The Single Action Army Colt's legendary Model P

Guns Magazine, July, 2003 by John Taffin

The original Colt SAA was designed for one purpose, to receive an Army contract. To this end they were produced in the 7 1/2-inch barrel length, which basically duplicates the balance of the Model 1851 and Model 1860. From 1873 to 1891, Colt supplied slightly more than 37,000 Cavalry Model SAAs.

In 1877, the Colt Model P was chambered in .44-40 as a companion piece to the Winchester Model 1873 levergun. About this same time the first Colt Single Action Army with a 43/4-inch barrel was offered. The three standard barrel lengths are known as the Cavalry Model (7 1/2 inch), Artillery Model (5 1/2 inch), and Civilian Model (4 3/4 inch).

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The latter is perhaps the most finely balanced sixgun in existence. In trained hands and from a properly designed holster, it cannot be beaten for that all-important first shot. It is at the top of the list of gunfighter's weapons offered by Colt, Remington, and S&W during the second half of the 19th-century.

Over the next half-century the Colt Single Action Army would be carried by such famous and infamous men as Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Bill Tilghman, Heck Thomas, Chris Madsen, John Wesley Hardin, and even Theodore Roosevelt during his ranching days in the Dakota Territory.

In 1916 a young officer who would become very famous in World War II -- Army Lieutenant George Patton -- purchased a fully engraved, nickel plated, ivory stocked, 4 3/4inch .45 Colt SAA before joining Black Jack Pershing in the chase after Pancho Villa. Villa himself packed a nickel plated, ivory stocked, 4 3/4-inch .45 Colt.

Can we even begin to imagine Western movies without the Colt SAA? Saturday matinees for several generations of kids with William S. Hart, Buck Jones, Hopalong Cassidy, Wild Bill Elliott, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry carrying something other than a Single Action Colt? Matt Dillon making the streets of Dodge City safe without a 7 1/2-inch Colt Peacemaker in his hands?

Death Of The Colt SAA?

From 1873 until 1941 nearly 358,000 Colt Model P sixguns were manufactured in more than 30 calibers. Approximately one-half of these were chambered in .45 Colt, one-fourth in .44-40, and followed in popularity by .38-40, .32-20, and .41 Long Colt.

After World War I shooters discovered other Colt handguns, the relatively new 1911 .45 ACP and the large-frame double action, the New Service. The popularity of S&W's beautifully built DA revolvers in both .38 Special and .44 Special further dulled the appeal of the good old SAA.

The days of the Colt Single Action Army were numbered. The sixgun whose yearly production table often ran to five figures now had years with 100 units being made. In 1941 the inevitable happened and the Colt SAA was removed from production never to be seen again. Or so everyone thought.

By the early 1950s television had spread across most of the country and many hours were filled by old Western B movies from the 1930s and 1940s. There were dozens of heroes galloping across the screen, however the real star of every one of these movies was the Colt SAA. Demand arose for Colts. Colt listened and in 1956, the 2nd Generation of Colt Single Actions arrived.