Heh heh heh.
Colt's Double Action Revolver Market: The Road Ahead
- Thread starter Mr. Mosin
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Golfanaticshooter
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If true, I bet that even at a sticker of 2-2.5K (guess) they wont be able to make them fast enough.
TTv2
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It's worth it for them to consider because if Italy beats them to it and on price, then there will be no reason to as no one would buy them then. Gotta strike while the iron is hot. Same thing for lightweight alloy snubs.
The iron is nowhere near the fire.
Do you really believe that there would ever be a viable market for an odd, ungainly revolver with little or no real historical appeal, that few if anyone have ever seen on the silver screen, with a poor trigger pull, an awful grip for DA shooting, a side loading gate and single ejection?
I do not.
The thing was obsolete more than a century ago. The gun is a terrible design, and it came about only because of a demand for DA revolvers. The Model 1909 was infinitely better.
Colt dropped the SAA before WWII, and brought it back only because of demand created by movies and television. Now, the western craze is largely a thing of the past.
I'm sure there's a lot of doodling going on at Colt, but not in that direction.
TTv2
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While fandom for the West is far from where it was, we've seen that video games based in the past like Red Dead Redemption and Battlefield 1 cause an increased interest in guns featured in them. Does that mean it's something that happens overnight? No, but it happens over time. The demand isn't there now, but over time I think it will be, same with the Merwin-Hulbert.
It's not like there aren't a lot of current reproductions of 19th Century firearms available. The SAA, Schofield, 1860 Henry, Spencer, Richards-Mason 1851 Navy conversions... I'm sure there are more that aren't coming to mind, but there's a lot of interest in reproductions of 19th Century cartridge guns. While the 1909 New Service and Colt Police/Pocket Positives were better guns, they're not historic guns like Colt's, and America's, first DA revolver was.
I think you're over estimating the actual use any Colt revolvers with a 2000 price tag along the lines of the Python, maybe the new Diamondback, will get. Most people who buy these will be people with a high disposable income, they'll buy whatever Colt that interests them, shoot it once, and into the safe, closet, or sock drawer it goes for the next 30 years. Nobody is going to be using them for competitive shooting, they're not gonna carry them, and there are cheaper plinking guns available.
Bottom line: All Colt revolvers that cost more than a grand are novelty guns. Nothing more.
There was a failed attempt fo bring back the MH. in recent years. It fizzled.
The MH was a terrible revolver when it came to reloading one. The anticipated "demand" was illusory.
[URL="https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/swing-out.852503/#post-11155279"]Swing-Out[/URL]
Colt's first DA revolvers were historic flops.
I have said absolutely notihng about how they will be used, or by whom.
How extensive has been you market survey?
What is a "novelty gun"?
CraigC
Sixgun Nut
Exactly! Colt would be the joke of the industry. More than they already are.
A video game, even an extremely successful one, isn't going to save a design that has a reputation of being a fragile, utter failure. This is my "thang". I probably have more single action revolvers than 99% of shooters and I wouldn't buy one.
There is but those guns are legends. The early Colt DA's are legendary failures.
Don't be so dramatic. We're talking about a $1500 gun in a world with $1000 Redhawks. Not a $5000 Korth. There is nothing keeping the average 686/GP buyer from saving his/her money and buying a Python if that's what they really want. I guess the concept of saving money and making sacrifices is lost on some people.
Novelty guns? Please. The only reason I even consider a new Colt DA is because they are better made and more easily fixed. Which makes it more USABLE. People are free to do what they want with their own property but the idea that everyone who buys a $1500 Python is going to shoot them once, stick them in a sock drawer is just absurd. 30yrs ago, when you could buy a new Ruger for less than $400, $1500 was a lot to spend on one gun. Today, it's only slightly above average. I have $11,000 in these two guns. The grips cost more than a new Python. They were made to be used. I was going to blood the .500 this year before the COVID shut everything down. I'm pretty sure the stainless .44 is sitting in a holster right now.
I've carried this thing every one of the 14 years I've owned it.
TTv2
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You seem to be obsessed with how quickly a double action revolver can be reloaded. I don't think the customer base who would like to own a reproduction MH or 77 or 78 Colt DA care about the speed of reloading.
As was the Walker and Dragoon, yet those are some of the most beloved percussion revolver repros on the market today while the historically popular 1849 pocket is probably the least. Historical success/failure is meaningless when we're talking about the modern buyer who wants a particular gun because that's what they want.
I haven't conducted one, have you?
IMO, a gun that is bought more for either its perceived value or uniqueness that will see little actual shooting either because it's too valuable or may become too valuable or it sucks, but the person who owns it believes it's "well made" or "high quality" in its manufacture and is a unique gun. All Bond Arms guns fall under the latter category as well as some North American Arms revolvers.
No, but it is a major design consideration for most users other than the SA crowd.
Maybe not. I have no idea who that "customer base" might be.
So, you are engaging in baseless speculation.....
TTv2
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Could say the same for you since you apparently haven't held a survey either. As you said, you "have no idea who that customer base might be"
Not exactly. I have read a lot about the gun in the last sixty five years. None of it was favorable. None.
I do not believe that there is a viable customer base.
You have mentioned "the CAS crowd". If any of the m were to buy one, it would not be for CAS.
Rules.
TTv2
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CAS doesn't allow period correct DA's? That I did not know and that does change things. If they did I'm sure there'd be interest in 19th Century DA's.
Still, everything you've read in those 65 years was about what the 77s and 78s were for the time, not what they could be with improvements. I won't argue early 20th Century revolvers were better, they just aren't the 77s and 78s.
Maybe some, but that would not close the business case.
Which is why they remained in production and the 77s and 8s did not.
Heck, the SAA survived the old DAs by decades, even before Hoot Gibson and Randolph Scott made people want them.
CraigC
Sixgun Nut
Sorry but there is no market for a 1877/78 repro. As I said, their only legend is one of failure. Not only were they fragile and difficult to shoot quickly, they're ugly as sin too. They have nothing going for them. I'll say it again, a single action revolver is the wrong platform for double action shooting.
Jim Watson
Member
There are Italian revolvers with the "birdshead" grip of the 1877-78.
USFA briefly offered the Omnipotent with the receiver shaped to resemble the 1878 and its birdshead grip.
But they are all straight SAA inside. I don't consider a real DA to be feasible, largely because of the SASS market. NCOWS would probably allow them, they do other 19th century double actions, but they are a lot smaller organization.
Trivia: In the 1930s, Alonzo Crull did good business converting Lightning lockwork to SAO and the grip straps to SAA shape. He relined most to .22; kind of a prehistoric Single Six.
USFA briefly offered the Omnipotent with the receiver shaped to resemble the 1878 and its birdshead grip.
But they are all straight SAA inside. I don't consider a real DA to be feasible, largely because of the SASS market. NCOWS would probably allow them, they do other 19th century double actions, but they are a lot smaller organization.
Trivia: In the 1930s, Alonzo Crull did good business converting Lightning lockwork to SAO and the grip straps to SAA shape. He relined most to .22; kind of a prehistoric Single Six.
BobWright
Member
Many years ago, just after the announcement of the .44 Magnum, I wrote Colt urging them to maybe re-introduce the New Service, make it in .44 Magnum, and give it the same treatment as the Python, i.e. custom finish, adjustable sights, vent rib, etc.
Colt responded that they knew their business better than I did. "But thanks for writing, anyway."
Bob Wright
Colt responded that they knew their business better than I did. "But thanks for writing, anyway."
Bob Wright
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