ColT . ’ Big and Hea vy Worked — and STill doeS! 45 s TheColtSingleActionArmy.45—often nicknamed“Peacemaker”—became commonwearforoutdoorsmeninthelate 19thandearly20thcentury. ThisColt USModel1917 isshownwithan original24-roundbox of.45ACPmilitaryammunition, whichcamealreadyinstalledin threeround“half-moon”clips. Mike “duke” venTurino PHoToS: yvonne venTurino showingoff Theseoldcowboysareobviously ,butnote ifles terr ches theirSharpsandWin 78.45s. l18 ode oltM reC nsa dgu han both T Variousrim diametersof.45 Coltand.45S&W factoryloads. Notethelarger rimdiameterof theModel1909 .45Coltround atfarleft. hink back to the days when America had two major handgun manufacturers: Colt and Smith & Wesson. Now consider this when speaking of their big-bore handguns: Smith & Wesson was more identified with .44 caliber, as in .44 Russian and .44 S&W Special, but for Colt it was .45’s. First came the .45 Colt in 1873 with a revised version in 1909. Then starting in the early 1900’s the company began toying with a rimless .45 for use in autoloading pistols. Of course that became the .45 ACP. By my count Colt produced four basic handguns for those two .45’s. First was the Single Action Army in 1873, which in the beginning was simply called the “strap model.” That’s 60 WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM • MARCH/APRIL2014
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