Enter the serial number, without spaces or dashes, to search the database. If multiple models appear for your serial number simply match the date with the appropriate model, as certain vintage firearms can share serial numbers between different models.

COLT'S CLASSIC SINGLE ACTION: THE NEW FRONTIER

..JOHN TAFFIN

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.

Please be advised that the information provided here is approximate, and should not be relied upon for legal, compliance, valuation, or other purposes which require definitive documentation.Enter the serial number, without spaces or dashes, to search the database. If multiple models appear for your serial number simply match the date with the appropriate model, as certain vintage firearms can.
Pair of Colt SAA 3rd generation.357 revolvers. Description Colt Employee Owned and Purchased Pair of six-shot Single Action Army Revolvers Chambered in.357 Magnum. Each with a 5.5' barrel, Blued bbl, trigger guard, backstrap and cylinder wit.Click for more info. Seller: FloridaCustomWeapons.

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. Honda xlr125r manual pdf. 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

4 3/4'	5 1/2'	7 1/2'
.38 Special	0	39	10
.44 Special	0	120	135
.45 Colt	85	520	1,020
.357 Magnum	78	795	1,305

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

Colt Saa Serial Numbers 3rd Generation