The Colt Single Action Army revolver was chambered in .45.
The same gun, marked "Colt Frontier Six Shooter", was sold in .44 WCF, and later in .38 WCF and .32 WCF.
Howdy again.
That is incorrect. The only Single Action Army revolver that got its own special name was the Frontier Six Shooter and they were only ever chambered for 44-40. No other SAA revolvers carried the Frontier Six Shooter name on the barrel. Frontier Six shooters were available in the standard model, a Target Model, the Bisley Model, and the Bisley Target Model. But they were all known as the Frontier Six Shooter. Later, the 1878 Double Action Colt chambered for 44-40 was also called a Frontier Six Shooter, but that is not what we are talking about here.
Perhaps it is time to explain a little bit more about the Colt Single Action Army.
The design of the Colt Single Action Army was an evolutionary advance from the earlier Colt cap & ball revolvers and cartridge conversion revolvers.
Colt was prevented from building any cartridge revolvers by the Rollin White patent of about 1855 if I remember correctly. White had patented the idea of boring the chambers of a cylinder completely through the cylinder, so it could be loaded with metallic cartridges from the rear. White was a former Colt employee, which makes an interesting story for another time. S&W approached White and proposed buying the rights to his patent. White would not sell, but made S&W the sole licensee of his patent, making them the only US company that could legally make cartridge revolvers without being sued. So Colt was left making C&B revolvers all through the Civil War until the White patent expired.
Colt made a number of Cartridge Conversion revolvers during this period, principally the Thuer conversion, the Richards Conversion, and the Richards-Mason conversion. The Thuer conversion was an attempt to get around the White patent, but it used an unusual reverse tapered cartridge and was not financially successful. The Richards Conversion was financially successful, using some inventoried parts from the cap & ball revolvers and some newly manufactured parts. It fired a centerfire 44 caliber cartridge called the 44 Colt. The principal buyer of the Richards Conversion was the Army. The Richards-Mason Conversion simplified some of the parts of the earlier Richards Conversion and they too were financially successful. The Colt Model 1871-1872 Open Top revolver is often considered a cartridge conversion revolver, but in fact it was designed from the ground up to fire cartridges. It fired a rimfire 44 caliber cartridge very similar to the 44 Henry rimfire cartridge. The Open Top had been designed by William Mason, who had also made most of the changes that resulted in the Richards-Mason Conversion. Except for a few internal parts, all of the parts of the Open Top were of new design and very few parts were interchangeable with cap & ball or cartridge conversion parts.
The patents for the Open Top were awarded in 1871 and 1872, but Mason was probably working on it earlier than that. The White patent had expired in 1869, so the market was wide open for a large caliber cartridge revolver, unlike the small Tip Up rimfire cartridge revolvers S&W had been producing. The largest Tip Ups only fired a 32 rimfire cartridge. S&W was ready in 1869 with a much larger revolver, but that too is another story.
Mason was working on the design of the Open Top concurrently with developing the Richards-Mason cartridge conversion revolver. Among other improvements it featured a hinged loading gate and an improved ejector assembly. Colt submitted the Open Top to the Army for consideration as a new cartridge revolver design, but the army rejected it. One reference of mine states the Army had decided on a solid frame revolver as early as 1868, but Colt submitted the Open Top anyway, and it was quickly rejected.
Mason had also been working on what we now know as the Single Action Army early in 1872. It was often referred to as the 'Strap Pistol' by both the Army and Colt, to differentiate it from the 'strapless' (my term) Open Top. The Army stated they wanted a solid frame revolver, with a threaded barrel screwed into the frame. Colt sent the first Strap Pistol to the Army in November of 1872. The Army tested it in comparison with the Smith and Wesson American Model that was already in inventory, the Army had bought 1000 of them around 1871 if memory serves. The first Strap Pistol that Colt sent to the Army was chambered for the 44 Russian cartridge, because it was felt to be more accurate than the earlier 44 S&W American cartridge. However since the Army's American Models were all chambered for the S&W American cartridge, this first revolver was sent back to Colt to be fitted with a cylinder chambered for the 44 S&W American cartridge.
The Frankford Arsenal had production problems supplying a quantity of the first iteration of 45 Colt cartridges to the Army. The first contract for the revolver was signed on July 23, 1873. Before the Army could begin accepting the guns, they had to be inspected by a government inspector at Colt, and they had to be proof fired. On September 13, 1873 a letter was sent to the Frankford Arsenal requesting 50,000 cartridges be sent to Colt's for testing. The Arsenal had difficulty filling the order for cartridges, mostly because they could not get their hands on much copper. Do not forget, the first 45 Colt cartridges were the copper cased, Benet Primed rounds. I pictured one in post #30.
It was not until October 25 that the Arsenal was able to ship 5,000 cartridges to Colt, which were not enough to proof test all the revolvers on hand. The remaining 45,000 cartridges were shipped shortly afterward, Kopec does not give a date for that.
Colt had a total of 13 separate contracts to supply the Single Action Army to the Army, the first one in 1873, the last one in 1890.
The official name of the revolver, other than the Frontier Six Shooter, has always been Single Action Army. Because of this, one might suppose that only the Army received these revolvers. That would be incorrect. Collectors discriminate between Civilian Models and Military models, but they are all known as the Single Action Army. All (or almost all, I am still looking this up) the Single Action Revolvers purchased by the Ordnance department were chambered for the 45 Colt cartridge. That may be where some confusion sets in. The Civilian models, also known as the Single Action Army were eventually chambered for 30 different cartridges.
Here is the list and the year each chambering was first introduced. This list is from the Khunhausen book.
22 Rimfire 1883
32 Rimfire 1889
32 Colt 1887
32 S&W 1887
32-44 S&W 1889
32-20 (32WCF) 1884
38 Colt 1886
38 S&W 1889
38 Colt Special 1930
38 S&W Special 1930
38-44 1891
357 Magnum 1935
380 Eley 1890
38-40 (38WCF) 1884
41 Colt 1885
44 Colt no information on when first chambered for this cartridge, but apparently there were only 2 made.
44 Smooth Bore 1890
44 Rimfire 1875
44 German no information on when first chambered for this cartridge.
44 Russian 1889
44 S&W American 1890
44 Special 1913
44-40 (44WCF) 1878
45 Colt 1873
45 Smooth Bore no information on when first chambered for this cartridge.
45 ACP 1924
450 Boxer no information on when first chambered for this cartridge.
450 Eley 1890
455 Eley no information on when first chambered for this cartridge.
476 Eley 1876
Generations:
Colt collectors recognize three separate Generations of Single Action Army Production. The 1st Gen was produced from 1873 until 1940. All the chamberings listed above are for 1st Gen Colts. Serial Numbers for the 1st Gen run from 1 through 357,859. Starting around 1930, SAA sales began to decline, during the height of the Depression only 100 were sold in both 1935 and 1936. Colt stopped production of the SAA in 1940. Serial Numbers for 1st Gen Single Action Army revolvers are numbers only. Although any barrel length could be custom ordered, the three standard barrel lengths for 1st Gen Colts were 7 1/2", 5 1/2", and 4 3/4". Because the revolvers issued to the Army all had 7 1/2" barrels, and most were issued to Cavalry units, this is sometimes unofficially called the Cavalry Model. Many of the 7 1/2" Colts were sent to government armories or back to Colt for reconditioning in the late 1890s. Many of these had their barrels cut to 5 1/2". Many of these 5 1/2" reconditioned Colts were issued to Artillery units, so the unofficial name for a 5 1/2" Colt is the Artillery Model. There is no recognized unofficial name for the 4 3/4" barrel length, which happens to be my personal favorite.
2nd Gen Single Action Army. After WWII ended, Colt did not believe anyone would be interested in buying a revolver of such an antiquated design, so there were no plans to reintroduce it. However an enterprising young man named Bill Ruger had introduced a slightly downsized 22 Rimfire single action revolver in 1953. Demand was huge, probably fueled by all the cowboys galloping across new television sets in living rooms of new houses, many of which had been bought by returning GIs and financed by the GI Bill. In 1956 Colt finally saw the handwriting on the wall and reintroduced the Single Action Army. This was the 2nd Gen. Some minor design changes from the 1st Gen, but nothing earth shaking. 2nd Gen serial numbers all had a SA suffix, running from 0001SA in 1956 until 73,319SA in 1975. Standard barrel lengths for the 2nd Gen were also 7 1/2", 5 1/2", and 4 3/4". Chamberings for the 2nd Gen were limited to 45 Colt, 44 Special, 38 Special, and 357 Magnum.
3rd Gen Single Action Army production ran from 1975 until today. Serial numbers ran from 80,000SA to 99,999SA in 1978. Then a SA prefix was added running from SA01001 to SA99,999 in 1993. In 1993 the S and A were split by the numbers, starting at S02001A in 1993. The latest information I have about 3rd Gen serial numbers is S26,699A in 1999. I have no later information than that. Early 3rd Gen Single Action Army revolvers did away with the separate, removable cylinder bushing, substituting a raised bushing milled onto the front surface of the cylinder. At some point, because of popular demand, the removable cylinder bushing was reinstated in the cylinder. There are those who believe this constituted a Fourth Generation of Colts, but collectors do not recognize a 4th Gen.
The New Frontier. Starting in 1961 Colt produced a version of the SAA with adjustable rear sights and a tall, ramped front sight. This was called the New Frontier Model after President Kennedy's New Frontier domestic and foreign policies. New Frontier production ran from 1961 until 1983. Serial numbers ran from 3,000NF through 16829NF in 1983.
A Colt New Frontier chambered for 45 Colt that left the factory in 1965.