Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Bought a Colt SAA, 3rd Gen in .45 Colt

Not yet..

Great Colt SA there TRH and you shoot it well. I'd say you did fine at that price.

The 3rd gen guns (especially the later ones) are great revolvers and are very nicely put together. All the ones I've played with are accurate and shoot to point of aim. Plus, they're fun to shoot. You'll never lose money on a Colt SAA.
Bob

Congrats, Hawkeye.

I agree. I had a shot at one also, $1500 excellent condition no box. Passed, but wish I hadn't.

Thanks.

I'd have been glad to do without the box if I could have gotten if for a total out of pocket savings of a hundred bucks. I actually don't like getting the box on collectable guns, because then I feel obliged to store it in an environmentally controlled area with a mind towards preserving it. I have a pile of such boxes stacked one on top of the other, nearly to the ceiling, in a storage room. Pain in the butt.

PS Not too late to get one, though. As long as you get one that's legit, and you don't over pay, you really can't lose (There are just a few manufacture dates you want to avoid). It's literally like buying a savings bond that you can shoot. Unlike, for example, buying a new computer or household sound system, for example. That money is gone. Even worse, a vacation.

I hear you on the boxes, but I like to get them for resale. Thing is, I almost never sell my guns. Lol.

The excellent condition one I came across was at a gun show in Palm Beach County in the final wee minutes. I didn't know enough about the production dates to watch out for to leap.

Would appreciate a quick primer on that.

First Gen are all supposed to have come from the factory good to go. Early Second Gens, too. Late Second Gens were sometime problematic, as the machines on which they were made were getting old. They scrapped the old machinery and made all new machinery to make the Third Gen. Most people avoid the early Third Gen. A relatively safe bet is to only buy Third Gens with a removable cylinder bushing. The early Third Gens had a one piece cylinder. There are certain dates in the Third Gen to be avoided, having to do with new ownership at Colt allowing standards to go way down for a period of time, but I don't know those dates off the top of my head now. Easy to research, though. Twenty-First Century specimens are said to be a lot better made than the late 20th Century Third Gens. Coltforum would be a good resource for this information, if you need specific dates.

But it's the 3rd Gen made after they went back to the two piece cylinder (removable bushing), which are sometimes informally referred to as 4th Gen, but Colt rejects that label, only accepting the three gen distinctions. It's a 2005. I think I paid the right price for it at a total out of pocket of $1,600, including transfer, background check, etc.. It's in very lightly used condition, and very well cared for. Looks basically mint. Mainly, it's been a safe queen till I got it, but no longer. I intend to shoot her a lot, though also take good care of her.

Buying one of these, the way I see it, is about like taking money out of one pocket and putting it into another, since you're not losing any money, and might even (theoretically, assuming you ever resell) make some down the road. And in the mean time, you get to enjoy owning and shooting it. Hard to beat that.



Here she is next to my Uberti, which is also a .45 Colt, but came from the factory with a fitted .45 ACP cylinder, too. The Uberti is a great shooter, not much if any inferior to the Colt in any way that I can discover, other than lacking the pony on the frame.



Here's the Colt at the range. I shot her today, soon as I picked her up from the FFL.



This was the first five shot group (two went into the same hole), fired at fifteen yards, standing, off hand, one handed, slow fire.



Couldn't be happier with that group.

All three barrel lengths have their appeal. I figured if I was only going to have one, I'd get the length that splits the difference (5.5"), referred to as the Artillery Model. The 7.5" is referred to as the Cavalry Model. The 4.75" specimens were strictly sold to civilians, and were popular among cow hands, bad guys, and law enforcement. The Artillery Model was also popular among all those civilian groups.

I'd have to say the 5 1/2" is my favorite, like my Old Vaquero.