Newest Issue of "Handloader"

[Boge]

In the lastest issue of Handloader magazine D. Scovill literally butchered the history of the of Colt in his article on .44 cal. Colts.

He states that the '72 Open Top was chambered in .44 Colt which it was NOT! It was chambered for the .44 Rimfire (Stetson patent) with a few early ones chambered in .44 Russian. He then goes on to speak of the "Richardson" conversion!! Where did he get his facts? Truly a poorly researched article to say the least. I hate to see this as many people will take this as Gospel and quote it. He did get it right that the first SAA was chambered for .44 American but has little understanding of the groove diameters then in usage and does not realize that the Richards & Richards-Mason conversions in .44 cal. were chambered for .44 Colt but were actually .45 cal. as the nominal groove diam. was 0.451" for those guns.

[rockquarry]

If you hate to see people take the information "as Gospel and quote it", then you have probably already contacted Mr. Scovill regarding the alleged error. After all, Dave Scovill (rather than this forum) is the best source for answering the question "Where did he get his facts?" If there is an error, Mr. Scovill would likely include a correction in a future edition of the publication.

[WIL TERRY]

INTERESTING !!! I do know this. An old pal of mine back east went to Dartmouth MANY MANY decades and while there made friends with another fellow who had a COLT SAA they used to shoot regularly . One day Ed looked closely at this SAA pistol and realized the serial number on it was the number 1. The ammunition they shot in it all the time were 45S&W cartridges of which the owner had cases of to shoot up.
SO.....was the " first " COLT SAA really 44 WHATEVER ?? Or was that priviledge saved to make the SAA number 1 just noted ?? Danged if I know !!!
And so it goes...