Original Colt Single Action Army patent, submitted by William Mason in 1875. 45-caliber centerfire Colt Single Action Army. William Mason, along with fellow Colt gunsmith Charles Brinckerhoff Richards, began to rework the 1870 design by incorporating a top-strap to increase the strength of the revolver's frame and remove the need for a barrel wedge, one of the biggest weaknesses of previous Colts. So, shortly thereafter, Colt produced a pistol that fired a more powerful centerfire cartridge and had a stronger, more durable frame. 44 rimfire round was too weak and that the open top design was too fragile. In 1870 when the Army tested Colt's latest revolver, they complained that the. Many of the company's "open top" pistols were inherently weaker than full-framed revolvers such as the Remington Model 1858. Army was looking to adapt a new cartridge revolver to replace its increasingly obsolete percussion pistols.Įarly on, Colt was at a disadvantage. However, by the mid-1860s the self-contained metallic cartridge emerged, and a few years later, the U.S.
Although Samuel Colt died in January 1862, his company found find its future by selling tens of thousands of percussion revolvers to the Union Army during the American Civil War.īefore the Colt Single Action Army, pistols used percussion caps to ignite a powder charge that had to be hand-loaded into each chamber of the revolver's cylinder. A flood of firearms followed, including the Colt Dragoon, Colt 1851 Navy, Colt Army Model 1860, and Colt M1861 Navy. During the late 1840s, Texas Ranger Captain Samuel Walker improved this design, making it robust and reliable enough for field use. The early models required the barrel to be removed before the pistol's cylinder could be reloaded. The town gave its name to Colt's first production revolver: "The Paterson." Colt soon set up the Patent Arms Company in Paterson, New Jersey. Colt plugged away on wooden models and technical drawings until Baltimore gunsmith John Pearson forged a working prototype. Corral to when Samuel Colt patented his first percussion revolver design in February 1836. To trace the story of the Colt 45, you have to go back 45 years before the O.K. But the shootout was one of many that cemented the reputation of this six-chamber gun that saw more than 20 years service with the United States Army and became the iconic revolver of the West.ĭIVE DEEPER ➡ Read best-in-class military features and get unlimited access to Pop Mech, starting now. There was no peace that October day in Tombstone. But soon it became known as the Frontier, the Equalizer, the Model P, and most famously, the Peacemaker. First came its clunky official title, the New Model Army Metallic Cartridge Revolving Pistol. The Colt Single Action Army held many names over the years. They were firing a legendary weapon, too. Men on both sides, including Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Billy Clanton, would become legends in part because of what happened in Tombstone, Arizona. Within the first 30 seconds of the shootout, three members of the Clanton gang were killed. On October 26, 1881, shots rang out at the O.K.