Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns A very rare Colt SAA

I recently acquired a Colt Single Action Army that may very well be one of only two made by Colt. If so, this is truly a very rare gun!

The Colt Single Action Army was first produced by Colt in 1873 in 44 Russian and 45 Colt calibers. Here is a recent find that appears to be one of only two SAA's made in 1875 in 38 Colt caliber, and this particular gun was evidently unknown to the experts because it has never been mentioned in any of the books.

In his book "Colt Revolvers and the US Navy 1865-1889", C. Kenneth Moore devotes 10 pages including detailed close up pictures of Colt SAA serial number 16737, which was shipped to the US Navy in 1875 as a test gun. The gun I have is serial number 16829, and is identical to the Navy test gun.

Concerning the Navy gun sn 16737 Moore states in his book: "Fortunately, this arm was located during the course of research in a private collection. The Colt Factory has no shipping nor any other record of it. However, sufficient proof has been found to determine it is the first .38 caliber Colt Single Action Army revolver shipped. The Colt Factory may have retained another revolver in this caliber for its own use, but there was no evidence located to this effect. As will be seen, it was shipped from the Colt Factory on July 7, 1875, to the "Bureau of Ordinance, Navy" for testing." (Emphasis added by me)


My gun has all matching numbers; frame, trigger guard, backstrap, cylinder, barrel and grips, the assembly number on the frame and loading gate match. All the numbers are identical and of the "early style" configuration. The barrel is 6 1/2" long and the address lettering on the top is of the early "script" style. It is chambered in 38 Colt, the chambers are drilled straight through; the rear of the chambers are .382" and the fronts are .379". It chambers 38 Short & Long Colt, 38 Special and 357 Magnum. It will not chamber 38 Colt New Police or 38 S&W. Interesting to note that the rifling is not the early "narrow lands" type, and not the later "wide lands" type, but different from any I have seen before. It has 6 lands & grooves, but the lands are wider than the grooves!.

It is in excellent condition, retaining some of the original case colors and bluing, with no pitting. The bore is in excellent condition, with no pitting. The overall appearance of the gun is one that was carried or handled a lot, but not fired very much and/or was cleaned thoroughly afterward, with no corrosion from black powder evident.

I contacted the Colt Archives Dept, and they have no shipment record of either sn16829 or sn 16737. The Archivist said that this is not unusual with the early guns, as records are incomplete for this period.







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