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Eagle Grips

1171 Views 28 Replies 13 Participants Last post by  Windsor Arms, 
H
My wife found these Eagle grips for my SAA. She got them from the son of a local gunsmith who has passed away and the son is selling off the contents of his shop. I plan on keeping the "Gambler" grips that came on her put away so nothing happens to them. I had to do a bit of sanding but not much - man talk about a stink - that gutta percha stinks when it is sanded. Reminds me of working with Water Buffalo horn for knife handles. When did Colt stop with the Eagle grips? According to the archive letter my Colt was made in 1897.

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M
JOG said:
What grips would my 1919 Colt saa left the factory with?
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Most likely hard rubber. Definitely not with eagles on them.
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JOG
Thank you sir!
Mine came with prancing pony without eagle.
Unfortunately, whoever owned the revolver prior overtightened them.
The inside has slight cracks and missing pieces around the screw.
I put them away and found some very old bone grips.
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Monsai52
Hammerforged said:
Took some more pictures as requested.
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These are definitely 3rd gen. Looking at the second picture, you can see a partial reversed serial number start with SA impressed into the grip from the serial number stamped on the grip frame of the gun. Colt only started using the SA prefix on 3rd gens.

Best regards,
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inspcalahan
JOG said:
Thank you sir!
Mine came with prancing pony without eagle.
Unfortunately, whoever owned the revolver prior overtightened them.
The inside has slight cracks and missing pieces around the screw.
I put them away and found some very old bone grips.
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Without pictures, these still sound save-able.... Something Don Furr could likely fix/repair back to useable.
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R
JOG said:
What grips would my 1919 Colt saa left the factory with?
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Non eagle hard rubber grips.
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jbmi
Here's a picture of my Lettered 1890 SAA, SN 142xxx, looks like they were near the end of Eagle Grips.
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jbmi said:
Here's a picture of my Lettered 1890 SAA, SN 142xxx, looks like they were near the end of Eagle Grips.
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A sheriff's model?
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jbmi
No, came w/o ejection tube, interesting was the owner filed off the barrel tit. good holster wear on the gun. SN and shipping location could place it in the Johnson County War.
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Windsor Arms
mrcvs said:
The Eagle grips were completely phased out by 1896. Therefore, an 1897 production revolver would have not originally had gutta percha Eagle grips.

Edit: Not an original set, I got fleeced by the smell. The additional photographs provided proves these aren’t original First Generation grips.

Since the smell was mentioned, when you sand gutta percha, you cannot miss the distinctive burnt rubber smell. The smell you experienced, as these are later grips, wasn’t that.
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Growing up just up the street from Colts, having many friends who worked there and co authoring the AR15 Book I can tell you with certainty they didn't throw anything away. If there was an older part pulled out of the parts Bin they used it. I have had many Colts (as well as other makers) that have had parts on them that pre Dated the gun By a Decade. A year or two is nothing.
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