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Colt SAA Part 2
Denghis
Member Posts: 13 ✭✭
Here are some pictures of my SAA. Instead of uploading them to this forum I put them on my website, where I can show somewhat better shots.
http://motormutt.com/Colt SAA.htm
http://motormutt.com/Colt SAA.htm
Comments
You could go on a quest to find period and the correct Ainsworth marked parts, but it would be an expensive and probably exhaustive search. Or, you could check with Doug Turnbull and see if he could restore the Colt for you to near original condition, which I believe he could, but it would be very expensive and while it would probably look new and very authentic, it would not have original parts.
I would probably leave it alone just as your father passed it down, but that is your decision. Original Ainsworth parts can be found, but it would take a lot of searching and a lot of money and a keen eye to avoid fakes. If you want to start a search for parts I would recommend that you contact Fred Rose and go from there. If you want it restored then contact Doug Turnbull.
Good luck and thanks for sharing.
Addition:
The loading gate appears to be original; have you removed the trigger guard to see if the assembly number stamped on the loading gate matches the assembly number on the bottom of the frame? If they don't match, then the loading gate has probably been replaced.
Also, does the cylinder base pin have a hole in the front end of it? If not, it was probably replaced as well as the base pin bushing.
Ainsworth didn't stamp his "A" on the frame, so the absence of the "A" on the frame is correct. If your Colt still had all of the original parts his "A" would be found on the right side of the butt (bottom of the grips), the backstrap, the triggerguard, the barrel, and the cylinder. Also, the "C" in the hammer slot is correct for a Colt of that period.
Can you add a picture of the US marking on the frame?
If you can't feel the music; it's only pink noise!
Here, I guess, is my real question about all of this...
I'd like to be able to use it, but it's pretty wore out. I don't want to stick it in a safe deposit box and forget about it, you know? Would it be worth less rebuilt?
Of course I will never sell it, but I've packed it into the Bob Marshall up here in Montana a couple of times and has been my hunting sidearm for a lot of years. It still has a lot of good use in it.
Should I leave it as is and buy another pistol?
Thanks a million, fellows...
As I've indicated previously, personally I'd leave it as is. That's the way your father passed it down and that's how he took the effort to have the old Colt customized, so I'd want it looking just the way he left it. The old Colt is 134 years old, so I'd retire it to a place of honor and possibly take it out for a dance on occasion.
Bottom line, I think you know your options and anything besides leaving it alone will be very expensive and after a great expenditure it won't look anything like your father's gun and still won't truly be original!
Good luck and let us know what you decide to do.
If you can't feel the music; it's only pink noise!
Assuming that you don't go with a full restoration (which I wouldn't recommend for many of the reasons already mentionned), but knowing that you would enjoy shooting it, a good pistolsmith (I might start by contacting Hamilton Bowen) should be able to look it over and give you an estimate to insure safe shooting with mild loads using the parts it has now and just insuring correct timing, headspace, etc.
I think you need to shoot it, but safely and with minimal alteration to the revolver as it was left to you. My 2 cents.
Good luck.
While I can't put my finger on the reference, I believe Colt stamped a marking on trigger guards of revolvers they rebuilt.
One point of interest...in the picture of the SN on the trigger guard, there is a 'V' or arrow or pointer just below the SN. Any idea what that is?
Here's the best I know of the history of the gun.
My grandfather was an itinerent cowboy originally from Kansas who drifted out to Texas and then came to Montana sometime before the turn of the century, maybe with a herd of Longhorns. He would have been about 33 years old in 1900. Somewhere along the way he picked up this pistol. There are old family stories handed down that he rode with this guy and that guy, but you know how those kind of things get started, and I lend little creedence to them. He was something of crafty old reprobate, though, and I would believe that he might have used the Colt for more than just shooting snakes.
He married my then sixteen-year-old grandmother in 1912 at the age of 45. My father was number three, born in 1919.
I'm not sure just when my dad came into possession of the gun, but he did have it rebuilt to .38 caliber (supposedly easier on the black powder frame) in the late forties or early fifties, which would fit well with Old Colts' timeline regarding the Hartford, CT connection.
Dad gave it to me in about '80.
My father did not hesitate to have it rebuilt, as at the time it was nothing more than a worn-out old Colt (no offense, Old Colt). He carried it for thirty-some years as his hunting side arm and it has been known to give the 'coup de grace' to deer, elk, a bear or two and an occasional dog. I have used it similarily in the twenty-eight years that I've been it's caretaker.
My wish, and I think his, would be to continue the tradition of keeping it very much serviceable and to use it often in the way it was meant to be used.
Hopefully my grandson will get a chance to do it all over again as it nears it's two-hundred-year anniversary.
Wouldn't that be something?
http://motormutt.com/Colt SAA.htm
John Christian Riebe
No?