[Bainx]

Folks, I am trying to determine a ballpark value of a Colt 1878 Frontier in .45LC. It has a 5" barrel and is either chrome plated or nickel--very shiney, looks like it was manufactrued last week. Small chip on one of the hard plastic colt grips, spring that holds the gate open is broken. Fires good from DA but when cocked for SA the cylinder seems too lose to be safe--the "hand" probably needs replacing.
At any rate, if anybody can steer me to a site that can offer a price, I would be appreciative.

[MrMurphy]

No clue, but they're not common in any kind of decent condition.

[Hand_Rifle_Guy]

Authentic '78 Colt DA Frontiers (Rather than a Spanish or Belgian knock-off.) usually follow vintage SAA prices pretty closely.

That'd put a nice specimen in the realm of $1000-$1500, depending on condition, a bit less if it's a vintage-ish refinish, and up towards $5000 for a truly clean original finish.

I'm sorry I don't have a site to point you at, this is just what I rember as an approximate price correlation based on what I saw at auctions and gunshows, and listings in the Shotgun News. You might take a look at some of the CAS-related sites like www.SASSnet.com and see what they've got listed for sale or see if they have any links.

[Dr.Rob]

Condition is everything, chek out gunsamerica.com, do a search for "1878" and you'll see what I mean.

The nicest one I've seen was $5000, the worst was $500. $1500-2000 seems median.

[Jim Watson]

With broken parts and a finish that might not "letter" I would think several hundred dollars would be tops.

[Jim K]

If the finish is original, it has to be nickel, as there was no chrome plating at that date. If it is chrome, someone made the gun about worthless.

IIRC, the gate spring is the same as the SAA; it is a coil spring, so that fix should be easy. But the internal mechanism is quite a bit different from that of the SAA, and more complex. Broken springs are common. From a collector standpoint, the cylinder bolt problem would probably not reduce the value very much, unless the bolt has scored the cylinder.

I would be very careful if you want the gun repaired. There are a very few gunsmiths who can repair those guns, but there are a lot of them who will damage the gun trying.

Jim

[Jim K]

Sorry, double post.

Jim