
official sidearm until 1892.
The 45-caliber cartridges for which it
was chambered originally held 40 grains
of black powder pushing a 255-grain
bullet at around 950 fps.
It had a spring-loaded rod under the
barrel that aided in ejecting one case at
a time.
This well-balanced, strong pistol came
in several barrel sizes, with the 4¾-, 5½and 7½-inch barrel models being the most
prevalent.
It was chambered eventually for about
30 different cartridges - the most popular
being the .45 Colt, .44-40 Win., .38-40
62

Win., .32-20 Win., .44 Special and .41
Colt.
Attempting to compete with Colt,
Remington in 1875 updated its 1858
cap-and-ball revolver to shoot metallic
cartridges, calling it the Model 1875.
As strongly built as it was, manufacture
of the Model 1875 lasted only until 1892.
The popularity of the Colt was just
too much.
In the 1890s, gun manufacturers began
developing stronger steels to accommodate higher pressures, as smokeless
powder became the standard over black
powder.
Colt changed steels in its handguns
in 1900, at serial number 192,000, and
brought out its Bisley single-action
model in 1894. More than 44,000 were
manufactured before production stopped
in 1912.
The influence of TV and movie westerns in the 1940s through 1960s revived
interest in the Colt Single Action.
Recognizing the demand, Bill Wilson
and a couple investors in 1953 started
up the Great Western Arms Company to
recreate a clone of the Colt Single Action
Army.
Colt began production again in 1956
through 1974, and then again from 1976
to the present.
Bill Ruger, who probably understood
marketing to the shooting public better
than anyone, also came out in 1953 with
the Single Six Model revolver chambered
in .22LR.
One of the main differences of the
Ruger single-action was its use of moredurable coil springs over leaf springs. It
also had a rebounding firing pin located
inside the frame rather than on the
hammer.
Pennsylvania Game News - March 2017

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