It Lives

A couple weeks ago I shared how I spent my Columbus Day and the work I was doing on an old 1890's-vintage .45 Colt Single Action Army Model. When I got the gun is was tired. The cylinder bushing was worn until the cylinder would rattle back and forth. The rifling in the barrel was a distant memory. The cylinder bolt was out of time, dropping almost too late to lock the cylinder. The old gun had been buffed down and reblued with no attempt to keep it original. (Which was not uncommon on the old Colt's back in the '40's and '50's).

Inspecting it closely I discovered the barrel was not a Colt barrel. The rifling turned in the opposite direction from the Colt barrels and seems a slower pitch. The cylinder was not original either, being of a later manufacturing period than the 1880's. Which ain't all bad since many of the old cylinders are not safe even with black powder nowadays. I suspect the barrel and cylinder may be from Christy's Gun Works who used to fix up the old Colts years ago. They may have even done the bluing since it was a pretty good job. Whoever buffed the gun to polish before the bluing did not destroy numbers and lettering on the frame like so many of these old guns were treated. They cylinder pin is a replacement pin also, though it appears to be a Colt pin. The old blackpowder cylinder pins had a hole in each end while this one does not. But it is in good shape.

The serial numbers on the frame, backstrap and trigger guard all match as do the assembly numbers on the frame and loading gate. I am going to send to Colt and see if I can find out just what the old gun was made up like originally and where it was shipped. The history - if you can find it - on some of these old guns is worth having.

I needed a barrel for it and eventually found one. Paul Persinger of Persinger's Shop had one that he said he would trade me. Since the price was right I decided to do it. It was a Second Generation replacement barrel with the address on the right side of the barrel and the words "Colt Single Action Army .45" on the left side. While not being "correct" for the gun, it was a Colt barrel. In the meantime I also received a Second Generation Buntline barrel from my good friend John Purcell. This barrel is in good shape except for the fact that it is long enough to make 2 barrels from! Eddie Janis of Peacemaker Specialists takes these and shortens them to the proper length, moves the sight back and then remarks them with lettering correct for the period of the gun it is going on. I would like to have that done one of these days, but for now.....

In fact, eventually I would like to have the old Colt restored to all it's former glory. Re-lettered, color case hardening just like the original, and the old bluing!! Wow. Do they every look great. First I need to save up some of that stuff......what is it called? We use it to trade for food and rent...? "Dollars" I think they are called. It has been a while since I have seen many. And to get that kind of work done, it takes a few of them...

When I got the .45 Colt barrel from Paul Persinger I went to work on it. It is a 5 1/2" barrel which is fine. I like the length. But this particular barrel was nickel plated and I needed to remove the nickling. So........... Reading through some posts on the Campfire Message Board I read about Hoppes #9 removing nickel plating and thought, "Here is the way to save me some work!" I went got a big jug of Hoppes #9, made a trough to hold the barrel and soaked it. I cleaned and degreased the barrel completely before immersing it in the Hoppes. I stuck the barrel in the stuff on Thursday afternoon and let it set until Friday night. I took it out and ....nothing! I thought, "Could this be chrome plating instead of nickel?" and got out some sandpaper. A few passes and bright copper was showing. Nope. Its nickel. I sanded the barrel lightly all over to get the copper showing and immersed it again. (We believe in total immersion)

I let it soak until Sunday afternoon. When I pulled it out - NOTHING!! By then I gave up on the Hoppes #9 and got out my sandpaper. I worked from 2 PM until 6:30 PM. I worked with coarse, then fine, then finer. Eventually I had 99% of the nickel and copper off the barrel. My fingers were cramping and my hands were tired but it was ready. Why the Hoppes did not work I do not know....and I am not saying it may not pull the plating off your gun. I am just reporting what I experienced.

The rifling on the barrel is pitted pretty badly, especially about halfway down the bore. There is rust damage where the barrel evidently was not cleaned properly years ago. Paul did not hold out much hope for it working very well. One reason I wanted to try it was: When I screwed it into the frame hand tight, it was only about 1/8 of a turn from being in properly. And it was just a bit too long to allow the cylinder to be installed. This is about as perfect as you can get for fitting a new barrel to a gun. It is that last little bit of a turn that locks the barrel to the frame. And you want it too long so you can fit it to the cylinder with a nice tight cylinder gap.

Monday afternoon I put the barrel into the barrel vise and screwed the frame onto it. I removed just a bit of metal from the rear flange on the barrel and it tightened up perfectly. I centered the sight as close as I could. The sight had been bent to the left and I straitened that while I was working on it. John Taffin had sent me a new ejector rod housing from a 3rd Generation Colt and I fitted it to the barrel and frame. The 3rd Generation parts are a bit different. This housing is shorter than the old housings, but since the barrel was set back it comes real close. I did have to shorten the ejector rod since it now set back a bit further than originally. As it was it protruded through the frame. I removed about 1/8" and reground the tip close as I could to the original shape.

That evening I went over to Miles Fortis Acres and used his Brownell's Throating Kit to put a new throat in the barrel. I had fitted the cylinder and got it set up. With the throating kit we made a few passes until we thought it was close and it was done. I was ready to take it to the range! Except it was dark and I would have to wait for the next day.

I had mic'd the chamber throats and they were .453". The barrel was .4527" which is about a perfect combination ideally as far as my thinking goes. I made up some ammo using the Lyman #454190 roundnose .45 Colt bullet. Half were sized .452" and half were sized .454". All were loaded with 6 gr. of 700-X powder and a CCI Large Pistol Primer.

On the range the next morning I first ran some .45 ACP through it. No I don't have an ACP cylinder. All you do is stick one in a chamber, rotate the cylinder until it is in the proper alignment, keep the gun level so the little rimless thing won't slide into the chamber, and pull the trigger. WHAM. The old Colts with their fixed firing pins will set them off about 90% of the time. Every once in awhile I had to try it a 2nd time as the hammer had driven the shell into the chamber instead of lighting the primer. I ran 50 rounds through the gun like this and only had to whack about 4 the second time. Old Model Rugers will do it too, though the New Models with their complicated "firing systems" lose so much power they will not reliably light off a rifle primer.

If you try this DO NOT LOAD more than one ACP at a time. They do rattle back and forth in the chambers and if by chance you were to accidentally fire two or more that were not in line with the barrel I suppose things could get exciting.

Anyway, I ran the factory .45 ACP's through the gun to "iron out" and boogers I might have left when I cut the barrel facing and reamed the forcing cone. (By "boogers" I mean anything hanging in the barrel or forcing cone that would be socially embarrassing - burrs, metal fuzz, etc.)

Then I fired a couple cylinder-loads of my handloads offhand, shooting at some old bowling pins. The sights seemed pretty close to my amazement. After that I set down to the bench and got serious. The first groups with the .454" diameter bullets were in line as far as windage, but low, which is OK. The groups ran about 6" at first, then came down to around 4". Usually I would have 3 shots pretty close together and then two out.

I next ran the loads with the .452" diameter bullets and the groups ran around 3" with some smaller. Hmm.... there went my theory. Oh well, it simplifies things since all my other .45's shoot well with .452" bullets. I ran about 6 targets and noticed that the gun would group 3 or four pretty well together and then throw one or two wildly. That got me to thinking about the old rough barrel. Now the lube was working well at these low velocities. I could see quite a bit at the muzzle even. But what if the rough bore was somehow interfering?

I took a small can of motor oil (10W40 for those interested) and before I loaded each cartridge into the chamber, I dipped the nose of the bullet into the motor oil, all the way back to the crimp. Doing this will make your gun oily and slippery but it won't rust it, that is for sure.

I set down at the bench and fired a five-shot group that measures 7/8" center to center!

Over the next few days I tried out different loads and powders. I am keeping this loads for this gun to around 800 fps with bullets no heavier than 270 grains. I used the SSK 270-451, the Lyman #454424, and the Lyman #454190. I found that on average it is about a 2" gun. Five-shot groups at 25 yards average around that. Some larger, some smaller. It will put 4 of the five into 1 1/2" pretty regularly. If I oil the bullets the groups sometimes tighten up - but it sure is messy. For an old worn and abused barrel I am pleased with its performance.

SSK 270
6 gr. 700X

Keith 260 gr.
6 gr. Bullseye

CCI Blazer Factory

The Oily load - #454190
6 gr. 700X

Bullets SSK 270-451 and #454424 both come right to the end of the cylinder. Brass must be kept trimmed or otherwise the bullets will protrude past the end of the cylinder and tie up the gun. Crimps must be secure to keep the bullets from moving or you have the same problem.

Click on the small image to see a larger view

Left to Right: #454190 255 gr. #454424 260 gr. (Keith) #SSK 270-451

In the end I settled on the Lyman copy of the original Colt bullet, the .#454190. The gun will be used for fun, not hunting. I will shoot some cowboy matches with it. The old roundnose bullet will serve well for I what I want it to do. Besides, it is like the bullet the gun started with. I have settled (for now) on a load of 6 gr. of 700X powder. This is because I have lots of it. If I use other powders it will most likely be 6 gr. of Bullseye or 8 gr. of Unique.

Carried in a Delavan holster, this is one fun old gun. I enjoy letting it out in the light of day. It is just neat to see a good old gun like this live again. It don't get much better.