The King Colt SAA .357 Magnum rests on a picture of the detail of the short action
hammer as found in the book Home Gunsmithing The Colt Single Action.
Coolness is definitely in the eye of the beholder. There are many firearms that have been labeled cool, however it all depends on individual taste. I have seen a few really cool sixguns in my 60+ years of shooting, however I recently came onto the “coolest” sixgun I’ve ever seen, or at least I have ever experienced personally, and it is not only cool — it’s Old School Cool.
One of my best friends works in the local Cabela’s Gun Library and I’ve come up with some very cool sixguns over the years just by stopping in to visit once in a while. One trip netted me a Colt New Service .38 Special, which is right up there on the coolness factor. However my recent trip uncovered what may rightly be over the top of the cool column. As we were visiting my friend said I have something here you probably would like to see. Talk about the understatement of the year.
He brought out a pre-War Colt Single Action Army, making it an already cool sixgun. However, this was not just any ordinary SAA but a very special custom version. I told him I was definitely interested but he had to tell me someone else already had spoken for it. I was disappointed, of course, however I at least got to see it.
I ran a few errands and when I got home a couple hours later I got a call from my friend. “The fellow who was interested said he could not afford it. It’s yours if you want it.” At those words my sixgunnin’ heart soared high and then was immediately dashed to the deepest depths when he told me the price. I could immediately understand why the first fella said he could not afford it. However, as I thought about it I felt I really could not afford to not afford it, if that makes sense! I took some of the advice I often give in situations like this which is a year from now you won’t miss the money. Well that was two months ago as this is written and I did buy it and I already don’t miss the money. So it appears my advice to others and to myself is sound.
Note the wide checkered trigger and adjustable rear sight on the King Custom Colt.
King featured a full-length rib on this Colt .357 Magnum. Note the “cockeyed” hammer spur.
Custom Work
Checking the serial number I found this was a Colt Single Action manufactured in 1921. It was chambered in .357 Magnum, which did not arrive until 1935. So some time between 1935 and the beginning of WWII it was sent back to Colt to be converted to the then relatively new .357 Magnum, with a 5″ barrel. But this was only the beginning. It was then turned over to the King Gun Sight Company for extensive custom work.
D.W. King was a rifle marksman who was not satisfied with the sights generally available, so decided to make his own. This was in the late 1920s, and he formed the King Gun Sight Co. King not only provided rifle sights, he did a brisk business applying custom sights to sixguns, especially for target shooters. A look at some pictures of his custom work will show his ideas were later incorporated into factory guns.
In addition to the sights, he did custom work such as cockeyed hammers and wide triggers, both set up for a short action. Elmer Keith had his 71/2″ .44 Special Colt Single Action worked over by King. In addition to ivory stocks Keith had this .44 Special fitted with a barrel band front sight, a fully adjustable rear sight and a King short action. The King Gun Sight Co. could not survive after the death of the founder and disappeared in the early 1950s. For a delightful trip down memory lane, reprinted catalogs are available from Cornell Publications (www.cornellpubs.com). I have both the 1931 and 1939 copies and it’s easy to see from these the influence King had on the industry.
On my King Colt the old hard-to-see front sight and hog wallow trough rear sight were replaced by a full-length rib on the barrel featuring a fully adjustable rear sight mated with a post front sight having a reddish-orange insert. At the base of the sight we find the little mirror designed to reflect light onto the back of the rear sight. The hammer is totally different from anything Colt ever made and has been worked over to provide a short action. The full-cocked hammer position now is normally where half-cock is on a standard Colt Single Action.
The hammer has also been lightened, having holes drilled on the side to remove weight and provide a faster lock time. For easy cocking the hammer is the King Cockeyed Hammer with a wide hammer spur and extra width on the left hand side of the hammer spur to serve a right-handed shooter. Mated with the King Hammer is a special wide trigger, checkered as many target triggers were in those days.
The King short action hammer is shown at full cocked position.
Used, Not Abused
The action remains tight however it’s obvious this sixgun has seen a lot of use as the finish is well worn. The left side of the barrel is marked “COLT SINGLE ACTION ARMY .357 MAGNUM” with the first two words not quite as visible as the rest of the inscription, telling me it’s been in and out of a holster often. When this sixgun was put together by someone who really appreciated a quality Perfect Packin’ Pistol, the .357 Magnum was the most powerful cartridge available. From the wear on the finish I can at least imagine this Old School Cool sixgun saw a lot of use and probably took a lot of small game and possibly even deer, and maybe a cougar or black bear. It certainly exudes this type of coolness.
As beautiful as this sixgun is I have to say it’s absolutely the most exasperating sixgun I’ve encountered in over 60 years of shooting. Many sixguns will shoot anything well that will fit in the cylinder. Not so this gun. The first load I tried resulted in an Ah-Oh moment. The group was well over 3″ at 20 yards. To date I have test-fired two dozen handloads along with one factory .357 Magnum and one factory .38 Special load. Just about the time I thought I had it figured out and started to get decent groups it would turn around and go the other way.
Colt .357 Magnum barrels are usually quite tight so I tried both .357 Magnum and 9mm bullets and also cast bullets sized to .358″ and .356″ to see how much difference it would make. With some loads the smaller diameter work well, with one notable example being the Keith #358429 bullet sized to the smaller diameter and loaded over 11.0 grains of #2400 in .357 Magnum brass. Muzzle velocity was right at 1,050 fps and a group just over 1″. I thought I had found the secret, but it was only with this particular bullet.
Two loads at totally opposite ends of the spectrum gave the best accuracy. These loads were the Black Hills 100-gr. ARX bulleted Honey Badger .38 Special load and a handload consisting of a 200-gr. NEI #200.358GC bullet in .357 Magnum cases loaded over 12.5 grains of IMR 4227. The Honey badger clocked out at just over 1,000 fps, while the heavy bullet load was right at 960 fps. The Honey Badger grouped into 11/8″ while the 200-gr. cast bullet gave me the best accuracy, with five shots into 7/8″. This isn’t an extremely powerful load however it will certainly do as an everyday carry load.
John’s starting to get the King Custom SAA to shoot but more work is needed to find “just” the right load.
John’s Dilemma
I did experience some misfires mainly due to the fact I did nothing to this sixgun before initial firings. It performed much better after having a total stripping and cleaning of decades of crud removed from all internal parts, and the application of a quality lube. I also installed a new full-power Colt mainspring that definitely solved the problem of misfires. Since this is a short action sixgun the normally long travel of the hammer when the trigger is pulled has been changed to only about half the distance. With the new mainspring I’ve not experienced any misfires.
Now I find myself in somewhat of a dilemma — to refinish or not? Normally I would not consider refinishing a First Generation Colt Single Action, however this is not a factory original sixgun. I can see it beautifully re-blued with a case-hardened frame and hammer and fitted with ivory stocks. However, on the other hand would I be removing some true sixgun history in the process? For now I will simply enjoy it as it is. Drop Roy a note at editor@americanhandgunner.com and let him know your thoughts. We’ll all figure it out together!
For more info: www.colt.com
, Ph: (800) 962-2658
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Now I do not knw about you. As I never knew this. That and it just goes to show that one can never it seems to know everything there is about firearms and their supporting gear! Grumpy
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The .450 Watts O’Connor used on his 1953 safari began life as a
standard 1898 Mauser. Tom Burgess did the extensive metal-smithing.
Harvey Anderson barreled it; Albin Oslin stocked it.
Fitted with an aperture sight and a 2½x Lyman Alaskan scope in a Griffin & Howe
QD side mount, the .450 saw action on buffalo without the optic.
“They buried the boots and the feet.” It was all they could find of the man, reported Don Ker. The buffalo had wiped the earth with the rest of him, until there was nothing left but stained soil. “Always use solids for buffs.”
It was an unnecessary caution to Jack O’Connor, after m’bogo had shed the effects of his softnose to seek revenge. The tale “Buffaloes Shoot Back!” would appear in the January 1954 issue of Outdoor Life magazine.
Don Ker, of the famous outfitting firm Ker & Downey, was guiding Jack with Herb Klein and Red Early, on a two-month safari in the summer of ’53. They’d disembarked at Nairobi and driven south into Tanganyika, toward the Simiyu River.
The buffalo was spotted from the safari car as “a great black object” in grass and thorn on a low hill. Don saw it too, and was impressed. He motored on, so as not to disturb it.
As buffalo landed just below lion on Jack’s list, he’d secured a suitable rifle in .450 Watts. Winchester had yet to unveil its .458, so this was a custom project coming together in Washington state. Tom Burgess of Spokane had opened an 1898 Mauser action for the long cartridge and “fitted a Holland & Holland floor plate, magazine and trigger guard….” Harvey Anderson chambered and installed the barrel in his Yakima shop, slotting the muzzle to tame recoil. Clarkston’s Albin Oslin made a “good, strong” eminently shootable stock of plain walnut with cross-bolts book-ending the magazine. A Jaeger trigger, Lyman receiver sight and 2 ½x Lyman Alaskan in Griffin & Howe’s QD rings completed the package.
The .450’s extended tang is unusual, added for a tang safety.
There’s none in the slot. The original Mauser flag safety would have been
as convenient. “I have a .450 that might have been Jack O’Connor’s.”
Jim Stiehl bought the rifle, but not the claim. When it arrived,
the floorplate “was a big surprise!”
Wildcats
The .450 Watts was reportedly developed in 1948 by James Watts, a schoolteacher and big game hunter. An Alaska resident after 1936, he refined its design with Harvey Anderson, who built rifles for it on ’98 Mauser and 1917 Enfield actions. Watts took a rifle in .450 to Rhodesia and shot heavy beasts with it. O’Connor’s use of the cartridge gave it more exposure.
Unlike the .450 Ackley, the .450 Watts is not straightened or necked with a slight shoulder. It is most like the .458 Lott, inspired in 1959 when a buffalo ignored the persuasion of the new .458 Winchester Magnum and gave Jack Lott a toss. The Winchester, on a .375 H&H hull cut to 2.50″ to fit standard rifle actions, holds much less fuel than the Lott’s 2.80″ case and hurls 500-grain bullets about 200 fps slower. On some charts, the .450 Watts and .458 Ackley, both wildcats, trump the Lott, SAAMI-approved in 1995. But wildcatters can be optimistic and aren’t held to pressure ceilings. P.O. Ackley lists velocities of 2,470 fps for the Watts and Ackley, with 500-grain bullets driven by 90 grains of IMR 3031 — and even higher speeds with 95 to 98 grains 4320. But these are frothy loads. In sum, the .450 Watts, .458 Lott and .458 Ackley all land a harder blow than the .458 Winchester and the 450- to 475-caliber British double-rifle rounds to which it’s compared.
O’Connor wrote the .450 Watts cartridges he used were made from .375 H&H hulls run into a .450 Watts die, then loaded with 82 grains of No. 4895 powder and 480-grain bullets developed for the .450 Nitro Express. With a muzzle velocity of 2,175 fps, they carried 5,050 ft-lbs of energy — a ballistic match for “the great .470 Nitro Express, Africa’s favorite game cartridge, which uses a 500-grain bullet [at 2,125 fps], with 5,030 ft-lbs of energy.”
Impressive energy. But the buffalo had looked very big.
A kilometer past the animal, Don stopped the car and grabbed his .475 double as Jack thumbed the big .450s into his Mauser. They sneaked back through the bush. The buffalo was still there, no doubt waiting, speculated O’Connor, “to toss and pound an innocent dude hunter.”
The hunters had inched well within iron-sight range when a shot alley opened. The bull was lying down, quartering off. Kneeling, Jack steadied the sight in the aperture. The big Kynoch’s impact behind the shoulder “almost turned the buffalo over.” The animal slumped forward.
“Again,” Don directed. Jack sent another. And again the great body rocked. Looking down to top off the magazine, O’Connor had his thumb on the stack when suddenly the beast rose. “Then he lowered his head and came for us.” The two rifles thundered at once. The bull turned, staggered a few feet, and as the .450 fired once more, piled up. Jack’s first softnose had struck as intended, high in the lungs. It had flattened on the spine.
“The buffalo is genuinely a tough character,” wrote O’Connor. “Among the professional hunters of British East Arica, it is generally agreed that [a young hunter is lucky] to get knocked down and kicked about a bit early in his career by a buffalo.” Caution follows.
After this safari, the .450 Watts rifle gave way to others in Jack’s writing and sometime after the 1953 hunt in Tanganyika, O’Connor parted ways with his Watts.
Dr. Jim Stiehl (left) donated the long-lost Mauser to the Jack O’Connor
Center in Lewiston, Idaho. Wayne is in the middle and at right is Buck Buckner,
who helped Lou Scharbau track it down.
This photo shows the .450 and O’Connor’s 1953 Cape buffalo. Note the
engraved floorplate. “Always use solids for buffalo,” said Don Ker. Jack had not.
Home Base
Jack and Eleanor and their four children had moved to Lewiston, Idaho in 1948. Their house on Prospect Avenue would be their last. Jack died in 1978, Eleanor a few months later. In 2006, the Jack O’Connor Hunting Heritage and Education Center was established nearby, overlooking the Snake River in Hells Gate State Park on Lewiston’s southwest hem. The Center’s mission, inspired by its namesake’s career, was to extend his vision of hunting, writing and conservation to future generations. The museum displays 65 of his hunting trophies, also several O’Connor firearms: his Biesen-stocked “Number Two” .270, his favorite .30-06, Eleanor’s 7×57 and others.
This past June, the .450 Watts that had accompanied Jack on safari 69 years ago turned up at the Center’s annual fundraising event.
The .450 Watts (center) was the wildcat predecessor to Winchester’s .458 (left).
The .458 Lott (right) is slightly shorter than the Watts, essentially the same
ballistically. All are based on the .375 H&H.
Homecoming
“I came by it incidentally,” said Dr. Jim Stiehl, whom I met during the gun show kicking off the weekend. Jim had traveled from his Illinois home to attend. “In 2003 a South African colleague I had worked beside in Zurich asked me to take delivery of a .318 Rigby he had bought from a man in Idaho. So I phoned the seller to arrange shipment. With more African hunts in mind, I asked if he had any big-bore rifles to peddle. He told me of one that might have been O’Connor’s. I wasn’t looking for anything that special; besides, how would I verify its provenance? But the price was right. Imagine my surprise when the rifle arrived! The floorplate was boldly engraved JO’C!”
So began Stiehl’s search through for a description and photo of the rifle. He found both. Buck Buckner, one of the Center’s founders and an authority on the writer, had thoroughly described the rifle in a 2002 Safari Press book, Jack O’Connor, by Robert Anderson. Also, there were photographs of Jack with the rifle and his buffalo in the 1954 magazine article and in the book Jack O’Connor’s Big Game Hunts (Outdoor Life and E.P. Dutton, 1963).
But Stiehl wouldn’t learn of the Center for another decade. Meanwhile, O’Connor enthusiast Lou Scharbau had taken the trail of the .450. Jack’s son Bradford, who lives not far from Scharbau in western Washington, referred him to Buckner. Buck had Dr. Stiehl’s name in his notes but an outdated address. In March 2019, after years of diligent sleuthing, Scharbau was on the phone with Stiehl, who confirmed he had the rifle. Immediately, Scharbau invited the retired surgeon to the Center. Two years of interrupted travel delayed the visit.
“I haven’t hunted with it,” Jim Stiehl said, unzipping the case. “It has value beyond utility.” Then, with a grin: “It’s home now.” And so he donated it to the Jack O’Connor Center, along with two boxes of Watts loads from Quality Cartridge in Hollywood, Maryland. “I’ve fired it,” he continued, handing me the rifle, “but only at the range, with modest loads. It shoots quite comfortably for a rifle so powerful!”
The .450 comes to cheek naturally. Fine balance, a straight comb and a slim wrist brings it alive in hand. The barrel’s heft steadies it. The Alaskan’s post reticle came instantly to eye. Flipping the G&H tabs and sliding off the scope, I slipped the Lyman stem and aperture into the rear sight base, a switch taking but seconds.
Jim Stiehl owns and uses other rifles. He could have carried this one afield. Instead, he preserved its fine condition. His generous donation brings to the Jack O’Connor Center not just a vintage post-war custom rifle but a slice of history.
Once, when Tanzania was Tanganyika, and hunters plied British East Africa on two-month safaris, this .450 helped the pre-eminent gun writer of his day stop “a big, square-built, blocky, low-slung animal, as black as sin,” coming very fast!
To learn more about the Jack O’Connor Hunting Heritage & Education Center, visit jack-oconnor.org or phone 208-743-0543.