7 Comments

  1. Frank: Smith and Colt both made double-action revolvers in .45 ACP (for military use during both of the Wars Where we Regretted Saving the French) and in .45 Colt, so it didn’t need to be a “cowboy gun”.
    //pedantic gun nut mode OFF//

  2. I would also suspect that it may have been one of those big Smith or Colts made for the .45 ACP. After WW1 there were a few hundred thousand of them put on the market and they were extremely inexpensive. Just the shootin’ iron for a young, broke radio kid.
    It’s also possible, of course, that he had an heirloom Single Action Army or Smith and Wesson Schofield. Those, BTW, were a hell of a shootin’ iron in their day. George Custer used a Schofield on the day that famous ‘Custer’s Luck’ ran out.
    A little piece of historical minutia for you, Frank…
    The reason that the Colt Peacemaker was popular in the West is that the Smith and Wesson was so much better a revolver. Between the US Cavalry buying the S&W Schofield and the Czar buying a bazillion of them in .44 Russian (the grandfather of the .44 Mag), there was simply no excess production of S&Ws for civilian purchase.
    My great grandfather’s Schofield is still in the family from his days in the post Civil War Cavalry. Every so often we cast some of those big, soft lead bullets, load up some cartridge cases with Black Powder and give the old warhorse a workout. We come back looking like coal miners. Pin a target to an eight inch tree and there will be an exit hole.

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