New old Colt

[Abilene]

I got this gun back in February, off the SASS classifieds.  It had only been posted for a short time and I thought the price was fair for a shooter.  This is a 1st generation Frontier Six Shooter.  Well, that's what it is now  .  It can well be called a parts gun.  The frame is from 1883.  I know the loading gate is matching, and it may be the proper hammer, although the firing pin has been replaced with a later style (I was told this up front).  The 44-40 cylinder is not original (different s/n on it), and the grip frame is not original as there are no s/n or other markings at all on those parts.  Italian?  Maybe.  The barrel has no markings, except for a 44 stamped on the underside.  I think this is proper for an acid etched panel that has worn away.  So, I don't know if anything besides the frame is old, but that's good enough for me.  I bought it for what I thought was a decent price for a shooter.  It would be cost-prohibitive to have the barrel set back, especially since it will be rarely shot.  Too bad, but I can live with it.

Notice the brass front sight.  A modern Sure-Hit sight?  No!  It looks to me like the sight had been filed down and someone wanted to build it back up to the original size and profile, using two thin brass pieces.  It actually has the same taper as the original sight.

Okay, so I bought this gun with the intention of shooting it at a CAS match once a year or so, which I do with my other old guns.  It will be paired with my 1901-vintage .45.  So after I get it and I'm looking it over, I see that it has a ginormous cylinder to barrel gap.  I mean huge.  When I shot it, I warned the timer operator to stay behind me!  Also, there is a lot of cylinder wobble.  I determined this to be an over-size hole worn in the front of the frame for the cylinder base pin.  My temporary fix was to wrap some teflon tape around the front of the pin until it was a snug fit in the hole and the wobble is all but gone.  The wood grip is very thin, which feels good in my hand.  But it is also cracked on the left side, and that segment will flex when the grip is off the gun, so I seeped some superglue into the crack.

The first shots were after a match, to test it out.  My 44-40 ammo for pistol is downloaded a little, about 25gr of FFg with some filler, and a 200gr bullet.  The first 4 rounds were fired from a duelist stance at a pistol target about 5 yards away.  They made a nice little group where I was aiming.  Then I fired the last shot one-handed at a Cody Dixon rifle target about 50 yards away and was pleased to hear it ding!  Those first test shots were with the wobbly cylinder before I messed with it.

Then I shot it in a match.  Paired with the previously mentioned .45 plus my 1909 vintage 32-20 '92.  The main spring was super strong in the new .44, so I replaced it with a very light one I had laying around.  That may have been the cause of me having a couple of misfires during the match where I had to go around the cylinder a second time to get it to fire.  You can see it does it on the one video I took.  I finished the match with one miss, but don't recall which gun missed.

Knowing it has a lot of replacement parts, I don't know if it worth the money to get a Colt letter for it, though I am curious if it was originally a .44, so that could possibly be the original barrel.  The 7 1/2" .45 left the factory as a 4 3/4" 38-40, which I found out when a guy at Colt once looked it up for me.

[Abilene]

Shooting.

[King Medallion]

Parts gun = shooter gun. As I see it, the only need for a letter is to see what you need to restore to as original as possible, if that's your intention. Now for me, ifn it were mine, I'd take it to Ten Sleep, Wy and have Lever Action Bill fix the wobbles and gaps, make it a sound reliable shooter, leave the finish as is.

[Coffinmaker]

Were it me/mine, I'd first check the End Shake to see if the cylinder bushing needs shimmed (fail to fire).  Teflon on the Base Pin ain't a bad idea at all for a "little use" CAS player.  No reason at all not to get it out and play with it.

Depending on just how much you want to play with it, maybe a little money into it to fix the Barrel to Cylinder gap and permanently fix the base pin wobble.  Being a [arts gun you already know it's not financially worth a full restore.  Fun gun fer CAS for sure!!

[Major 2]

I side with the Mike; I believe I'd do the tweaks.

The old girl is deserving of some TLC ...IMHO

[Dave T]

Abiline,

Great ol' six-gun. I'd treat her with respect (nothing but black powder) and fix her enough to run well and be safe. If you can get her into shape she probably aught to be shot more frequently than once a year. Maybe 4th of July, your birthday, or any other excuse you can come up with.  (smile)

Dave

[Tascosa Joe]

Interesting piece. 

[Abilene]

Interesting piece.

Not quite as nice as your last find!

Hard to say what I might do with it in the future.  If I was to spend some money on making it mechanically sound, I would definitely shoot it more.  I should at least inquire as to the expected cost.   I used to shoot the 1901 model quite a bit, a couple thousand rounds over 25 years.  This 44-40 was owned by a really old cowboy shooter in Alaska whom I don't think had ever shot it, and his buddy who sold it for him is friends with another Alaska shooter from whom I bought the '92 carbine a few years ago. 

Coffinmaker, I just checked end shake.  I don't have feeler gauges here, but it isn't bad, certainly no worse than some of my other Colt's.

[Coffinmaker]

Ah forgot 

Abilene, since the cylinder isn't native to the gun, I'd also check the Head Space (fail to fire), although some of the fail to fire may be attributed to "operator error" 

[Abilene]

At this point, I attribute the misfires (I think there were two out of 30 rounds in the match) to an EXTREMELY hour-glassed mainspring. 

[Coffinmaker]

Abilene 

Ah So Deska (Japanese for "No S&%T GI).  If I might, I would suggest checking with VTI, or EMF or Cimarron for a new Main Spring.  Specifically, PIETTA has a new "lighter" Main Spring in their GW II guns.  Very smooth, doesn't stack, and is not overly "light."  The new Springs came in my new El Malo.  I really like 'em.

[LonesomePigeon]

Nice black and white photo.