Colt Peacemaker

Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 July 2009 14:19 Written by Administrator Thursday, 02 July 2009 12:41

The Colt Peacemaker, also known as the Colt Single Action Army handgun, is a revolver designed by the Colt’s Manufacturing Company for the United States Government. It was adopted by the Army as its standard military service revolver following trials in 1873 and it was continued in service till 1892.

The Colt Peacemaker was a single-action, six-round revolver and has excellent aim. It was preferred by law enforcers because of its firepower and reliability. The revolver had a .45 calibre and could load up to 2.6 grams of black powder and a 16.5 gram conical shaped bullet. When the gun was optimally loaded, the firepower it delivered was quite powerful.

The Colt Peacemaker replaced the earlier Colt 1860 Army Percussion revolver and continued in service till 1892. After 1892 it was replaced by the Colt double action revolver. More than 15,000 units of the Peacemaker were manufactured in total.

Commercial production of Colt revolvers was stopped in the year 1945. However, Colt restarted manufacturing single action revolvers again in 1956 after demand for them grew after TV shows and movies popularised the Wild West genre.

The Peacemaker’s design was an improvement over the earlier Colt percussion revolvers. It was available in different barrel lengths 4 ¾, 5 ½ and 7 ½ inches. The first two shorter barrel versions were known as the “Civilian” and “Gunfighter” model respectively. Some versions of the Peacemaker were also designed for .44-40 WCF, .38-40 WCF, .32-20 WCF and .41 Colt.

The firepower and reliability of the Colt Peacemaker made it a popular sidearm for many years. Many modern revolvers such as those from Ruger, Freedom Arms, John Linebaugh and many others draw heavy inspiration from the Colt Peacemaker.

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