If CraigC's 200 per month is correct, it comes to a total 2,400 a year, and that isn't much.
Howdy
Thought I would do a little bit of snooping in one of my books about production numbers for the SAA over the years.
Production of the Single Action Army has never been very high.
The first year, 1873 only 200 were produced. That is understandable since it was a brand new model.
Production picked up for about the next ten years.
1874 -14,800
1875 -7,000
1876 - 11,000
1877 - 8,000
1878 - 8,000
1879 - 4,000
1880 - 9,000
1881 - 11,000
1882 - 12,000
1883 - 17,000
1884 - 12,000
Then from 1885 until 1895 production dropped, with 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, or 5,000 produced most years. The high point for that period was 8,000 produced in 1891.
In both 1897 and 1898, 7,000 were produced each year.
Then production took an upswing for several years from 1899 until 1907 with typical production numbers running 10,000, 11,000, or 15,000 per year. The all time highest production number for the entire First Generation period was 18,000 produced in 1902.
After 1907, production numbers went into a pretty steady decline, with 4,000 produced in 1908, 1909, and 1910. The one blip was 5,000 produced in 1911. After that the decline was pretty steady.
1912 - 4,000
1913 - 3,000
1914 - 1,500
1915 - 2,500
1916 - 3,000
1917 - 2,000
1918 - 200
1919 - 800
1920 - 3,000
1921 - 2,000
1922 - 1,500
1923 - 1,900
1924 - 900
1925 - 900
1926 - 1,600
1927 - 1,500
1928 - 1,100
1929 - 1,400
1930 - 400
1931 - 400
1932 - 300
1933 - 200
1934 - 200
1935 - 100
1936 - 100
1937 - 700
1938 - 500
1939 - 400
1940 - 859 - End of First Generation Production
Total produced 1873 -1940 (First Generation) - 357,859
Second Generation Production:
1956 - 8,799
1957 - 9,699
1958 - 4,899
1959 - 5,099
1960 - 5,099
1961 - 2,049
1962 - 1,649
1963 - 1,199
1964 - 1,499
1965 - 1,499
1966 - 2,299
1967 - 2,499
1968 - 2,699
1969 - 3,599
1970 - 6,799
1971 - 2,299
1972 - 2,899
1973 - 4,999
1974 - 1099
1975 - 2,818 - End of Second Generation Production
Total produced 1956 - 1975 (Second Generation) 73,319
Unfortunately the Third Generation figures I have are less specific.
1976 ~ 1978 - 19,999
1978 ~ 1993 - 98,998
1993 ~ 1999 - 24,698 plus
That is the latest figures I have.
We can probably draw a few conclusions from this.
The first ten or so years of production the SAA was a state of the art firearm and Colt sold as many as they could crank out. Most of these were probably military sales, probably not so many were civilian sales.
From the mid 1880s through the late 1890s sales were down. Perhaps because of competitors and perhaps because of other factors.
For some reason production jumped up from 1899 until 1907. I have no explanation for that, perhaps there was a general economic upturn.
The from 1908 on sales went into a pretty steady decline. Probably the emerging markets for double action revolvers and semi-automatic pistols was eating into SAA sales. World War One took a big bite out of sales with only 1000 being produced in 1918 and 1919. I suspect Colt was probably busy producing the 1911 pistol at this time.
The Great Depression really bit into sales of a gun that was probably already considered obsolete. Only 100 were produced in both 1935 and 1936.
Colt probably had no plans to start up production of the SAA again after World War Two. Notice that the Second Generation did not start up again until 1956, after a young upstart named Bill Ruger proved that there was a new market for the obsolete old SAA. It did not hurt that many of those returning GIs were buying televisions and suddenly there were cowboys galloping through living rooms all over the country.
Sorry my data for the Third Generation is so lacking. Those dates represent the changing of the serial number suffixes and prefixes.
It is also interesting that every year of Second Generation production ended with 99. I have no idea why.
Data is from Jerry Kuhnhausen's Colt Single Action Revolvers Shop Manual, Volumes 1 & 2.