Colt SAA 2ND to 3rd transition

Welcome to the Leverguns.Com Forum. This is a high-class place so act respectable. We discuss most anything here ... politely.

Moderators: AmBraCol, Hobie

Forum rules
Welcome to the Leverguns.Com General Discussions Forum. This is a high-class place so act respectable. We discuss most anything here other than politics... politely.

Please post political post in the new Politics forum.
Post Reply
User avatar
Pat C
Levergunner 3.0
Posts: 572
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:19 pm

Colt SAA 2ND to 3rd transition

Post by Pat C »

Interesting topic came up on Colt Forum with no conclusion ,thought someone here may be able to answer.
According to Jim Martin he has a 827xxSA marked SAA which falls at the beginning of 3rd Gen production.
He states it had the redesigned 3rd Gen cylinder and hand .

He removed the original 5 1/2" barrel and installed a 7 1/2" barrel from 2nd Generation production.

So that means the frame must be a leftover 2nd Gen 20 TPI

That is the strange part because supposedly at 80000SA the new 24 TPI frames and barrels were part of the retool shutdown in 1975.

He is trying to find out if anyone else has seen a 20 TPI frame and barrel in a known original 3rd Gen SAA?
User avatar
Ysabel Kid
Moderator
Posts: 27790
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:10 pm
Location: South Carolina, USA
Contact:

Re: Colt SAA 2ND to 3rd transition

Post by Ysabel Kid »

Colt did the game thing 125 years earlier during the variations of the 1851 Navy. Lots of intermix of parts as one variation became the next.
Image
User avatar
Scott Tschirhart
Advanced Levergunner
Posts: 3840
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2020 2:56 pm
Location: San Antonio, Texas

Re: Colt SAA 2ND to 3rd transition

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

I’m sure they didn’t want to waste any parts they already had. So that’s not terribly surprising.
User avatar
Pat C
Levergunner 3.0
Posts: 572
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:19 pm

Re: Colt SAA 2ND to 3rd transition

Post by Pat C »

Agreed ,but to what extent ? Just about every published book says when SAA production started back up 80000SA would have all the new design changes. Cylinder, hand ,subtle frame contour changes, new barrel and receiver thread at 24 TPI.

Rick Hacker's NRA article says the SA suffix guns are 2nd Gen frames . Well that's 26,798 SAA's.

I've tried to find gaps on the Colt site but it lists the first 3rd Gen SAA at 73201SA and I punched in a bunch of numbers between that and 80000SA and no gaps found.

With out a doubt the SAA that Jim has is 827xxSA ,if no gaps in numbers that's almost 10K into 3rd Gen production.

It's sounding more and more like maybe the barrel receiver thread did not change until the SA became a prefix after
99999SA .
User avatar
Pat C
Levergunner 3.0
Posts: 572
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:19 pm

Re: Colt SAA 2ND to 3rd transition

Post by Pat C »

Some people believe the Colt archive site is inaccurate ?

A mystery no doubt because not a single person has see a SAA between 73319SA and 80000SA

Most books say a gap of 5k-6k in serial when production stopped
User avatar
Griff
Posting leader...
Posts: 20803
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 4:56 pm
Location: OH MY GAWD they installed a STOP light!!!

Re: Colt SAA 2ND to 3rd transition

Post by Griff »

Yes the Colt website is a little vague in some respects. It lists my late 2nd Gen SAA as made in 1974, and all 3 of my Colt 2nd Series 1851 one with either 1971 or 1972, one in 1976, the 3rd in 1978, yet shows both of my 3rd Gen SAAs as "unknown". One is a SA10xxx, the other is SA61xxx.
Griff,
SASS/CMSA #93
NRA Patron
GUSA #93

There is a fine line between hobby & obsession!
AND... I'm over it!!
No I ain't ready, but let's do it anyway!
Post Reply