Weedfox788

Military M1917 Revolver: Colt: Covering numbers: 1 - 151700. Please enter a serial number and click the submit button. Colt (800) 962-COLT. Aug 07, 2012 The guy that sold it said it was manufactured in 1959. Proofhouse.com said it was manufactured in 1960 I think (I assume the serial number paired up with a year is the first serial number for that year and not the last serial number for that year.

1. Colt Serial Numbers Years Of Manufacture Order
2. Colt Woodsman Serial Number Date Of Manufacture

We were on one of our rare vacations, albeit a working one, travelingdown to the Freedom Arms factory. We, being my wife and I, had spent thenight in Jackson Wyoming before going through Yellowstone Park and thenup through Montana to visit fast draw expert Bob Munden and his lovelywife Becky.

Standing in line for breakfast my wife suggested 'Why don't yougo over to the gunstore and look around while I keep our place. I'll getthe table and I know what you will order anyway.' Across the streetto the Bitter Root Trading Company I went to spend my waiting time lookingthrough the racks of old Winchesters, Marlins, and Sharps rifles and carbines.Then over to the pistol case to look at the Colt Single Action Armies andBisleys.

By the time I got to the end of the showcase, a sixgun on the bottomshelf caught my eye. It also caught my checkbook. When I returned to mywife at the breakfast table, I had a small package under my arm. It containeda beautiful 7 1/2' Colt New Frontier .44 Special.

It was the beginning of a new era. A breath of fresh air. We had a newpresident. A young president to replace the grandfatherly Ike. Little didwe realize what lay ahead in the 1960's. To honor the new president andnew optimism, one firearms company decided to bring out a new sixgun. Inlate 1961 (only two were made in this year), Colt brought forth the NewFrontier in honor of John F. Kennedy's New Frontier. Within two years,rifle shots would ring out in Dallas, Camelot would be gone, and the speciallyengraved New Frontier would never be presented.

Our country's innocence was gone never to return again, but the ColtNew Frontier would remain in production for the next twenty plus years.As did Ruger seven years earlier, Colt flat-topped the frame of an existingmodel, added an adjustable rear sight mated with a radically sloping ramp-stylefront sight, and brought forth one of the most beautiful sixguns ever.Just as with the Colt Single Action Army that gave birth to the New Frontier,the new sixgun carried a deep blue finish on its barrel, cylinder, andgrip frame topped off with beautifully mottled colors on its case hardenedmain frame.

In the production of the First Generation Colt Single Action Army sixgunsfrom 1873 to 1941, a few target models, both Single Action Army and Bisley,were produced consisting of a slightly flat-topped frame, a windage adjustablerear sight by drifting and locking in place, and a front sight that couldbe adjusted up and down. During the 1920's, Elmer Keith tried to interestColt in modernizing the Colt by flat-topping the frame and adding fullyadjustable sights. He even offered the loan of his custom sixguns includinghis famous #5SA but Colt would not listen. Had they been open-minded, Rugermay never have materialized. Keith's Keith's #5SA was built in the mid-1920's.It was a 5 1/2' Single Action chambered in the cartridge of time,at least for reloaders, the .44 Special. The grip was created by matinga Bisley backstrap with a Single Action trigger guard. Its influence todaycan be seen in the Freedom Arms and Ruger Bisley revolvers. The frame wasflat-topped and carried a fully adjustable rear sight mated with a postfront sight with a bead. The gun magazine of the day, THE AMERICAN RIFLEMANcarried Keith's article on the #5SA entitled The Last Word. The#5SA was definitely the last word in single actions in the 1920's.

In 1962, a Colt Single Action Army cost, gulp, $125. The New Frontier,was even higher at an unreachable $140. This at the same time that .357and .44 Magnum Ruger Blackhawks were going for less than $100 and the superblycrafted and blued Super Blackhawk in .44 Magnum was selling for $116. Ourlocal store had a New Frontier .44 Special that I drooled over quite oftenbut with college tuition, three hungry kids, and a wife who stayed homewith them, there was no way. Had I been able to look into the future, Iwould somehow have borrowed the money and bought the Colt. Today it wouldbe worth no less than ten times the original price. I keep reminding myself:ALWAYS REMEMBER, COLT SINGLE ACTIONS DO NOT GO DOWN IN VALUE!

The Colt New Frontier began with serial number 3000NF, which stayedin the Colt plant. The last of the Second Generation New Frontiers wasin the 72XXNF serial number range, which gives us a total of slightly over4,000 New Frontiers from 1961 to 1974. Four calibers were made in thisfirst run of Colt Flat-Top Target sixguns. These were in chamberings of.45 Colt,.38 Special, .357 Magnum, and .44 Special.

According to Colt expert Don Wilkerson, the .38 Special is the rarestfollowed by the .44 Special. Wilkerson gives the following production figuresfor the Second Generation New Frontiers. Less than 100 .45 New FrontierBuntlines were also produced.

CALIBER PRODUCTION BY BARREL LENGTH

In 1978, The New Frontier went back into production with the Third GenerationColt Single Action Army. Serial Numbers began at 01001NF, using five digitsinstead of four. In the last, and according to Colt, final run of New Frontiers,calibers were .45 Colt, .357 Magnum, .44 Special, and .44-40. All of theSecond Generation New Frontiers were standardized with a finish of brightblue except for the case hardened frame. Third Generation New Frontierscan be found in full blue and nickel finishes also including nickel platedBuntline New Frontiers in .45 Colt, .44 Special, and .44-40. The .44-40was available in the short barrel length of 4 3/4' but I do not believeany .44 Specials were offered in this length.

Take a very close look at any Third Generation New Frontier before buying.Some of the later ones were hastily thrown together and will require someexpert gunsmithing to bring them up to standard.

My 'Breakfast Special', the New Frontier .44 Special purchasedbefore bacon, toast, and hashbrowns in Jackson was dropped off at MundenEnterprises before ever being fired. Bob Munden performed his action magicreplacing springs and smoothing the action, then it was off to his gripmaker,Mike Wallace. I asked to be surprised as to choice of wood, and I certainlywas breathtakingly so. When the .44 Special arrived back here in Idahoit wore heart-stopping one piece grips of burl maple that fit my hand perfectly.Wallace joins the select group of Charles Able, Tedd Adamovich, Roy Fishpaw,and Bob Lescovec as men who understand what single action grip-making isall about.

The Colt New Frontiers maintain the beautiful looks, feel, and balanceof the Colt Single Action Army with the added advantage of adjustable sights.It is a rare fixed sighted sixgun that shoots to point of aim and whenit does it is normally for only one load. The New Frontier's sights allowsany reasonable load to be dialed in.

Until the advent of the Colt Anaconda in both .44 Magnum and .45 Colt,the New Frontier remained the finest hunting sixgun ever offered by Hartford.Especially in the 7 1/2' barrel length and in calibers .44 Specialand .45 Colt, the New Frontier will get the job done up close on deer andblack bear sized game. They are not Magnums, but the .45 Colt will easilyhandle loads using 260 grain Keith style bullets at 1000- 1150 feet persecond, while the .44 Special uses the same style bullets of 250 grainsof 1200-1250 feet per second.

Jacketed bullets are normally an expensive and unnecessary option withthe .45 Colt and .44 Special at these muzzle velocities, however Speerstill catalogs their original 'jacketed' .44 bullets which consist of acopper cup with a lead core. These are offered in both 225 grain hollowpoints and 240 grain flat points with the former getting the nod for .44Special use at 1100 feet per second. I would like to see the same designoffered in .45 caliber.

The short barreled New Frontiers in both .44 and .45 caliber make excellentpackin' pistols that are easy to carry and relatively lightweight whencompared to .454 Casulls and Ruger .44 Magnums. With heavy .44 Specialand .45 Colt loads, one can handle anything up close except the big bears.

I can only think of two improvements to the New Frontier. First, aswith almost all sixguns, they cry for custom grips. The only other changeI would make is the use of a flat black post front sight instead of theglare gathering sloping ramp front sight. Colt has provided a high frontsight that goes well with one of my favorite sixgun shooting pastimes,namely long range shooting at small rocks on yonder hill. The secret tothis style of long range shooting is not holding over as one does witha scope sighted rifle or pistol, but simply holding up enough front sightwith the intended target perched on top. This is only for shooting atinanimate objects not for hunting. Misses don't count on the former,they can be really messy on the latter.

Loading for the Colt New Frontier for this sixgunner is pretty traditional.I see no advantage, actually a disadvantage in using jacketed bullets inthe non-Magnum big bore New Frontiers except for the above mentioned .44225 grain hollow point by Speer. I say this as pressures with jacketedbullets are higher than I care for to obtain the desired velocities. The.44 Special and .45 Colt literally beg for cast bullets and are at theirbest with hard cast, Keith-style or semi- wadcutter bullets.

Today, Third Generation Single Action Armies are once again availablefrom the Colt in .45 Colt, .44-40, and .38-40. However, New Frontiers aregone forever. Also gone is the .44 Special in the Single Action. Don'tcount either out. The Colt is a survivor and let's hope both the New Frontiersand the .44 Special comes back.

For now, New Frontiers seem to be readily available at gun shows andthe really good news is that they are not regarded as highly by collectorsas the Single Action Army so prices are usually quite a bit lower. Severalhundred dollars lower in my area. I just looked in the want ads of thelocal paper and there is one for sale, unfired,. 45 Colt with a 7 1/2'barrel. The price is well under what a Single Action Army would be goingfor.

There is no reason why Colt could not 'modernize' the New Frontier withcoil springs and bring it back out for all of us single action sixgunners.The frame and cylinder size is too small for a .44 Magnum, however it wouldmake a dandy .41 Magnum.

1900 --Serial number 1 through 200 were test guns for the US ARMY and will be marked with U.S. on the trigger bow and have the inspectors marks JTT and 1900 stamped on grip. The US Navy ordered 250 guns for testing starting at serial number 1001 to 1250.
There was only 1 engraved 1900 manufactured serial number 885.
There a are 7 guns with factory inscriptions.

There is one engraved 1902 sporting model serial number 4304
There are several inscribed guns known.
There were 175 guns manufacture as clean up of parts in 1908.
There were approximately 7093---- 1902 Sporting Models produced.

Colt Serial Numbers Years Of Manufacture Order

* Serial numbers ranges change during this year
** Production of guns in this serial range very erratic during this period .
800 Guns manufactured for Mexican government with Ivory grips and Mexican eagle and snake stamped on top of the slide.
200 Guns for US Government Contract starting at 15001 through 15201
There were 20 pistols that are known to be engraved some serial as follows 30458 , 31116, 31521, 31593, 31613, 34737, 34738 , 34739.
There are 19 Known guns with inscriptions one that reads ( Illinois Orive)
There were more than a dozen guns shipped with finishes other than blue including nickel, silver and gold washed .

There were 25 guns as part of parts clean up in early 1929

Recommended books on this subject:
A HISTORY OF THE COLT REVOLVER AND OTHER FIREARMS by Haven And Belden
COLT 38 AUTOMATICS by Douglas Sheldon
COLT 45 SERVICE PISTOLS by Charles W Clawson

Colt Woodsman Serial Number Date Of Manufacture

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