Thumb buster love: 40 years with the Colt SAA

Guns Magazine, Jan, 2009 by Mike "Duke" Venturino

The summer of 2008 marks my 40th year spent studying, collecting, and above all shooting the Colt Single Action Army revolver. Back in 1968 as a summer job between my first and second year of college, I was hustling freight on the docks of a local storage and transfer company. That was in southern West Virginia, where Colt Single Action Army revolvers were not exactly common. In fact, they were so uncommon I'd never actually seen one in person.

Regardless, as so often was the case in my younger years, I just knew if only a Colt SAA would fall into my hands, all would be right in my world. That summer job I worked alongside a high school friend named Mike Bucci nicknamed Butch. He shared my fondness for shooting, but couldn't understand why I was pre-occupied with a "cowboy gun."

One afternoon on the loading docks Butch was talking to one of the truck drivers named Jesse May. He called me over saying, "Hey Mike, Jesse here says he owns one of those cowboy guns you're always talking about." I began to rapid fire question Jesse May, "What caliber is it? First or second generation? What barrel length? Blue and color case hardened finish or nickel plated? What do you want for it?" You see, I may have never seen a real Colt SAA, but I knew something about them because I had certainly read a bunch about them in firearms magazines.

Jesse said, "It's a .45 and has a barrel about this long." (He held his fingers about 6" apart.) Then he went on to say he didn't know what color case hardening was but the gun was not nickel-plated and didn't understand what I meant by "generation" and lastly it wasn't for sale. I asked him to at least bring it with him to work someday.

Weeks went by and he never did, so I thought he was just blowing smoke. Then to my utter astonishment one payday Friday after work he called my house and said, "If you want that Colt meet me back at the docks and bring $100." I did but expected him to show up with a Model 1917 double action .45, or most anything besides a genuine Colt SAA .45.

He did not. As we met he unwrapped from an oily rag a pristine Colt SAA .45 with blue/case color finish, 5-1/2" barrel, and of second generation manufacture. (Later I dated it as being made in 1964.) The only thing un-original about it was someone had replaced the factory hard-rubber grips with plastic ones resembling mother of pearl. I was speechless. Not only was I holding a "real" Colt SAA but a darn nice one and it was now mine!

Remembering in my stash of odds and ends there was a single .45 Colt factory cartridge, I rushed home, got it, and then drove outside the city limits and fired my one cartridge at a chunk of wood. That was the beginning of 40 years of Colt SAA shooting, which I hope is far from over.

Actually, my Colt SAA shooting got off to a fairly slow start because, although I was already a handloader and bullet caster, money was short for more bullet moulds and reloading dies. And it was even shorter for .45 Colt factory loads. I bought the Colt in June, but it was early September before enough cash was available to order Lyman bullet mould No. 454190, a set of RCBS dies, proper shell holder, and lube/sizing dies.

Forty years later I have owned scores of Colt SAAs, fired hundreds more and reloaded all the major calibers for which they have been chambered in their 135-year history. The oldest one I ever owned was a nickeled .44-40 factory lettering to 1892 and the most recent a nickeled .45 from 1997. I won't bore you with how they all came my way, but a couple of stories might be interesting. One is right after I turned 21 in 1970 I bought a .357 Magnum with 4-3/4" barrel. In 1972 I sold it, bought it back in 1976, sold it again in 1977, and finally bought it back again in 1996. It's still with me now. Sometimes it pays to sell guns to friends with whom you stay in contact.

Another two came my way in a most pleasing manner but one ended up tragically. In 1989, the first time Country/ Western singer Hank Williams Jr. visited me, he gave me a 1914 vintage Colt SAA .45. On April 1st 1991, as I plinked with it at steel targets, it blew up in my hand due to reasons yet to be determined. Luckily, I wasn't hurt. Another day in 1994 the UPS truck delivered a package to my door. The return address was Hank's. Upon opening it I found a very fine Colt Custom Shop SAA .45 with rare full-blue finish and my name engraved on the backstrap. Hank had ordered two identical .45s with his name engraved on one and mine on the other. I've taken much better care of it than of that first one.

Before going on let's talk about Colt SAA "generations." Colt started SAA production three times and stopped it twice. The 1 st Generation ran from 1873 to 1941 with serial numbers going from 1 to over 357,000. That's fairly simple. Then in 1955 they started up again with serial number 0001SA and ran to around 74000SA. That was 2nd Generation production. Again, fairly simple.

It gets more complicated in the 3rd Generation. That production run started at serial number 80000SA and ran to 99999SA. Then they started over with SA0001 and ran to SA99999. Thereupon they split the SA and started over at S00001A and who knows exactly where they are now. The last one I personally saw was S3XXXXA, but that was a few years ago. Some people feel there are actually four generations of production, but Colt told me since they never stopped production of the 3rd Generation, they don't consider there to be a 4th Generation.