Kentucky Armory Club

I have what I believe is a 2nd gen colt single action army but the serial number doesn't make any sense. It's a 5.5" barrel .45 colt fully engraved with what looks like real ivory grips. I do not know if it was factory engraved or engraved later and I do not know of it was refinished. The cylinder is not fluted which doesn't seem common. The firing pin is on the hammer.

Serial number is 1106AP. I can't find information on any colt revolvers of any model made in any year with the letters AP in the serial number.

I'm considering getting a colt letter but I first want to find out the most basic information about the gun and if it's worth paying the money for a colt letter.

There is supposedly a real good book on these but its expensive. I would seek out one of the colt collector forums that have a lot of SAA knowledge and ask the question there. These are some of the guns that have intrigued me over the years but I do ask questions at gun shows of knowledgeable collectors of them. I have seen a lot of claims and a lot of attributable guns but asking another person about them seems to give two different answers and there is always the "watch out for this" caveats when dealing with them.

Letters of those sort in the serial number almost make me want to think its a commemorative or special production of some sort.

I have the book "Colt: An American Legend" by R.L. Wilson on order. I hope it sheds a little more light on the subject. He was supposedly the last non colt employee to access colts private records and he did so when writing this book.

Droooool!

That is one beautiful hand gun.

Thanks guys. I haven't got a chance to shoot it yet. I'm thinking about getting an action job from peacemaker specialists. The timing is perfect but the lockup is a little loose.

drewhenderson13 wrote:Thanks guys. I haven't got a chance to shoot it yet. I'm thinking about getting an action job from peacemaker specialists. The timing is perfect but the lockup is a little loose.

If I may offer my advise
Don't shoot that or mess with it.
I not a Colt expert but I would agree with Dave 1965 , that looks to be a special /commeritive SAA.

Are there any other marking on the barrel ?
A importer maker ?

VERY `Purty` Indeed....
I would think seriously about heeding Cranky`s advice...

Likewise. Shooting a commerative pistol degrades it's value immensely.

Blasphemy. I'd shoot a colt saa serial number 1 if it was in safe working order.

Here's what I've found so far. The gun is a 1965 Appomattox Centenial SAA .45 that has been rebarreled, engraved, and refinished at some point in its life. The Appomattox centennial isn't a very valuable model in its original finish and I'm not sure if it being engraved added to or detracted from it's valuable.

This is what the gun looked like in its original finish.

I can't find any markings or signature denoting who engraved it so that will most likely forever remain a mystery.

There were 1001 Appomattox Centennial commemoratives manufactured with the serial number range 1000AP-1249AP.

FWIW, I bought a Colt Legends Nickel Plated SAA engraved somewhat with some gold accents in the engraving (Factory engraving as was a 1995 1 of 1000 Rodeo commemorative). I bought it off armslist for $900 and figured I would go shoot it and have fun with it for that since it was a colt SAA I had been looking for years for an affordable one. The gun was too nice when I got it. Beautiful & minty. I couldn't bring myself to go shoot it. Commemoratives are not usually looked on as good as the regular guns for some reason even though they are the same gun but out of a different run. Sometime comms. bring a lot more money and sometimes they don't. I put this gun on consignment at a shop and had no luck, so I sold it at a gun show to a dealer for $2000. I know he sold it and made money but I wanted to put it back in the hands of a collector to keep it a beautiful gun.

The gun you have, being a lower sought after commemorative (by your words) and having been re-barreled and refinished, pretty much lost most of its collectability at all I would say. The value of the gun is in the engraving and it being a Colt SAA as well. If the engraving is not done by some famous engraver with markings as such, then its value is just in whoever wants to pay for a fancy engraved re-barreled Colt SAA. I would say those people are hard to find and may not pay the 1200 or so you can go find a used SAA for. I would have no problem shooting this gun myself as I wouldn't value engraving that high. Especially since it looks like there are no nickel parts left (as it originally had).

And on a side note, if you get a chance to watch THE SHOOTIST with John Wayne, take a look at his two pistols in that movie. I think this gun would make a good clone of one of them with some different grips (if I remember right).

Yeah if it has been rebarreled and refinished
Blast away

The gun is gorgeous and whoever did the engraving did a fantastic job. It looks exactly like the engraved colt saa I've always wanted. Engraved, blued with color case hardened frame, ivory grips, 5.5" barrel, .45 colt. The only thing different from what I imagined I always wanted is the Unfluted cylinder but I think it looks very good with the engraving.

Dave, I've seen the shootist and love the movie. I might not only shoot this gun but carry it. Life is to short to carry ugly guns.

Worth money or not, that's beautiful

Color me jealous.

I'm with you--shoot the snot out of the thing. Life's too short for safe queens.