Some Colt Clones
Collecting cowboy ‘peacemakers’
While I was still immersed in boyish preoccupations, things were happening in the United States of which I was not yet aware. Americans were reliving their past through television and films, and this created a market for reproductions of historical frontier firearms. This was at a time when Colt had already indicated that they would not continue to produce their Single Action Army model. The vacuum would be filled in double-quick time.
Great Western Arms of California was the first company to recreate Colt’s iconic six-gun, commencing in 1954 with their Standard Model, which resembled the Colt SAA in most respects, the firing pin being the main exception – housed in the frame and not on the hammer. Other models would follow.
TIME PASSED AND I progressed from playing ‘cowboys and crooks’ to collecting historical firearms. In 1966, I visited a Cape Town gun shop and told Ted Whitehead of my search for a Colt SAA revolver. He had a very discouraging reply for me. Colts were prohibitively expensive, whereas quality lookalikes were coming on the market and were very much more affordable. He offered me a true-to-life reproduction of the Colt SAA in .22 LR calibre, sporting a 5½ inch barrel and produced by JP Sauer und Sohn of Germany, manufactured from an alloy with a steel-sleeved bore and cylinder. I could not know it then, but this was the first of its kind to come out of Europe.
I knew it would be foolhardy to embark on a quest for Colt Single Actions as a main collecting theme. I made peace with the idea that I should go for reproductions instead. Surely, it was the look that mattered most, not the brand name.
I was much impressed by the Sauer. Taking possession in due course, I promptly discarded the imitation staghorn grips and made wooden grips to better imitate the Colt. This Sauer was quite satisfying to me and I enjoyed many hours’ plinking with it. A drawback was the blued finish that rapidly disappeared, the alloy taking on a cloudy sheen. Then also, the many screws loosened after a mere dozen shots, calling for constant tightening.
In 1977, I bought two new Uberti ‘Frontier’ Single Action models with the same barrel length as the Sauer, one in .22 LR and one in .357 Magnum, but their adjustable target sights drew some of the allure away from these otherwise well-performing revolvers. Had I been adequately informed at that stage, I would have been happy to learn that these shooting replicas had a standard of construction and design that surpassed the earlier Colts. The steels were much stronger and the tolerances much tighter.
I HAD A ‘pie in the sky’ vision against which I measured my acquisitions, and hitherto, these models did not fully comply. I wanted something more true to the iconic revolver I knew General Custer’s men of the 7th Cavalry were issued with. Adjustable sights were not part of the image.
It seemed to me that history was repeating itself when, during a vacation in 1979, I again paid a visit to Ted Whitehead and lamented that the Sauer and the Ubertis were okay, but I really needed something a bit more true to the authentic Colt that I had seen only in pictures. Ted hauled out a revolver that took my breath away. It was a new Uberti Cattleman in .45 Colt – a handgun that closely resembled the prize I had been dreaming about. The barrel length was 7½ inches and it was in the ‘right’ calibre to boot. However, the trigger-guard and grip strap being brass remained an inauthentic feature.
Now, this was 1979, when the debilitating mandatory embargo on firearms imports to this country, adopted two years earlier by the United Nations Security Council because of apartheid, was in full swing. The one or two new Colts coming into the country clandestinely were snapped up even before arriving. The going prices for Colts on auction remained far above my means. The decision I had made that clones would be my way forward resulted in the Cattleman becoming mine and I immediately started hand-loading cartridges for this cavalry ‘hogleg’ using both black and smokeless powders.
In 1984, I chanced to visit Impala Arms in Bloemfontein, where I was shown a most desirable pre-owned single-action revolver in .357 Magnum, a product of the Italian company Armi Jager which began making Peacemaker reproductions in 1962. Imported by Inter Continental Arms of Los Angeles, it was named the Dakota. Being factory-engraved, it was more attractive than the Uberti and of better quality than the Sauer, so I purchased it forthwith.
I was informed that an American gentleman visiting our country had brought this Dakota with him, intending to sell it here. I wrote to him asking for more information, but in replying, he denied all knowledge of this revolver. I did not pursue the matter further.
In time, the licence was granted and I took possession. I immediately had the Dakota masterfully engraved with my name and the date, in flowing script by Fred Tocknell. I then made a one-piece grip for it using horn from a large Cape buffalo trophy that was taking up too much space in my man cave (I described this project in the October 1985 edition of Man Magnum).
The Dakota’s relatively low serial number was an indication that it had been produced sometime in the mid-sixties, making it quite long in the tooth by the time I owned it. Nonetheless, it was in perfect condition.
There is a sad personal twist to this tale of the Dakota. I had gradually become disillusioned by the ever-hardening attitudes of the lawmakers and the licensing authority in this country. I reasoned that it would not be possible for me to carry on collecting if the government were set on taking away our firearms. Even if it were possible for law-abiding enthusiasts to acquire some kind of accreditation as collectors, hunters or sport shooters, ever-tightening regulations could make it an unaffordable hobby. So, in my despondent state, I started selling off some of my collection, mostly for a song. In time, however, I noticed my fellow enthusiasts rallying to the cause – they would not take the bullying lying down, and I took heart from that. To this day I rue the decision I made to let the Dakota and the two Frontiers go.
In an effort to regain something of what I had lost, I decided I would purchase a brand-new six-gun in .357 Magnum, matching as closely as possible in authenticity to the Colt SAA. After doing my homework as best I could, I recently settled on an ‘Italian job’ once again, not a Uberti this time,
In an effort to regain something of what I had lost, I decided I would purchase a brand-new six-gun in .357 Magnum, matching as closely as possible in authenticity to the Colt SAA
but a Pietta. I selected a blued 1873 model with case-hardened frame and a lovely dark walnut grip, a product of FAP Fabbrica Armi Fratelli Pietta (Pietta Brothers Arms Manufacturer), founded in 1963 in Brescia, Italy, and today widely recognised as makers of the most accurate and refined reproductions of historical weapons of the old West. Although the barrel is shorter than the cavalry model’s and the calibre smaller than .45 Colt, the trigger-guard and grip-frame are steel, not brass. In this respect, the Pietta is more closely authentic to the Colt than any of my previous clones.
History tells us that after 1895, the US government returned large numbers of SAA revolvers to Colt for refurbishing. The barrels of many were shortened to 5½ inches and these Colts were officially referred to as the ‘altered revolvers’. The first units armed with the ‘altered revolver’ were artillery units, and that is how the eventual designation ‘Artillery’ came into use. The original calibres smaller than .45 Colt included the .38 Long Colt, for which the ammunition is difficult to obtain in South Africa, so having this reproduction in .357 Magnum is an advantage.
The scope of this article does not permit mention of the many other makes of Colt clones that have been around; my acquisitions over the years were restricted to what was locally available to me. Yet this has been very rewarding in so many other respects, affording hours of study and enjoyment, both on the shooting range and off it.