Pre-War or not?

[Buckaroo Lou]

This may be a dumb question, but I am going to ask anyway. My Turnbull USFA has the old armory bluing and from what I have understood the only difference between a standard Premium revolver and a pre-war is one has the dome bluing and the other has the old armory bluing. So would my Turnbull USFA be considered a pre-war revolver?

[GaryG]

2 things differentiated the Pre War from Dome Blue revolver.  The finish and the PW came with a border checkered hammer.  Before my time but I believe initially the PW was only offered in a BP frame, V notch rear sight and a tapered front sight.  As customers started to order a PW with a cross pin frame this changed.  The finish and the hammer always stayed the same.

[Buckaroo Lou]

GaryG,

Thanks for the reply. My Turnbull does not have the border hammer. Checkered yes, with a border at the bottom, but no border all the way around like on my Government Series Artillery model. The Government Series has all the things you described for the original pre-war plus all the US and HN stamps.

My Turnbull I guess is a Premium Single Action with the Old Armory Blue. I think Turnbull calls it Carbona Blue, but it looks the same as the Old Armory Blue USFA used. I would assume they are both done by the same bluing method.

[GaryG]

Turnbull did the "Armory Blue" (carbona blue) for most of the time USFA was in existence.  A few years before USFA closed, they installed their own ovens for the carbona process.  So if you have a late model Pre War or Artillery model, the blue was done at USFA.  Colorcase was still (mostly) done by Turnbull.  There were a couple of exceptions.

[Capt. John Fitzgerald]

Lou,
Great picture.  Don't forget our "Picture Pages."

[Pettifogger]

I always wonder pre what war?

[medic15al]

WW2 I believe. When they stopped the 1st gens on old tooling to gear up for war production is how I understand it.

[Dave T]

medic15al has the right idea.  "Pre-War" is a reference (one might say homage) to the 1st Generation Colt SAA, the finest SAAs Colt ever produced.  USFA was trying to duplicate the fit and finish, and if the examples I have are any indication they did.  The USFA late production Pre-War guns are as good or better than the 1st Gen Colts I once had.

Dave