Traditions Single Action Army Review

[Jake C]

Howdy everyone! Long time reader, first time poster. I've been in love with Old West firearms, and have been very interested in CAS for some time. As a poor student however, it'll be a while before I can amass the fund to get all the gear.

With this in mind, I thought I'd post a review on my most recent acquisition, the Traditions Frontier Single Action Army Revolver. When I first was looking at this gun, I could find only two reviews on it, so I figured I'd post my impressions to help other shooters who want a good SAA at a reasonable cost. Pictures will be posted.

I got the Frontier model, with a blued and color-case hardened finish in .357 with a 7.5 inch barrel.

First thoughts: The gun has a good bluing and color-case hardening. The finish is good and applied well. It locks up very tightly, to the point where the owner of the store I was getting it from was very impressed, and compared it to his own Ruger Vaqueros. For those who care, it doesn't have traditional four clicks, but does click three times, which is close enough for me. There are a few sharp edges, particularly on the hammer, but that doesn't effect working the hammer. The grips are a tad bit small for my hands, but isn't uncomfortable, just not as ideal as the 1860 Army style grips I prefer.

A cool feature of this gun is that it has a Ruger style safety transfer bar, meaning it is safe to carry completely loaded. While this isn't important for CAS shooting, it's nice if you want to carry the gun like I do. And despite this safety transfer bar, it's a lot closer to the originals than the Ruger, with Mike Beliveau of Guns of the Old West magazine saying about 70% of the parts are interchangeable with an original.

I haven't gotten to shoot it yet, but when I do, I'll post my thoughts on it. Pictures will follow once I figure out how to post them 

Best wishes,

Trum4n

[Red Cent]

Trum, Traditions is the retailer of the sixgun and it is made by Pietta of Italy. They offer a Rawhide model that is matt black. Kinda like the inexpensive Hombre offered a few years back. The highend model is the Frontier. Dang nice looking sixgun. Look forward to the shooting review.