Author Topic: Saga of the Colt Single Action Army .45  (Read 1935 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Saga of the Colt Single Action Army .45
« on: June 15, 2018, 07:39:01 pm »
Patriot Gun News


The 43⁄4″ barrel Colt Single Action Army is the fastest and best-balanced barrel length.
(Photo credit Colt’s Manufacturing Company, LLC)

Thanks to Hollywood Westerns, the M1873 Colt Single Action Army (SAA) is the world’s most recognized pistol. The real pistol is a lot more deadly than the noisemaker portrayed by Hollywood. A good shooter can shoot coins out of the air with it as fast as you can toss them up and also put all his slugs in the kill zone of a man silhouette target out to several hundred yards. This is in sharp contrast to the movies, where no one gets hit until a crucial scene to the plot and actors shoot at each other harmlessly the rest of the time.

Hollywood has everyone wearing low-slung Buscadero holsters that first appeared on the Mexican border areas in the 1920s, but the men of the Old West carried the gun high on the hip in a Slim Jim or a Mexican Loop holster. Even the draw is different in the movies, where they cock the gun while it’s still in the holster and wildly fan the hammer with their free hand once it’s out. Try that with real bullets, and if you don’t manage to shoot yourself in the leg, you will find that you can’t hit anything at any distance fanning the gun. Fanning a six-gun has also ruined more lock work than you can imagine. It’s a show-off’s stunt, and show-offs didn’t last long as gunfighters. Fanning’s only place is in fantasy Western movies.

The Old West gunfighters never cocked a pistol until its muzzle was pointed away from them half way to the target. The hammer was cocked by laying the thumb crossways over the hammer, which positions the hand high up on the grip, with the ball of the hand at the base of the trigger finger angling down and pressing against one of the flat Colt logo panels, and the thumb angling downward pressing against the other flat logo panel. The cocked hammer spur should be digging into the back of your hand (you had better stone the sharp edge of the spur off), and the center of your palm should be against the gun’s backstrap, while the trigger finger should have the first joint around the trigger, with the tip of the trigger touching the tip of the thumb. Squeezing the two logo panels and the trigger together turns the force of pulling the trigger into a steadying force, while automatically aligning the sights with whatever at which you are pointing.

The result is a lightning-fast pistol that hits as good as a rifle out to long carbine range. I have never had the SAA roll back in my hand or felt any recoil with this grip. This old gunfighter’s trick was never talked about outside the trade, and as the last guardian of the information, I am the only one ever to reveal it in print. It is the secret to the Colt Single Action’s reputation.

This grip makes the gun point much more accurately, and point shooting was the way revolvers were used in the 19th Century, not aiming. Point shooting is much more accurate than any sights, so the sights on the early guns remained more rudimentary affairs, intended only to help you see where a new gun was pointing on your first shooting outing. Today’s shooter seems to think he needs sights, but David didn’t have a sight on his sling when he killed Goliath with it, and Robin Hood had no sights on his bow and arrow. Hand-and-eye coordination is far more accurate and natural than sights and a whole lot faster in a gun battle.

More: http://patriotgunnews.com/2018/05/22/saga-of-the-colt-single-action-army-45/

I learned "Instinct Shooting" was both very fast and accurate too with my first handgun, an Italian knockoff of a Colt Single Action in 38 Special.


Offline driftdiver

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Re: Saga of the Colt Single Action Army .45
« Reply #1 on: June 15, 2018, 07:57:30 pm »
They are fun to shoot.
Fools mock, tongues wag, babies cry and goats bleat.

Online roamer_1

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Re: Saga of the Colt Single Action Army .45
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2018, 08:46:57 pm »
I am a point-shooter, and I can shoot the heck outta a Colt - And I am going back to it...

Never thought about that being why I have such trouble with semi-autos... but that's it, right there.

Offline Elderberry

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Re: Saga of the Colt Single Action Army .45
« Reply #3 on: June 15, 2018, 08:57:38 pm »
Point-shooting came so naturally to me. It must have helped my being in so many sling shot and rock wars growing up. The train trestle was at the end of my (now so very short) street. Anyone crossing from the other side of the bayou was the enemy and another rock war ensued.

Online roamer_1

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Re: Saga of the Colt Single Action Army .45
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2018, 09:11:33 pm »
Point-shooting came so naturally to me. It must have helped my being in so many sling shot and rock wars growing up. The train trestle was at the end of my (now so very short) street. Anyone crossing from the other side of the bayou was the enemy and another rock war ensued.

LOL! I carry a wrist rocket in my possibles to this day... One heck of a survival tool. Of course it is jacked up with the black bands, and has about a 45lb pull... And I have it rigged to shoot arrows if I want to. Took a small deer with it one year, just to prove I could.

Offline Elderberry

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Re: Saga of the Colt Single Action Army .45
« Reply #5 on: June 15, 2018, 09:24:06 pm »
When my son was in Little League, one of the pitching machines I built for practice was powered by speargun bands. Catapult style. I mostly made compressed air powered baseball cannons. The kids took a little while to get used to a booming cannon aiming at them. They were great for pop fly practice too.

Offline Elderberry

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Re: Saga of the Colt Single Action Army .45
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2018, 09:26:36 pm »
I always wanted to hunt with an atlatl, but in Texas, it's not a legal method.

Online roamer_1

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Re: Saga of the Colt Single Action Army .45
« Reply #7 on: June 15, 2018, 09:30:06 pm »
I always wanted to hunt with an atlatl, but in Texas, it's not a legal method.

If that's a spear with a throw-stick, I have messed with that some. Never killed with one, but got good enough for target practice...  Wicked power, though hard to master accuracy... Not really a good tool for here though - too brushy.   :shrug: