[safestuffer]

So my first genuine SA was an American made USFA.
Yea I know. Probably didn't do myself any favors by hitting the
ahem
Peak of single Action collecting early.
Yep, I know if you are a hardcore Colt fan you are probably bristling a little right now. I get it. Colts are Colts, and the rests are just clones, and yes
You are right.
But
there are more aspects to appreciation of fine single actions than name and provenance alone. Lots of talk over at the Colt forum about frame ears, hammer drag marks, hammer channel polishing, dished screw holes, wavy finishes, gapped seams, and all the telltale signs of the kind of quality of manufacture befitting a firearm as expensive as a Colt or a USFA for that matter. Lots of back and forth between the "Colts are Colts" vs the "Quality is King" crowds.

So I decided after I picked up my USFA that indeed, a Colt is a Colt is a Colt and nothing else is a Colt. That kind of mindset. I wanted the real thing, right?

So I found a nice 2nd gen Colt SA. A mid 2nd Gen, but still, a 2nd Gen, and 2nd gens are purported by many serious Colt collectors as among the higher quality Colt SA's there are.
So lets do a little comparison
Spoiler Alert....Colt superfans might have their feathers ruffled a little.
So lets take a quick look at what they each look like. Since the finishes are different, I can't compare the differences in finish qualities, but we can do a bit of a deep dive with what we do have in common.

The Colt, a 1969 .357 in nickel. The box is what drew me in like a moth to flame. Like something out of a comic book.

Looks pretty good, finish has some wear but the metal is original enough. Now hows about that USFA

Both very nice guns. Both shooters. Both full of years of enjoyment.
But for anal people like me who love quality over most other things,
lets get closer, shall we?

First off, lets look at that first thing SA snobs love to check. The frame/ear/hammer fit. First the USFA.

Nice and flush and even. Just as it should be, just as most 1st generation Colts were, and just as every SA snob wants to see.
Now lets look at the Colt.

Well, no. Not so much. Not matched up as well as the USFA for sure. Not even matched as well as most Italian guns of recent import.

Ok, lets see another sign of manufacturing. The frame seams. First the USFA because it has the reputation of being the benchmark, dependably proper and correct, particularly the USA made ones.

If you can't see, the USFA's seams are....nonexistent. Seriously, it is impossible to feel, or see a gap. The transition is, pun intended, seamless.
Now lets see the Colt.
Continued in next post

 

[safestuffer]

The Colt Seams. Now, I get that the nickel finish on the colt makes it a little harder to get the same tight seams that a blued gun has, but I've seen some pretty tight seams on nickel guns.

Well, thats not as seamless as the USFA, but I can live wi........Wait a second.

Ok...So the Colt has a seam wide enough to see daylight through and pass a sheet of paper.

Well, lets see how much attention to detail the polishing department gave each gun.
The USFA hammer channel polish

Pretty clean. Not mirror polish, but they took the time to get it smooth.
Now lets look at the Colt.

What polish?

So there you have it, some outside indications, purely cosmetic admittedly, of the level of fit and finish, and manufacturing quality between one 2nd gen Colt, and one USFA.

Gotta check your Colts, guys. There are some real duds out there.

 

[mag204]

Very interesting comparison and I have to agree the fit and finish on your 2'nd Generation Colt is awful. But in every generation I think you can find some lemons. Colt use to have an advertising slogan about if it's not a Colt it's only a copy, and there's a lot of truth in that which you acknowledged. The Colt SAA is one of the most copied revolver ever made and USFA made a great high quality copy. And just like the Colt Government Model there are many copies, some of which are superior in fit and finish. I've owned many Colt SAAs and fortunately most have been beautifully made. That said I've owned some poorly fit and finished examples also. Each example good or not so good relied heavily on who polished it, fitted it and tuned it. Enjoy your USFA SAA its a beauty.

 

[peterbats59]

The phrase I've heard a number of times is that USFA "finished" what Colt started, pun intended. Maybe there are special cases of ordinary production Colts with outstanding fit and finish, but it is my understanding that every single ordinary production USFA exhibits outstanding fit and finish. I consider USFA and Manurhin (the MR73, in particular) as standing apart from the crowd when it comes to hand-fitted perfection of "production" revolvers.

 

[bigwagon]

It's no secret the best of the USFA guns rivaled anything Colt has put out in the last 40 years, especially the early 3rd Gens, which weren't very hard to beat. Too bad USFA couldn't go the distance.

 

[Venom6]

Outstanding post, sir. Thank you. Have had three 2nd-gen SAA's. The sear on the .45 broke in the first cylinder-full. The sear/bolt spring on the .38 broke. In the first cylinder-full. And the hand spring broke on the second .45. In the first cylinder-full. I've got more than a dozen Ruger single-actions, mostly 3-screws, shot them thousands of rounds over many years, with not a single breakage yet. Have had Ubertis, still got a USFA .38 Rodeo, and even an ASM, no breakage. But I still want a Colt. What's wrong with me? Just a slow learner I guess.

 

[safestuffer]

Very interesting comparison and I have to agree the fit and finish on your 2'nd Generation Colt is awful. But in every generation I think you can find some lemons. Colt use to have an advertising slogan about if it's not a Colt it's only a copy, and there's a lot of truth in that which you acknowledged. The Colt SAA is one of the most copied revolver ever made and USFA made a great high quality copy. And just like the Colt Government Model there are many copies, some of which are superior in fit and finish. I've owned many Colt SAAs and fortunately most have been beautifully made. That said I've owned some poorly fit and finished examples also. Each example good or not so good relied heavily on who polished it, fitted it and tuned it. Enjoy your USFA SAA its a beauty.

Its funny, from what I've gathered there is no consistency with colts from about 1965-1995. You might get something nice, you might get something..."special". Like my 2nd Gen.
A few months after finding the 2nd gen this one also wandered into the same LGS, and I had to soothe my wounded feelings with a therapy-Colt. This one is an early 3rd gen. You know, the ones that are supposed to be kind of the bottom of the barrel?

It doesn't have the problems that the 2nd gen does. It's not a USFA, but its not nearly as goofy as the 2nd gen. Its special like my 2nd, but in a .44 kind of way, not a derpy kind of way.

It does have a finish issue that i'm trying to figure out, some sort of haze developing on the grip frame over the nickel, but I'm pretty sure thats a me problem and not a Colt problem.

But if you look at some of the same areas of the 3rd gen, lets say the seams...they are a lot cleaner than the 2nd gen, especially the grip to frame seams.

Take a look at the hammer channel. It looks much cleaner than the 2nd gen.

The hammer to frame ear fit is OK, but not stellar. This brings to point another issue with the 2nd and 3rd gens...the angle of the grip frame ears got way to steep during this time. You can see it compared to the USFA's more gentle slope that follows the hump of the hammer. By the time you get to the 3rg gen that gentle slope is a cliff that the hammer doesn't even attempt to follow. Minor details but you can see where the fitment gets less and less attention.

Look at that dive down into the back strap. Its almost vertical.

compared to the USFA's much more gentle even curve that follows the hammer contour.

 

[chrometank]

The top SAA pictured here is from 1982, supposedly from the beginning of the bad years, but the fit and finish are superb on this one.
I have read an article from a gunsmith who has worked on thousands of SAAs and he thinks the highest quality SAA Colt's were made in the early 2000s !
All the best View attachment 4084661

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