Revisiting the Peacemakers Part 1



Airgun Experience No. 574 to No. 576

Revisiting the Peacemakers Part 1

How Colt’s designs evolved and what it means to airguns

By Dennis Adler

You have to realize that the Colt Peacemaker was not Samuel Colt’s dream. In fact, he was dead set against cartridge revolvers, believing that his patented percussion pistols would endure throughout the duration of the Civil War and for years after. He actually had the opportunity to gain the rights from one of his employees, Rollin White, who had received a patent for the breech-loading bored through cylinder in 1855. Colt turned White down. Of course, in 1855 no one in the U.S. was making self-contained metallic cartridges that required a revolver with a breech loading, bored through cylinder. Colt’s revolvers, the only revolvers that were allowed to be manufactured in the United States at the time, used loose powder, cap and round balls or conical bullets, loaded into the front of the cylinder chamber, first with a measure of black powder, the ball or conical bullet, seated on top of it by ramming the bullet into the cylinder with the gun’s loading lever, and then placing a percussion cap on the nipple at the back of the cylinder corresponding to the chamber. A wise soldier or civilian also placed a little dab of lard over each chamber (before placing the percussion caps) to seal and protect each chamber from moisture, or worse, flash from firing that could ignite other chambers and cause a chain fire. This usually blew the gun apart and did little for the shooter’s hand. Other problems included using too much powder in which case the cylinder chamber could bulge and ruin the cylinder, or the cylinder could burst which again often did not bode well for the shooter’s hand. Rollin White saw a better way with a self-contained cartridge having a proper measure of powder and the bullet all in one, and the percussion cap at the back of the shell to be struck by the hammer. It was already being done in Europe and White, had, in fact, been “inspired” by European design patents when he drew up his own design and received a U.S. patent. Colt agreed to disagree, White took his idea to Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, who were just forming their own arms-making company and they not only liked the idea, they purchased the patent rights for Smith & Wesson. Almost at the same time, Daniel Wesson was developing America’s first self-contained metallic cartridge, the .22 Short rimfire. As soon as Colt’s patent expired in 1857, S&W introduced their little .22 caliber Tip-Up, 7-shot revolver, the S&W No.1. No actual threat to Colt’s .36 caliber 1851 Navy cap-and-ball pistols, which beginning in 1855 were adopted as the nation’s standard issue military sidearm. Sam Colt would never look back at what White had offered him, or even regard S&W as a competitor once the Civil War began. Then to everyone’s dismay, Sam Colt died in January 1862 at age at the age of 47 after suffering a brief illness, never to know the outcome of the war or the depths of the burden he had placed on his company’s future by sending Rollin White packing. After the war, the Colt’s Patent Fire-Arms Mfg. Co. would be prevented from manufacturing breech-loading cartridge revolvers until 1869 and the expiration of the S&W Rollin White patent.

It took Colt’s management and the company’s Superintendent of the Armory, William Mason, until 1871 to even begin manufacturing a viable cartridge loading revolver and until 1873 for Colt’s to start selling Mason’s brilliantly designed .45 Colt Single Action Army revolver. To the company’s newest good fortune the U.S. military adopted the SAA as its new primary issue sidearm, but the Colt had just barely surpassed the already in production .44 S&W caliber Smith & Wesson topbreak Model 3 American, a generally superior handgun design that facilitated much faster unloading and reloading compared to the Colt Peacemaker. The government had been relying on Colt pistols since the War with Mexico in 1846, so it was really no surprise that the Peacemaker was chosen over the S&W. (There were also a lot of old ruffled feathers in the military and in the White House over S&W preventing the manufacture of cartridge loading revolvers by any other U.S. armsmaker during the Civil War. Even when S&W applied for a patent extension in 1869 it was denied, and President Ulysses S. Grant vetoed congressional actions to aid Smith & Wesson after the fact. The Colt Peacemaker would remain the gun of choice for the remainder of the century, and would still be in use by the military well into the 1900s, even after adopting newer Colt double action models were in use.

In the eyes of the government and a vast majority of men who ventured forth to settle the West in the 1870s and 1880s, Sam Colt’s Peacemaker was the Gun that Won the West, even though Sam Colt had nothing to do with it.

Flash forward 142 years

No argument that the Peacemaker personified American West, as did the Winchester Model 1873. The Colt was the storied gun of movie and television cowboy heroes, it was the gun of real life heroes, and inspired decades of toy guns for America’s wide eyed youth in the 1950s and 1960s. It also inspired some heavy handed CO2 models from Crosman way back when, but in 2015 the Peacemaker inspired the most authentic single action air pistols ever made. And so we begin this journey looking back at what we have, before looking forward to what is coming.

The first BB and pellet models

When Colt and Umarex teamed up to build an authentic, Colt branded, .177 caliber Single Action Army revolver the first examples were utterly unprecedented, accurate in essential detail right down to the SEPT. 18. 1871 JUL 2.72 JAN.19.75 patent dates on the left side of frame and the Rampant Colt emblem. The first time I saw this air pistol I was not only amazed at the engineering that had gone into making this all-metal six-shooter, but how all of the famous Colt features had been duplicated including an authentic-style ejector housing, hammer spur and triggerguard. For those of us who grew up in golden age of the television western this was the best thing to ever come along in an airgun. Umarex and Colt had a ready made market.

With an overall length of 11 inches and weighing 33 ounces, the original 5-1/2 inch models were about 4 ounces lighter than a .45 Caliber 5-1/2 inch barrel length Colt Peacemaker, but the Colt Umarex SAA had the same looks, except for the addition of a manual safety discretely hidden under the fame just forward of the triggerguard. The nickel pellet firing version soon added to the line was a dandy of a gun for Cowboy Action shooters to use for quick draw practice. On the negative side for Cowboy Action shooters was the airgun’s rebounding hammer feel, lighter because there is no actual Colt-style mainspring needed, and the hammer sits slightly back from the frame at rest. Instead of four clicks when the hammer is drawn back, you only get two. But cocking the gun still felt real, solidly rotating the cylinder to the next chamber. It was a way to get in handling practice for a fraction of the cost of live ammo for a .45 Colt.

The BB and pellet-loading cartridges were impressive, too, loading the round in the back of the shell like a primer, and with the Colt models developing enough velocity to send pellets downrange at close to 400 fps; reactive targets were in the game, too. Yes indeed, 2015 and 2016 were exciting years for western gun enthusiasts. And then it got better with a 7-1/2 inch pellet cartridge model.

Customizing

In 2016 I had an idea, maybe a crazy one, that the Umarex Colt CO2 models were so close in appearance and dimensions to the 5-1/2 inch Colts that they could be engraved the same way as in the late 19th century. What I discovered was that engraving the guns that had a black finish (after Umarex’s attempt at bluing had failed), could not be done without being completely refinished, and thus was born the limited edition John Wayne Shootist model, which was hand engraved to match the guns Wayne carried in his last film, which weren’t actually Colts but a pair of Great Western models presented to Wayne back when Great Western started building Single Actions in the 1950s. They were filling the void left by Colt’s, which had discontinued them just before the U.S. was drawn into WWII. We should thank Great Western for getting Colt’s to resume production in 1955, ending the Peacemaker’s 15-year hiatus. The John Wayne commemorative was a success but a lot of work that was reflected in the increased price. What was discovered next was that the nickel guns that had been introduced could be engraved without damaging the finish, so long as the engraver, in this instance John Adams, Jr., of Adams & Adams, did not go too deep, just enough to get depth to the cuts but not enough to break through the thin nickel to the copper plating beneath. From that moment on, Pyramyd Air was able to offer both 5-1/2 inch and 7-1/2 inch pellet models with custom hand engraving in the classic Colt patterns of the period. This series had a good run until the 7-1/2 inch nickel models went out of production. The only 5-1/2 inch engraved nickel model at present is a John Wayne commemorative. If you got into collecting the engraved guns, this would be a good one to add.

Understanding Colt

Throughout history guns have come and gone, few have remained, especially as long as the Peacemaker, even with a 15 year lapse in production, Colt still builds them after 147 years. Umarex is still building parts to make the 5-1/2 and 7-1/2 inch pellet models as well as the 5-1/2 inch BB models (and heck, there’s a bunch they sell in Europe we never see here including 7-1/2 inch BB models), but the idea of the Colt Peacemaker is timeless, even if the guns themselves are not always. And in that there is an underlying current that keeps them coming back whether from other manufacturers like Italian armsmaker’s A. Uberti and F.lli Pietta, and currently Standard Manufacturing in Connecticut, which builds an impressive, albeit expensive version of the c.1892 Colt Single Action with the transverse cylinder latch, the same design that is used by Colt and Umarex for the CO2 models! The Peacemaker keeps coming back.

Where am I going with this?

There is another lesson from Sam Colt’s past to be learned in Part 2 and that may well give you an understanding of why the Colt name endures. Sam Colt had a saying, Vincit qui patitur, “He conquers who suffers.”

CAPTIONS

1.

Samuel Colt held on to the belief that his designs were the finest repeating firearms (revolvers and rifles) that could be made. Of course, he held the patent rights from 1835 and 1836 up until 1857 (with a 7-year patent extension), so it was hard to prove him wrong. Many tried but eventually failed.

1A.

In 1855 Colt believed no finer pistol could be built than his 1851 Navy revolver, and rightly so, since in 1855 it had been adopted by the U.S. military as its standard issue sidearm, and no finer handgun would be built until Sam Colt built it, which he did with the 1860 Army, 1861 Navy, 1861 Police and design for the Pocket Navy, the last gun he would create before his unexpected death in January of 1862.

2.

It is ironic that the six-gun that became the most famous to bear the Colt name was designed a decade after Colt had died, by the company’s Superintendent of the Armory, William Mason. The Single Action Army or Peacemaker became the gun of legends.

3.

Another legendary name, John Wayne, was used to launch the early generations of the Umarex Colt Peacemakers in 2015. Special editions were built with the weathered finish which was brought in after the early failure of Umarex’s attempt to offer blued guns.

4.

The best fix was one that Colt’s used as well, making nickel the standard finish for the Peacemaker in 1877. The nickel CO2 models opened the door for a more authentic looking airgun.

5.

The addition of a 7-1/2 inch, pellet-cartridge model with a rifled barrel near the end of 2016 rounded out the initial launch of the Colt-licensed CO2 models and set the stage for a variety of options and limited editions that had begun with the 5-1/2 inch nickel model and 5-1/2 inch pellet-cartridge John Wayne Shootist hand engraved models.

6.

The John Wayne being an entirely refinished gun, as well as hand engraved, made it very expensive. A little less costly were the hand engraved models from Adams & Adams that followed the Shootist, a nickel and gold 5-1/2 inch and nickel 7-1/2 inch model. Still expensive, the limited editions sold well enough as collectible models that were also darn good shooters with the rifled barrels.

7.

After the 7-1/2 inch model was temporarily phased out, with the remaining guns being used by Umarex for their own limited editions, the Fort Smith, NRA, and nickel and gold models, only the 5-1/2 inch nickel guns remained, which were used by Pyramyd Air, Adams & Adams and Conrad Anderson for further special editions. Anderson’s engraved Duke Model (right) is the last engraved CO2 Peacemaker currently available.

Airgun Experience No. 574 to No. 576

Revisiting the Peacemakers Part 2

What Sam Colt learned about manufacturing with the 1851 Navy

By Dennis Adler

This is one of those lessons in history that explains why, that even in what appears to be the best of times, all of your planning means very little if no one comprehends why you are doing it. This is the lesson Samuel Colt learned in the 1850s. How this relates to what is happening with Colt Peacemaker air pistols might seem a bit ambiguous, but as you read you will understand that what Colt learned in the past is relevant to what is about to happen in the present.

Sam Colt’s Experiences

In terms of celebrated Colt revolvers, the 1851 Navy is only surpassed by the 1873 Peacemaker as one of the most legendary guns of the American West. It was the perfect revolver in size, caliber (.36 caliber), weight, balance and handling. The U.S. Ordnance Department would select Colt’s 1851 Navy as the nation’s first standard issue sidearm for the Army and Navy in 1855, cementing the model’s role in American history, but in 1851, when it was still new and impressively innovative, Sam Colt – barely on his feet with his new company in Hartford, Connecticut – made a bold decision. During the first full year of manufacture, Colt displayed the 1851 Navy, along with other Colt models, 1849 Pocket Model and large .44 caliber Dragoons, at the London Exposition held in June. The 1851 London Exposition by its sheer size and scope is regarded as the first World’s Fair.

Colt’s 1851 Navy received high praise from the British and visitors from all over the world, and shortly after the Hartford-made Navy model was being shipped for sale throughout Great Britain and Europe. This would have satisfied most men, but Colt had long foreseen the potential for his guns in England and France, and even before getting his U.S. Patent in 1836, he had already secured patents for his revolving pistol design in England and France. With the enthusiastic reception to the Navy model at the London Exposition, Colt saw an opportunity to further expand his reach across the ocean, and in October 1852 chose London as a potential site for manufacturing his guns on foreign soil. He sailed to England that month, taking with him the journeymen and machinery needed to establish a factory. It was both a very bold and expensive feat for the 1850s.

Shipping machinery built in the U.S. across the Atlantic to England was a very costly endeavor but one Colt had discovered on his earlier journey was necessary. He had originally hoped to have his machinery built in England from his U.S. patent designs, both to save on shipping expense and to create a favorable impression among British consumers with everything having been made in England rather than imported. Unfortunately, the machinery needed to do the precision work required in building Colt revolvers could not be produced in England. The British school of gun making was soundly based around handcrafted construction, thus there was no use for such massive machinery as Colt’s among British gunmakers, and no companies capable of building them.

Instead he arrived in London with men and machinery, and selected a factory site at Pimlico on the Thames Bank near Vauxhaul Bridge; a large building formerly used to make the castings for construction of the magnificent Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, the site of the 1851 London Exhibition. In less than a year he had his men and machinery in place and the first London built 1851 Navy was completed in 1853. Total production that year concluded with 3,999 guns, all emanating from one factory staffed by Americans.

The production of handguns in such quantities as the London factory was turning out, especially considering the precision required and the interchangeability of parts – a key factor in Colt pistol manufacturing – simply amazed British firearms makers and the British press. In the 1940 book, A History of The Colt Revolver – 1836 to 1940, by Charles T. Haven and Frank A. Beldon, the authors noted that to English observers, it was “…strange enough to see a whole gun made under one roof, instead of being taken home to be built by piecework in half a dozen kitchen workshops.”

The London-built arms were exactly the same as those made at Colt’s Hartford, Connecticut, Armory and after touring Colt’s London works, author Charles Dickens wrote an article in an 1855 edition of Household Words, stating that, “…under the roof of this low, brickbuilt, barrack-looking building we are told that we may see what cannot be seen under one roof anywhere else in all England, the complete manufacture of a pistol, from the dirty pieces of timber and rough bars of cast steel, till it is fit for the gunsmith’s case. To see the same thing in Birmingham and in other places where firearms are made almost entirely by hand labour, we would have to walk about a whole day, visiting many shops carrying on distinct branches of the manufacture; not to speak of the toolmakers, the little screw and pin makers; all of whose work is done here.” Dickens was equally impressed by Samuel Colt’s steam powered assembly lines “indefatigably toiling in the hot, suffocating smell of rank oil, down to the little stone chamber below – [which] performs nine-tenths of all the work that is done here.” Of course, there were Colt’s craftsmen, de-burring parts, polishing and fitting individual parts together, workers making handsome walnut grips, craftsmen using Colt’s formula for color casehardening of frames, hammers, and loading levers, other skilled workers bluing barrels, cylinders and small parts, and final assembly, producing the very same guns in London as they had in Hartford, Connecticut.

The magnificence of it all, as observed by Dickens and British gunmakers was equally bewildering and in contradiction to the long-established school of gun making in Great Britain (and much of Europe). This was to be the downfall of Colt’s vision. He could not build a British workforce because the English ways of doing things did not suit his ideas of mass production. By 1857 Colt felt he could no longer prevail upon his American workers to remain in England and made the decision to sell the factory and its machines to a group of investors who established the London Pistol Company. Their intensions were to build the same types of pistols as Colt’s, but without Colt’s foremen and Colt’s unbending system of manufacturing, the London Pistol Company could not do what Colt had done, even with Colt’s machinery. In the U.S., Samuel Colt’s Model of 1851 remained in production in Hartford for more than 30 years, his true legacy, not the Peacemaker.

Lessons learned

Colt had developed what was close to the first moving assembly line with his parts being made by precision machinery to strict tolerances, and the assembly of guns being done as parts moved down the line; i.e. barrels completed and loading levers assembled, frames, and firing mechanism assembled, and guns finally put together with cylinders and readied for testing before being cleaned and packaged for sale. With all parts consistent in manufacture, Colt was able to produce the same quality of firearm time and again.

Though his concept of mass production had proven foreign to British gun making in the 1850s, Colt nevertheless set the standard for manufacturing handguns and the future of gun making. By the 1870s, it was almost the global standard. The underlying lesson, however, was that you cannot always take an idea that works in one place and make it work in another without some adaptation (let’s call it compromises), but once you work though those problems it is possible to duplicate assembly of consistently manufactured parts in more than one place. Colt’s development and enrichment of the manufacturing of interchangeable parts helped change the world of gun making.

Next month we will see Sam Colt’s theory at work in a way even he could never have imagined. You don’t want to miss this. The Airgun Experience will be on hiatus until early August. As they say, watch this space.

7.

The size and scope of the 1851 London Exhibition shown in this period illustration brought nations from all across the globe under one massive roof for what would be regarded today as the first World’s Fair. It was here in 1851 that Sam Colt unveiled his new Navy revolver.

8.

The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park was built for the Grand International Exposition of 1851. In 1852, the factory where the castings were made for the construction of the Crystal Palace became Samuel Colt’s London manufacturing facility.

LINKS

Gun



pellet cartridges



Meisterkuglin pellets



Duke



CAPTIONS

1 LEAD.

For Old West shooting fun at just pennies compared to live ammo, it’s hard to beat the new Umarex pellet-firing, rifled barrel Peacemaker. Hard to tell at a glance, this Colt Single Action airgun with 5-1/2 inch barrel, loads six pellet cartridges, and handles just like a real Colt. (Holster by .45Maker)

1.

For Cowboy Action shooting practice (drawing, aiming and firing) the Umarex Colt SAA provides the balance and action of working with a cartridge-firing .45 Colt.

4A.

The Colt and Umarex association allows using the official Colt emblem and even stamping the original Single Action Army patent dates on the left side of the airgun frame just as they appear on the cartridge models.

8.

One of few noteworthy physical differences between a .45 Colt SAA and the Umarex Colt SAA airgun is the addition of a manual safety which is discretely added just forward of the triggerguard. Also note the authentic-looking transverse cylinder pin release.

9.

The SAA pellet cartridges are about the size of .32-30 Winchester round. Tests were done with Meisterkugeln 4.5mm lead pellets. These are a traditional wad cutter design ideal for target shooting. The pellets load into the back of the shell where the primer goes on a real cartridge.

10. opt

The CO2 loads inside the grip frame by removing the left grip panel. The grip also has the octagon wrench built in, to tighten the screw in the base of the grip and seat the CO2 cartridge.

10A.

The new Umarex Colt licensed Peacemaker has a 5-1/2 inch rifled barrel and loads six silver pellet cartridges. Just like in the Old West, you have your six and then you reload. An extra dozen pellet cartridges are a good idea, they cost $10 for six reusable rounds.

11A.

The gun has the same balance in the hand as a .45 Colt with a 5-1/2 inch barrel which makes it ideal for practicing quick draws, aiming, and gun handling.

John Wayne pellet models and image 21 opt

If you are a John Wayne fan, there is also a special edition John Wayne “Duke” pellet model available with a weathered finish (bottom) just like the Duke’s single action Colt used in so many of his films. Nickel models (top) are also available.

1. John Wayne air gun

The Limited Edition of 500 guns also features wood-grained grips with inlaid John Wayne “Duke” medallions. (John Wayne holster by John Bianchi Frontier Gunleather)

11B.

Target shot Duelist Style at the SASS target distance of 10 yards put all rounds in the 10 and X rings. Lead and tin mixed it up pretty good too, as these shot up cans demonstrate.

Revisiting the Peacemakers Part 3

Taking a page from Colt’s history

By Dennis Adler

Most respectable cow towns out west had a gunsmith and even a gun shop, with a case or two displaying new and used revolvers, and a wall rack with rifles and shotguns. There’s even an apocryphal story that author and historian Joseph G. Rosa told in his book The Gunfighter Man or Myth? about a writer for the New Mexico Democrat who observed a young cowboy deciding on the purchase of a new revolver in 1884. The gun shop’s proprietor reached into a display case and retrieved a handsomely mounted .45 caliber revolver and said, “How do you like this? It is the newest thing out – a double action forty-five.” The cowpoke looked at the Colt Model 1878 and turned up his nose, “Ain’t worth a row of beans. No man ‘cept a tenderfoot wants that kind of thing. Give me an old reliable all the time. Ye see a man that’s used to the old style is apt to get fooled – not pull her off in time – and then he’ll be laid out colder’n a wedge.” He did have a point.

Double action revolvers still had a ways to go before they were generally accepted and Colt’s Peacemaker would continue to rule the roost for most of the reminder of the 19th century. Then there is the fact that small gun shops only had a limited number of guns, usually in standard barrel lengths, 7-1/2 inches, 5-1/2 inches, and 4-3/4 inches and mainly with the most affordable grips and finishes; blued with wood, or after 1882 blued with Colt’s hard rubber Eagle grips (which remained the standard until 1896). A nickel finish cost no more than blued and had been introduced in 1877, but nickel guns weren’t that popular yet with most men who lived in the saddle, but that would change with time. Most off the shelf guns, with rare exceptions, were about the same and usually sold in .44-40 or .45 Colt caliber, even though Colt’s would eventually offer .32-20, .32 S&W and .32 Colt, .38 S&W and .38 Colt, .41 caliber, .44 Russian, .and 44 S&W, as well as several European calibers and the surprisingly popular .38-40, (which was one of the more confusing calibers, since it was traditional to put caliber first and powder charge second, such as .44-40, which was a .44 caliber bullet backed by 44 grains of powder, but the .38-40 was actually a .40 caliber bullet with 38 grains of powder. That cartridge came out just a year before Colt’s introduced the transverse cylinder latch, replacing the screw that had entered from the front of the frame, and thus making disassembly easier. This relegated the earlier models to the designation “black powder” frame, though guns built with the transverse cylinder latch were also for use with black powder cartridges until 1898 when Colt’s announced that all new models were now built to withstand the pressures of smokeless powder cartridges.

That brings us to the basic design of the Umarex Colt Peacemakers, which use the 1892 design. More importantly it also brings us to something Colt’s had been doing for years, taking orders by mail.

While small gun shops only carried the most popular barrel lengths, and only in standard configurations, Colt’s offered a far greater variety of barrel lengths, with barrels longer than 7-1/2 inches priced by the inch up to 16 inches in length. Shorter barrels were also offered as were choices of grips, mother of pearl, ivory, deluxe hardwoods, and carved and checkered styles. Pretty much, if you sent a letter to the factory and had an address and means of payment, you could get a Peacemaker just about any way you wanted. The operative words going forward are “just about.”

The Colt “Airgun Builder”

This is Pyramyd Air’s 21st century version of writing a letter to the factory. It has taken a couple of years to put this together and get all the parts needed to produce a variety of model configurations to the customer’s order, such as the pair shown here with nickel frame and barrel, gold cylinder, hammer, and trigger. It is a handsome combination that was often sold in the 1880s and 1890s through high end retailers like Hartley & Graham in New York City.

Today, instead of a letter you can go online to Pyramyd Air’s “Airgun Builder” and pick and choose from frames, barrels and finishes for each, hammers and triggers, and grips. The system is designed so you can put the combinations together; actually seeing them in real time as changes are selected, and then place the order. The gun, just like at the Colt’s factory in the day’s of old, is then built to your specifications. Of course, you have to pick from what is currently available (other options will be added over time), and you can’t specify things like Bat Masterson’s famous requests for making it “easy on the trigger and make the front sight high and thick,” but you can choose your grips, finish and combinations, which, just like at Colt’s could result in some very interesting looking Peacemakers!

If you are already planning on checking out the “Airgun Builder”, next week I will begin showing you some of the most interesting combinations I have come up with besides the 7-1/2 inch two-tone Dualist.

Welcome back to the past!

LINK



CAPTIONS

1.

There’s an old saying, “Beware of a man with one gun; he probably knows how to use it.” In this case, the warning is doubled, but what is hiding in this exotic double shoulder rig created over 20 years for the author by legendary holster maker Jim Lockwood.

2.

The 7-1/2 inch barrel was expected, but with the new Pyramyd Air “Airgun Builder” you can create your own combinations, like this nickel model with gold cylinder, hammer and trigger which has been named “The Gunfighter” and can be duplicated using the “Airgun Builder.”

3.

Twice as nice, build yourself a matching pair. Both are pellet models with rifled barrels.

4A.

What other combinations can you order with the same nickel and gold finishes?

4B.

Each gun is a combination of separate components, frames, barrels and ejectors (which are on-piece on the CO2 models), cylinders, hammers, and triggers. This combination was popular in the 1880s and 1890s especially through high end retailers like Hartley & Graham in New York City. Such guns were almost always hand engraved, and that’s a story for another Airgun Experience.

4C.

Take the barrel option to 5-1/2 inches and you have a plain version of the expensive, limited edition, hand engraved Adams & Adams Nimschke models that were sold by Pyramyd Air a couple of years ago. The prices for each option are displayed as you custom build your gun.

5.

Now here’s the question, what kind of nickel Peacemaker is in this holster? Let you know next Monday. And you might even end up owning it!

6.

A custom gun of your own design deserves a proper means of storage when not on display. Every custom built Peacemaker not only comes in the factory box but the guns are delivered in black velvet storage bags.

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