Remington Model 1875

[Driftwood Johnson]

The Colt Single Action Army was selected by Hollywood for westerns and other movies and television shows. That's why it is more popular than the Smith & Wesson New Model No 3. Had some of the earliest producers grown up with these and been familiar with them, things might have been far different.

Well, my goodness, I never thought I would be defending the Colt over the New Model Number Three.

As far as movies are concerned, there were simply more Colts made, so there were more cheap ones readily available for the movie studios and the armorers to the movie studios.

Before the modern era, you could buy an old Colt for peanuts. Probably the same with the NM#3, but there were simply more Colts made.

Over 350,000 1st Gen Colts made, less than 38,000 New Model Number Threes manufactured.

Back when these guns were cheap, and every movie studio owned dozens of them, the Colt Single Action Army was simply more easily available to use in the movies.

Let's not forget too, that only the 2072 New Model Number Three Frontiers chambered for 44-40 and the 74 New Model Three 38 Winchesters chambered for 38-40 came close to the power of the 150,000 Single Action Armies chambered for 45 Colt. The New Model Number Three was chambered for 17 different cartridges, but most of them were chambered for the 44 Russian (which is what my two are chambered for) which did not come close to the power of the 45 Colt.

No argument by the way that the NM#3 is quicker to load and unload than a Colt, I shoot them both in CAS and I can dump the empties out of a NM#3 and reload far faster than I can through the loading gate of a Colt.

The same argument can be made for why the Winchester Model 1892 was so prevalent in the old oat burners, even when they were an anachronism in some Civil War movies. Simply so many of them made. The current crop of Italian replicas did not exist yet, so there were not so many original Winchesters in other models available for the movie makers to buy up cheap. I have seen Model 1892s with their fore stocks removed masquerading as Henries far more than I have seen real Henry rifles in the old Oat Burners. Can only think of two, one of which was held by Jeff Corey in the original version of True Grit.





The other was held by Aline MacMahon ini the 1955 Jimmy Stewart movie The Man from Laramie.

 

[orpington]

That's correct, Driftwood.

Their commonality, or familiarity, due to sheer numbers produced is why they prevailed in Hollywood, why producers were at least aware of them.

You would have to search a whole lot longer before a New Model No 3 showed up, in the days when Colt SAA revolvers were sold in pickle barrels, "Your choice, $5 each".

 

[jamesjames]

I always liked the design of the 1858 Remington and the 1875. The1875 seems to update the classic lines of the 1858.