Back in the Wild West
The Old West was a place and time of legends. Most of those legends, at least the ones that were in human form, were lean, lanky, steely-eyed, rugged outdoor types, usually wearing spurs, a big hat, and carrying a holstered six-gun.
American television and film have, for many years, portrayed the sidearms of hero and villain alike as consisting of one gun: The Colt Single Action Army. Now, the Colt is a wonderful sidearm, and it was one of the defining six-guns of the day. But it wasn’t the only one on the market; there were competitors.
There was one competitor in particular. Then, as now, Smith & Wesson and Colt had a rivalry.
The Competing Sixguns
Smith & Wesson had a significant head start on developing what we now consider modern revolvers, with the cylinder bored through from the year to accommodate a modern metallic cartridge. That head start was thanks to a guy named Rollin White, who in 1855 had received U.S. Patent number US12648DA, for several improvements in repeating arms, including a revolver with a bored-through cylinder. In 1856, he sold the portion of the patent pertaining to revolvers to Smith & Wesson, receiving in return the handsome fee of 25 cents for each revolver sold under the patent.
This gave Smith & Wesson quite a leg up, as you can imagine. But their results were, shall we say, mixed.
Smith & Wesson’s Schofield
Smith & Wesson’s first metallic cartridge revolvers, the #1, # 1 ½, and the #2, were, to put if bluntly, puny, mostly chambered for the .22 Short rimfire cartridge. But in 1870, while Smith & Wesson still held the Rollin White patent, making them the only company in America that could make revolvers with a bored-through cylinder, they came out with the big new #3. The #3 was made in two versions.
The first was the Russian, chambered for the .44 Russian cartridge, and the second became known as the Schofield after Major George W. Schofield, who offered design advice to Smith & Wesson. The Schofield was initially chambered for the .44 S&W American, which later became the basis for the .44 Special and the .44 Remington Magnum cartridges. S&W later offered the Schofield in .44 Henry Rimfire, .44-40, .32-44, .38-44, and .45 Schofield. The Army bought some chambered in the .45 Schofield; more on that in a moment.Read More: Sunday Gun Day Vol. III Ep. XII - The Father of the Modern Magnum, Elmer Keith
Now the soldier, hunter, or guntwist had a gun that was quick to load, reliable, and powerful. Quite a few notorious personages favored the big Smith, including Jesse James, John Wesley Harding, Pat Garrett, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, and a young fellow named Theodore Roosevelt.
But Colt wasn’t sitting idle.
Colt’s Single Action Army
When the Rollin White patent expired, Colt was ready. The first production cartridge-firing Colt, the 1871-72 Open Top, fired the not-very-impressive .44 Henry Flat cartridge. The Open Top seemed as much as anything like a reason to use up a bunch of old cap & ball parts, and indeed, before its introduction, Colt did convert a lot of old percussion guns. The Open Top was never a big seller, carrying over the percussion Colt’s open-topped frame and primitive sights. Colt also offered two versions of a pipsqueak revolver chambered in .41 Rimfire, the 5-shot House Gun and the 4-shot Cloverleaf.
But in 1873, Colt brought out the legend: The Single Action Army (SAA).
The SAA was quickly adopted by the U.S. Army, which purchased many of these guns in two forms, the 7 ½” barreled “cavalry” revolver and the 5 ½” barreled “artillery” version. A 4 ¾” version was available for civilians, and quickly became much sought after by lawmen, cowboys, and guntwists of all sorts. Colt’s new single-action was well balanced, had a grip that was admirably suited to be fired one-handed while the shooter’s other hand was holding reins. In fact, many modern shooters may look at the Colt and wonder about the placement of the loading gate on the strong side of most shooters, which can make reloading a bit awkward, but it’s important to remember that the gun was designed for military use – and in those days, that meant use by horsemen.The Colt was perceived as having one big advantage, according to accounts from the time. The solid frame of the Colt was generally regarded as much stronger than the hinged-frame Smith. If a cowboy or gunsel ran out of ammo and had to settle an opponent’s hash by banging his sidearm over the bad guy’s head, the Smith was perceived as likely to break at the hinge or the catch; the solid-frame Colt was far more likely to survive being abused in this manner. (I don’t recommend that any readers test this by experiment.)
Mostly, though, the dominance of the Colt was that it was handier, handled better, cleared leather faster, was more rugged, and would handle a wider range of ammo.
Ammunition Problems
Every war is won or lost by logistics; militaries going back to Sparta and probably before knew this. The problem the Smith & Wesson Schofield had in Army service was its cylinder, which was shorter than that of the Colt’s. The Colt could chamber and fire the .45 Schofield cartridge, but the Schofield couldn’t chamber the .45 Colt. The solution was obvious: Buy the revolver that could shoot either.
The Army, largely for this reason, stopped purchasing Smith & Wesson revolvers in 1878. The conflict was, for the moment, decided; advantage, Colt.
What Happened In the End?
In the end, Colt seems to have won the cultural war, at least for the duration of the Wild West days. The Army, as we noted, dropped the Smith & Wesson Schofield revolver after only a few years, leaving the Single Action Army as the service's primary sidearm. It was in use until 1898, when the Army adopted the Colt double-action Model 1892, with its anemic .38 Long Colt cartridge. But then, when soldiers, sailors, and Marines had to contend with Moro tribesmen, maniacal, often hopped up on opium, and wearing rawhide armor – well, they went back to the SAA and it’s big .45 Colt cartridge pretty quickly, which eventually led to the services’ adoption of the famous M1911 Colt-Browning pistol and it’s big .45 ACP cartridge. But Smith & Wesson seems to be winning the sales war; Smith has a huge variety of revolvers for sale, and while Colt still has some great pieces, Smith & Wesson and newer companies like Ruger pretty much own the American sixgun market now.
Read More: Sunday Gun Day Vol. III Ep. V - Guns Nobody Is Making Replicas of, but Should
Nowadays, though, you can still get the SAA from Colt as a fancy custom item. But there are a bunch of alternatives for both revolvers, including replicas from companies like Uberti. There’s also the wonderful Ruger Vaquero, which resembles the Colt but has all modern lockwork; I have a 4 ¾” barreled Vaquero in stainless steel, which looks a lot like the old nickel-plated Colts. The Vaquero, like my big Smith & Wesson 25-5, also handles my tough .45 Colt loads with aplomb.
You can get a Smith & Wesson Schofield replica today as well, and they differ from the originals in one key respect: A longer cylinder that will accept the full-length .45 Colt rounds.
Cowboy action shooters and pistoleros still favor both designs and have done so for well over a century. You can’t really argue with a success record like that.
