Versatility Pays Off

These last few years I’ve been picking up good Colt SAAs if the price is reasonable and inevitably my storage area was getting crowded. Then one day I got a brainstorm, “Why keep my two 3rd Generation .44 Specials? Why not sell them and let the money raised finance .44 Special cylinders for my 3rd Generation .44-40s?” I did just that but must say the search wasn’t quick or simple for I needed one nickel-plated and the other blued. I spent months searching classified ads on websites or gunbroker.com auctions, but eventually my persistence paid off. The blued one had to be engraved with a gold line inlaid around it. This wasn’t a problem as I knew the SAA’s original engraver. It just added time and money to the project.

Now some very intelligent reader is thinking, “But, your .44-40s are factory sighted for 200-grain bullets and will shoot high with the 240/250-grain bullets normal for .44 Specials. Correct! But it just so happens I have a nice four-cavity bullet mold for 200-grain round nose .44 bullets of 0.430″. So, my self-made convertibles are easy to hit with using either cylinder.
In a time when handguns are becoming increasingly utilitarian, I appreciate single actions for their gracefulness and versatility.