Colt M1873 Single Action Army - Made in 1876
This M1873 Colt Single Action Army was made in 1876. It came to us after another gunsmith had attempted to restore it in the 1970's using a buffing wheel and an assortment of parts. As a result, it had a shot out 2nd Generation barrel, a badly refinished U.S. inspected cylinder, and a new production hammer that hadn't been timed correctly; leaving a large gap between the cylinder and frame and an awful drag line on the cylinder. On top of that, the buffing wheel used to "polish" the gun had rounded all the corners and dished out all the screw holes.
As a third year production gun, David Stavlo recognized it's potential and set about restoring it. The first step was square up the action with careful filing; removing all traces of bad 1970's buffing. Then a new barrel and cylinder were custom made. David purchased a barrel blank with correct left hand Colt "skinny" rifling and threaded and tapered it to the exact dimensions found on original Colts. He crowned the barrel and fabricated a new front sight before silver soldering it to the barrel before and shaping it to the original height and width of the small 19th Century SAA sights. David finished the barrel work by rolling the correct Colt barrel address on the bop of the barrel. The new barrel was then installed in the action and the forcing cone was cut and cylinder gap set.
We then contacted a local machining company to have a run of custom Single Action Army cylinder made to the exact specification of the originals. The new cylinders were drawn up and made on a CNC machine. They are perfect copies of the original cylinders with correct wide flutes and short cylinder stop lead ins. David hand beveled the front of the cylinder for this revolver, putting the correct large bevel found on early guns.
The action was then rebuilt with a correct hammer. David recut the long checkering pattern on the hammer spur and installed a new cam in it; allowing the cylinder stop to time correctly.
A piece of antique walnut was then salvaged from a broken M1865 Maynard carbine stock, and cut out for the one piece grip blank. Antique wood has to be used for these types of restorations as it is the only source for old growth walnut that was used by 19th Century gunmakers. David hand made a new set of grips for this revolver and finished them with varnish; which is correct for a civilian model Single Action Army.
The whole gun was then hand polished before action and hammer were bone charcoal color case hardened. David has been experimenting with different mixes and temperatures for years in order to replicate Colt's colors. The finished case hardened frame exhibits the white forging lines formed by impurities in the steel. These types of striations are only found on early actions, as Colt changed their steel to a higher quality alloy around 1880; which eliminated these distinctive forging lines.
The barrel and cylinder were both blued and the screws were nitre blued just like the originals.
The gun was then reassembled and test fired. The finished piece is a great representative of an early Single Action Army, and the opportunity to "save" a good Colt from a bad restoration was very gratifying. Keep an eye on the website for more restored Colts, as we now have the parts and tooling to offer them as they become available.