Monday Oct. 11, 1999
I Celebrate Columbus Day, My Way

Jim Taylor

Today I didn't have to do anything - meaning I could do whatever I wished today since I had no appointments, no jobs to do and no place I had to be.  Miss Twyla had gone down toward Arkansas last night to spend the evening and today with our daughter doing girl things. Today I decided to do man things........ I got out my guns.

I have a project that I am working on - an old .45 Colt Single Action Army.   Built in 1894 the old gun is not in too bad of shape and I am working toward making an everyday shooter out of it.  I have everything I need to finish it up except a barrel and an ejector rod housing.  The barrel that was in the gun when I bought it was not an Colt barrel, having been replaced sometime during it's long life.  The rifling was pretty much just a memory.  I mean, you could tell that it had had some at one time.  The gun had been reblued at least once, but at least the lettering was not buffed off the frame.  You can still read all the serial numbers and the patent lettering on the side of the frame.

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The .45 SAA like it was when I bought it.

The first thing I did this morning was to completely strip the gun down.  Once I had it reduced to its basic parts I put it in the barrel vise and removed the barrel. Then I put all of the parts including the frame and barrel into a small pan of brown vinegar for about 10 minutes.  This pulled all the blueing off the gun.  There were several spots where the blueing did not want to leave, but a little elbow grease using a scouring pad soaked in vinegar and the gun was clean with sort of a dull grey "finish".  I took all the vinegary parts and put them into hot (almost boiling) water, dried and then oiled them.  The vinegar wants to leave a "yellow" cast to things and must be totally removed.  If you do this, be sure to get the chambers, cylinder pin axis holes and all the little out-of-the-way places cleaned and oiled.

Next I fitted a new cylinder bushing to the cylinder.  The old one was worn pretty badly and if you shook the gun the cylinder "clanked" back and forth.  I had to turn the outside of the bushing down a few thousandths for it to fit into the cylinder. I did this by chucking it into an electric drill, running it slow and using a fine file with a light touch. When I had it to where it would start into the cylinder (it only took a couple minutes) I finished up using fine emory paper of about 400 grit.

Once the bushing was fitted to the cylinder I then fitted it and the cylinder to the gun.  I made sure there was no carbon or dirt or lead near the axis-pin holes. I took a fine file and began taking down the front of the bushing. Headspace on a Colt SAA is controlled by the height of the cylinder ratchet.  That was all OK and I did not want to remove any metal there. The only other place you normally remove it is the front of the cylinder bushing.  I took it down carefully, taking my time.  I think I spent maybe 30 or 40 minutes fitting it. When I got it where I could get the cylinder into the frame (but it was too tight yet) I used a Magic Marker on the end of the bushing, put the cylinder into the gun and rotated it.  This showed me where the high spots were on the bushing.  I removed these with a few file strokes, then finished it up with emory paper.

I then cleaned everything up and put the gun back together, without a barrel.  I got to looking at it and remembered reading stories about people carrying the old .45 Colt without a barrel for use as a pocket gun.  That gave me the bright idea that I ought to at least shoot it some without a barrel.  I mean, how often do you get a chance to do that?  I grabbed a handful of Winchester 255 gr. lead bullet factory loads (the old roundnose pointy bullet) and 5 of my hoarded supply of CCI Blazer aluminum-cased 255 gr. lead factory loads (no longer in production) and headed out the back door.  About 30 feet behind my house is my winter wood pile.  I have several old oak doors leaning up against the wood pile for use when I don't want to walk all the way down to the range.  I fired the first shot straight down into the ground, the took a shovel and recovered the bullet. The base of the Winchester slug had expanded to near 50 caliber, and the bullet had penetrated about 4" into the dirt.  I then fired into the oak door from about 5 feet and the slug bounced back at me!  I shot again (NEVER let them intimidate you!) and the bullet buried itself sideways in the door flush with the wood.  I fired one into a pine 4"x4" and then recovered the bullet. It penetrated about 1 1/2" to the base of the bullet.

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Not real powerful but not too bad for right from the cylinder.  I can imaging what the old blackpowder loads would do.  A huge ball of fire, particles of powder blowing out like small shot, and the bullet base opening up to about 65 caliber.   Old timers who have used them or seen them used said they were deadly at close range - like from bar stool to bar stool.  Or fired under a table at a cheating gambler. Thing is, if you happened to miss, you would at least set him on fire.

All told I fired about 15 shots with no barrel on the gun.  Then one thing lead to another and I asked Dad if he would whack off the old barrel to 2 1/2" for me.  He got out his hacksaw and went right to work. When he had the barrel cut off we straightened the cut somewhat with a file, then touched a taper reamer to the end of the bore to clean up any 'boogers' that might be hanging there from the hacksaw cut.   I screwed the barrel in hand tight and went over to the wood pile again and shot into the oak door with a Winchester factory load.  The bullet went through the door, bounced off a log and whacked up against my barn nearly going through the metal siding!   Dad stuck a 4x4 behind the door and I shot another one.  The bullet went through the oak door and 2" into the 4x4 (pine).

Well, this looked serious so Dad suggested we put a sight on it and see how it shot.  He took an old hose clamp (small type - worm drive - if you don't know what that is email Rob) and clamped a piece of 1/8" wide flat wire to the front of the barrel.  We loaded everything we needed into the truck and drove the 100 yards to the Shooting Range.  I fired several shots and Dad nipped the wire off with a pair of wire cutters until we had it hitting close for elevation.  Then I fired on paper and bent the sight until it was close for windage.  I settled down to shoot a group using some handloads and the first group was about 8" going progressively further left.   The barrel was only hand tight and "walked" a bit.  I put some pliers on it and torqued it into the threads a bit.  The next group was 2 1/2" center to center - at 25 yards!!  Crap!  This was better than it ever did when the barrel was full-length!  The quandary is, do I leave it a Shorty?   I fired several groups with my handloads, with the Winchester factory loads and with the CCI Blazers.  The Blazers gave the largest group - 4", but 4 of the 5 shots were in 2".  Several Winchester groups had 4 of the 5 in 1 1/2" or so.

Please click on a small image for a larger view

I ran about 50 rounds through the gun and while it was fun, there is no way I am leaving this a short gun.  I will get an Uberti or whatever to do that with if I want one.  So...I am still in the market for a .45 Colt First Generation barrel.   I have several leads that look good and soon I should have the old gun up and running. 

That took up my Monday. When my wife go home she asked how things went today and I told her.  "Honey," I said, "I worked like a dog all day.   I did not even get in the house to until this evening.  But it was a good day."