Vintage Colt Vs. S&W Shoot-Off
Head-To-Head With Two Classics
These double action revolvers from Smith & Wesson (top) and Colt
(bottom) were made in the first half of the 20th Century — the asking
prices for both were “Bargain Basement.”
Mea culpa — I’m an old “Mossy-Back” and when I walk into a gun shop, I ignore all the black guns and polymer frame wonders because I’m on the lookout for classic handguns. To me “Classic” generally means one of the old-school brands, made of steel and wood; handguns at least as old as I am. These guns are getting harder to find at reasonable prices, but sometimes you luck out and discover a gem or two. This happened to me within the past few months.
Three brands of factory .32-20 WCF cartridges were used in the
Colt vs. Smith shoot-off — the Western cartridges are as old as the
S&W revolver; the other two are modern.
S&W Pickup
The local gun shop in my little town changed locations and I hadn’t had a chance to drop in and peruse their offerings. I was driving by recently and decided to stop in. They had a bigger and better showroom and I was pleased to see a lot of used guns, many with reasonable price tags. In a display case near the front door, I found a Smith & Wesson (S&W) 32-20 Hand Ejector double-action revolver in excellent condition. It was priced at about half of what it was worth in my estimation.
I asked the shop owner about it and he said due to the oddball .32-20 WCF cartridge, he hadn’t been able to move it. I happen to be a fan of the .32-20 or .32 WCF Winchester introduced in 1882 for their Model 73 lever-gun and Colt later chambered in their Single Action Army revolver. I told the man that I would do him a favor and take it off his hands. No box (sigh) but it came with an almost full box of vintage Western .32-20 cartridges in the old yellow “bullseye box”!
When I got the new S&W home, I grabbed my copy of Roy Jink’s book History of Smith & Wesson. I paged to the chapter on K-Frame revolvers and found a chart on the Hand Ejector Models. They are called this because when you swing out the cylinder, you push the ejection rod by hand to remove the empty cartridge cases. I discovered per the serial number, my sixgun dated from 1938-39 and was a Model of 1905, Fourth Change; the final K-Frame Hand Ejector variation up to 1940.
Seems the .32-20 Hand Ejector didn’t set any sales records and was dropped from production in September 1939. From 1899–1939, some 144,684 .32-20 Hand Ejectors were produced with barrel lengths of 4″, 5″ and 6″ and with a blue or nickel finish. Mine had a soft-luster blue finish, 5″ barrel, square butt, and checkered walnut service stocks with a “diamond” around the stock screw but no S&W medallions. There was just a hint of finish wear at the muzzle and a few tiny rust pits here and there, but the stocks were like new and I’d rate it in NRA Excellent Condition.
Bill’s new Colt (middle) is an Army Special like the stock version
below but the custom sights make it look like an Officers Model (top).
The Colt Army Special (top) originally had a front sight much like
the one on the S&W; someone had a custom target-type front
sight affixed over the half-moon front sight.
Finding A Colt
Around two weeks later, I was doing a periodic check of GunBroker.com and found a listing for a Colt Army Special, blue with a 6″ barrel, in .32-20 WCF. There were numerous photos in the GB listing and it appeared to be in good condition. However, there were some areas where light rust plus wear and tear had taken its toll on the blue finish. The checkered walnut stocks with silver Colt medallions looked good, and the starting bid price was acceptable for a “shooter-grade.” Like the S&W, it had a swing-out cylinder and hand-ejection. It also had some unusual features I’ll cover shortly. I bid the starting bid price but nobody seemed interested in this six-shooter but me. I ended up winning the bid with no competition to jack up the price.
The old Colt arrived days later and it was time to do some research to see what I had. I checked the six-digit serial number on the Colt Mfg. website and found my Colt was indeed an Army Special made in 1914. According to the Standard Catalog of Colt Firearms edited by James Tarr, this model was made from 1908-1927. It was chambered in .32-20, .38 Colt, .38 S&W (Special) and .41 Colt. It could be had with a 4.5″ or 6″ barrel, blue or nickel-plated, with checkered hard rubber grips. It was built on the “E” or .41-Frame.
Here’s where my “GB-Special” took a left turn. The stamping on the left side of the barrel read Colt Official Police 32-20. The OP was the successor to the Army Special, so this was not the original barrel. The stocks were wood, not hard rubber, and the serial number penciled inside the stock panels did not belong to this gun. So, they weren’t original either. Further, the fixed rear sight in the frame top-strap had been replaced with a square-notch, blade-style sight pinned to the frame. The half-moon front sight had a target-type, rear-sloping patridge sight pinned over-top of it. This work had obviously been professionally done.
The sights gave it the look of an Officers Model target revolver or the same era. I bought it as a shooter, not a collector’s item so it being a “Franken-Gun” didn’t really upset me. It helped both the Smith and Colt were under $400 each.
Here is the target Bill used for his multiple shooting exercises
with the vintage Colt and S&W sixguns; neither proved really
superior to the other — they were just fun to shoot!
Five rounds each of the test cartridges were shot from the S&W
at a distance of 10 yards; three bullets from the Western box
key-holed off the target; the 12-shot group was 3 ¾".
Home On The Range
I’m not an accumulator of “Safe Queens” — all the guns I purchase go to the range. As both of my new-to-me Colt and Smith revolvers were old-school, pre-war sixguns in the same caliber and with similar features, I felt a shoot-off was in order. I roll my own .32-20 handloads but most loads are made for use in my Remington slide action carbine and Winchester Model 92 lever-gun so I ruled out these loads.
I didn’t want to use any of the higher-pressure .32-20 cartridges in these old sixguns; back in the day special “rifle-only” cartridges were made in .32-20. In “yesteryear,” folks were expected to read warnings printed on a box, unlike today. Instead, I selected three factory loads from my ammo locker suitable for handguns. The first was Black Hills “Cowboy Cartridges” with a 115-grain lead flat-point (LFP) bullet; next was a Precision Cartridges load 120-grain LFP bullet, and lastly the vintage Western cartridges I received with my Smith. They have a 1,000-grain LFP bullet with a copper-colored Lubaloy coating and are age-wise contemporary with the gun.
My range session was at an indoor facility with a short-distance backstop. Time was limited so to avoid having to send multiple targets back and forth in my lane, I selected a CCI-PIQ Target from ConcealedCarry.com. It is an IDPA silhouette type, which also has other targets printed on the same big sheet of paper.
I elected to shoot 5 shots with each of my .32-20 test cartridges from the rest, single action. Up first was the Colt six-shooter. I believe whoever had the target sights installed on this gun may have also had an action job done on it too. The single action trigger pull was crisp and light, plus the double action pull was as smooth as warm molasses. Of course, this old shooting iron was made back when the action was hand-fitted at the factory.
The 15 shots of mixed-brand test ammo went into the center bullseye of the target and the group measured 2 7/8″. I did the same thing with the S&W on a different bullseyes. Ten of 15 shots went into a group measuring 2 ½”. The S&W didn’t like the old Western ammo. Two shots expanded the group out to 3 ¾” and three bullets key-holed, impacting outside the target.
I did the rest of my shooting with the Black Hills cartridges. Aiming at the “head” of the IDPA-type silhouette at 10 yards, I shot 10 shots with each gun, double action standing with a two-handed hold. All but two impacts stayed inside the 6″x6″ head. I moved the target up to 7 yards, and using a duelist, one-handed stance, shot both guns single action at four small squares on the sheet.
The superb single action trigger of the Colt allowed me to get closer to the squares than I was able to do with the S&W. I took a few more shots from 7 yards double action with the S&W at some rectangular targets on either side of the silhouette to get a better feel for its DA trigger pull. Of course, it has the famous “Long Action” many old-time shooters preferred over the post-war “Short Action.”
Following my abbreviated shoot-off, I would have to say neither of these sixguns proved overly superior to the other. I am sure both are capable of better accuracy than what was demonstrated by the Septuagenarian pulling their triggers.
To me there is no better nexus to history than shooting old guns like these. I had an enjoyable hour burning powder with these two classic sixguns, and I will be at the reloading bench soon cranking out some handgun handloads for these two fine six-shooters.
