Coot said:
My personal opinion is that the Colt 2nd generation are the most authentic & best made CW era revolvers (non antique) that you can find. What are your votes for some of the most accurately reproduced and best quality build CW era revolvers that might be on the market today? They do not have to currently be in production as long as they can still be found at gun shows or sites like GunBroker. Not looking for custom one-off guns but commercially produced ones. Not looking for "best value for a shooter" but best build quality & most likely to be mistaken for a mint original. What say guys?
Besides appearance, I'm not exactly sure what the criteria is that leads to the conclusion that Colt 2nd Generation Colts are the "most authentic"
and"best made".
Those just might be 2 completely separate categories.
After all, there's the better made shooters and then there are those having a better and more authentic appearance.
Considering that such a large percentage of Colt 2nd Generation revolvers were never even turned or fired, how does anyone know that the vast majority of them are good shooters at all?
They probably are the most beautiful and may even have an authentic finish. But does that make them the best shooters?
I don't know since I've never seen any performance results and I don't hear about folks rushing to shoot them in competition.
What are their spec.'s and what is it about their spec.'s that makes them perform so well?
Who really knows if most of them perform well at all?
Just because they're expensive and have a great finish doesn't mean that they are well built or that they all shoot good.
Maybe some do and maybe some don't.
I'm sure that there's some Colt 2nd Generation lemons out there somewhere still in their boxes waiting for their major flaws to be discovered.
Meanwhile, there's the highly desirable Santa Barbara Remingtons that were made in Spain and that are widely used for competition in Europe.
There's also the Pietta Shooter's Model that are reputed to also be good shooters as well as the Hege Army Match Maximum.
Some might not be the most authentic looking or handsomest revolvers, but they just might be made from superior materials or have the best spec.'s and hand tuned performance, especially for their price.
So then does authenticity mean that the revolver doesn't necessarily need to shoot as well, or be made as well or be as durable? Or does it mean that it just needs look more like the original?
Comparatively speaking, these criteria do seem to be somewhat more mutally exclusive than they are mutually inclusive.