Lock 'n Load With R. Lee Ermey

[Yournamehere]

The "Colt .38" wasn't a Colt New Service as there aren't any chambered for any .38 Caliber bullets. The only thing it could be is the Colt 1894 Army DA, or some revolver that no one has ever heard of.

Edit: It might not even be an 1894, I can't find an example with a 4 inch barrel. Of course the gun described and the gun used might not be the same thing, so the gun seen might have just been some random .38 Caliber Colt.

[Gunmaster45]

They said it was a Colt 1894, but I thought it was an error.

And I thought they made the Colt 1898 .38 Colt revolver. It may not be a New Service gun, but it could be it.

Keep in mind I did this all on the fly, so my backchecking abilities are lacking.

[Yournamehere]

Yeah for some reason I recall a Colt .38 made in 1898 too, but I have no idea about specifics.

[Nyles]

Actually the Colt New Service WAS available in both the .38-40 and .38 Special. That said, without have seen the show, it sounds like you're talking about a commercial model 1889 Navy, available in .38 Long Colt and .41 Colt which would become the US Army M1892. Also could be the New Army and Navy from 1892.

And the idea that any of these were the first successful double-action revolver is downright insulting. In terms of revolver design quite frankly the US was years behind Europe for most of the second half of 19th century. The first successful double action was the Beaumont Adams 1855. Hell the Deane & Adams was a successful DAO in 1851. Hell, the first successful American double-action was the Smith & Wesson Frontier 1884.

[Gunmaster45]

They were also boasting about the swing out cylinder design, so maybe they just jumped to the next reloading step as well.

And I thought the first successful American DA revolver was the Colt Lightning/Thunderer 1877 pistols. They had sucky triggers, but were double action regardless.

[Nyles]

Well, commercially they were successful, but mechanically I wouldn't say so. You often find them and the 1878s with broken lockwork - I've read they weren't really intended to fired single action, but many of their users did so.

[Yournamehere]

As far as American Revolvers go, or even revolvers in general, I think that the Smith & Wessons are overall the best. Long track record, plenty of innovation along the way, good mechanics and lockup, good interface, and they can be taken apart fairly easy too. The only way a Colt is better is in the trigger, which is only smoother by a small margin if you have the target trigger/hammer setup, and most older S&Ws compared to most older Troopers or Pythons are close to half the price.

I'm not familiar with much anything before the 1873 SAA, though, except the 1860 Army/1861Navy, so I haven't heard of these European revolvers, but I did know the double action design was not an American invention. Still, I think it's safe to say we perfected it.

[Excalibur]

Yeah America seem to have had a flair for taking something that was already around and making it ten times better

[Nyles]

The double-action trigger as it appeared on the Beaumont-Adams 1855 was perfected, it was strong, reliable and effective in both DA and SA. The "prototype", if you will, was the Deane & Adams 1851. American makers didn't produce anything comparable until 1884. You can say that American companies perfected the swing-out cylinder revolver, that's accurate, and the swing-out design is the best at handling a powerful cartridge while still being reasonably fast to reload. The only non-American swing-out cylinder revolver produced that wasn't heavily based on American designs was the French M1892 and I wouldn't rate it as highly as a Colt or S&W.

I think S&W does make an excellent revolver, in fact the trigger is widely considered better than a Colt. A Colt stacks towards the end of the pull in DA, a S&W is consistent throughout. A Python is in a class all it's own, when introduced it was practically handmade, but as far as production guns S&W made a technologically superior gun as soon as they introduced the Military & Police and Colt never really caught up. There's alot to be said for Rugers though, they're all coil springs and it makes them alot tougher.

[Yournamehere]

Good information, very well put. As far as the trigger thing I couldn't have said it better myself, and I know exactly what you mean.

As for Ruger, I know guys who like them and guys who don't. I've not heard any complaints about the GP100 or the SP101, basically the most modern ones, but I was talking with a guy in the gun store not too long ago, and he used to carry a S&W Model 19 as his sidearm. They eventually switched to Ruger Security Six handguns and he was always having problems with the way they binded up in the sandy area. He eventually jumped through all the necessary loops to get his S&W back.