American Western Arms: the ultimate sixgun lives up to its name

Guns Magazine, July, 2006 by John Taffin

When you arrive at the three-score-years-plus years as I have, it is much easier to look at the past (The Good Old Days!) and say "They don't make them like they used to!" In many cases this is simply a result of remembering all the good things in the past and forgetting everything else. In way too many instances, progress has brought with it lower quality instead of higher. When it comes to firearms, they certainly do not make them like they used to. They make them better. Of course, many are neither fitted nor finished as well as they were in the 1950s. However, the fact is, today's sixguns are stronger, safer and in most cases, shoot better.

When it comes to single-action six-guns, the current crop of replicas bear little resemblance to what was available back in the 1960s and '70s. The traditional replicas we enjoy today are beautifully authentic and exquisitely crafted when compared with the spaghetti six-guns of 30-years ago with their brass grip frames and poorly executed case coloring and bluing.

The Ultimate

One of the suppliers of truly authentic-looking replica sixguns is American Western Arms, or simply AWA. AWA does not import completed sixguns but rather brings in the parts which are assembled and finished in this country all resulting in as beautiful a Single Action Army replica as one will find anywhere. The Ultimate from American Western Arms features a very nicely high-polished blue mated up with hammer and main frame finished in a bone and charcoal color case-hardening--real case-hardening not coloring as on many replicas. The Ultimate also has one-piece walnut stocks, a 3- to 31/2 -pound trigger pull and is available in the three standard barrel lengths of 43/4", 51/2" and 71/2". Standard chamberings are .45 Colt, .44-40, .38-40, .357 Magnum, and .32-20. An optional chambering is .44 Special as found in the 43/4"-barreled test sixgun provided by AWA.

In addition to the standard barrel lengths AWA offers optional barrel lengths, such as the Buntline, as well as octagon barrels. I am presently working with a consecutively numbered pair of octagon-barreled Ultimates with 71/2" and 10" barrels and both are dual-cylinder models in .44-40 and .44 Special. AWA's Custom Shop also offers engraving in A, B, C, or D coverage as well as ivory or fancy wood custom stocks. The two octagon-barreled Ultimates I am also working with have beautifully crafted one-piece mesquite stocks by Jim Martin, and the presentation grade sixgun also shown has been engraved and stocked by Jerry Harper.

As this is written, spring has not yet arrived in southwestern Idaho and my days of ignoring cold weather when shooting are long gone. However, at 20 yards I was able to place five shots in 1 3/8" using Ten-X's 200-grain .44 Special load. This Ultimate is right on for windage and shoots low allowing each shooter to file the front sight to hit point of aim with his particular load. One thing quite obvious after shooting several hundred rounds through this .44 Special is what's not seen--there is no ring around the cylinder following the path of the bolt cuts. This ring seen on so many revolvers is a result of imperfect timing. Proper timing means the primary and secondary fingers on the hand contacting the ratchet and the cylinder bolt have all been timed together and work in unison--not against each other. Tuning and timing are not the same. The latter is parts working together in the proper sequence while tuning is a smoothing of all parts so they have no rough surfaces contacting each other. It is pretty obvious AWA times their revolvers correctly as it can only be done by hand. All AWA revolvers feature a coil mainspring.

THE ULTIMATE

Maker: American Western Arms
2280 West 80th St., Suites 2&3
Hialeah FL 33016
(877) 292-4867, www.awaguns.com

ACTION TYPE:      Traditional
                  single action
CALIBER:          .45 Colt, .44-40,
                  .44 Special, .38-40,
             .    .357, .32-20.
CAPACITY:         6
BARREL LENGTH:    4 3/4", 5 1/2", 7 1/2"
OVERALL LENGTH:   11" (5 1/2" version)
WEIGHT:           2.3 pounds (5 1/2")
FINISH:           Blue/Case hardened
SIGHTS:           Traditional fixed sights
                  with square notch rear
                  and blade front.
GRIPS:            One-piece walnut
PRICE:            $600