Mine is an original First generation Colt SAA, 5 & 1/2" artillery version. The artillery versions were made from 7 & 1/2" Colts that were returned to Colt to have their barrels reduced to 5 & 1/2". There was not much effort, when reassembling the guns, to keep matching serial numbers together. Consequently, most artillery Colts do not have all matching numbers. My frame dates to 1882 and the rest of the parts all date to 1874. David Lanara has examined this particular gun and authenticated it as a US artillery Colt. In Canada, the average fellow can only pack antique sixguns, no repros and nothing newer than 1897. Thus, this old sixgun is still seeing service in the Canadian wilderness. The gun has been completely restored and the original 'US' and inspection marks have been carefully preserved. I've set aside the original cylinder for safe keeping and have a modern cylinder in place chambered for 45 Schofield, which was a cartridge often used in the original Colt SAA's during the mid-1870's (45 Colts are not legal antiques in Canada, even if they date before 1898). I have installed a new cylinder pin sized such that I have zero end shake and absolutely no wobble, and a cylinder-throat gap of just .002 since I'm using only smokeless powder. It is rock solid. I've put in a new bolt and did some fine tuning on the bolt with a diamond file so that the bolt drops into the bevel just before the notch and it locks up exactly on time like a vault with no drag. Mechanically, I don't see how a mint factory version could be tighter or more perfectly timed. I put a 250 grain cast bullet out the barrel at just over 850 fps to duplicate original Colt velocities. I've ordered a sweet holster from Mernickle Holsters, but it will be a couple months before I have it. To practice, I have a solid walnut stump over a foot thick outside my office door. At lunch time, I'll step out and fire five rounds into a small piece of paper tacked to the stump (I live in a rural area). I am slowly increasing the distance and I see significant improvement each week. I find that a few rounds each day, rather than a lot of rounds once per week, gives much faster improvement. I've read Elmer Keith's book and he's got me inspired to try some longer distance shooting once I get the 25 yard groups tight enough. Right now I'm practicing one-handed shooting.
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? Does that count enough for Leverguns.com???
