Colt Single Action Army pellet pistol.
This report covers:
- Tough
- Rifled barrel?
- Grips
- Loading
- Unloading
- Sights
- Finish
- Velocity
- Summary
Today we start looking at a type of pellet pistol I haven’t examined in a long time—the Colt SAA pellet pistol. I’ve tested several of the BB-shooting versions of this pistol but the last SAA pellet pistol I tested was the Duke back in 2015
Tough
This will be a tough report to write because I know the Colt SAA BB pistols so well. Other than its rifled barrel, this one is virtually the same.
Rifled barrel?
Yes, according to the description on the website the barrel is rifled. That’s what you expect when an air pistol is made to shoot pellets.
If this pistol was a Colt firearm I would remove the cylinder and look through the barrel to see the rifling, but the cylinder on this pistol does not come out like the cylinder of an SAA firearm.
I looked down the bore from the muzzle with a light but I could see nothing. So I did the old trick of pushing a pellet through the bore to see if the rifling engraved it. If there is rifling it’s either extremely shallow or it is unconventional rifling like polygonal rifling where there are no lands or grooves, just a polygonal barrel cross section that rotates as it goes down the bore.
The accuracy test will therefore be most interesting.
It all other ways this revolver is just like the SAA BB pistols I’ve tested several times. The most recent of those was the Engraved Peacemaker report we finished in February. But I’m going to report on this pistol as if I never saw one before.
Grips
The right grip is where the 12-gram CO2 cartridge goes, of course. It is longer than the SAA firearm grip to accommodate the CO2 cartridge. It’s the same length as the grip from an 1860 Colt Army revolver.
The wrench for the piercing bolt is in the right grip panel that is removed to load the cartridge.
I will comment that the grip panels are very tight. Maybe some newer shooters don’t remember this but I remember a time when snap-off grip panels flexed when they were held. These don’t.
Loading
This pistol uses 6 cartridges in the cylinder. Pellets are loaded into the base of each cartridge and then the cartridges are loaded into the chambers of the cylinder.
Pellets are loaded into the base of each cartridge.Those ridges aren’t rifling. They’re there to hold the pellets in place.
To load you take the safety off then pull the hammer back to half cock. Then swing the loading gate open. That frees the cylinder to rotate.
If the safety is on the hammer cannot be moved. The website says the manual is mistaken about putting the safety on before loading, but I see that the wording in the manual has been corrected.
Unloading
The cartridges are extracted by pulling back on the extractor knob that both Colt and Umarex call the ejector knob. But these cartridges fit their chambers so loosely that all you have to do is tip the revolver up and they drop right out.
Forcing cone movement
The rear of the barrel housing is spring-loaded to move into the front of each chamber of the cylinder as it comes by. The barrel is attached to it and moves too.
Sights
The SAA sights and fixed, front and rear. The front is a low rounded blade and the rear is a notch in the frame.
Finish
The pellet pistol is finished in nickel. Many buyers prefer nickel because it’s bright. I find it hard to acquire the sights against some targets, but I will do my best in the accuracy test.
Velocity
The pistol is rated to 380 f.p.s. with lead pellets. I’ll probably try it with lead-free pellets as well, just to see what’s possible.
Summary
I’ve tested this kind of pellet pistol before but it’s been quite a a while. I’m treating this one as if this is the first time I’ve seen it. Maybe because some new pellets have come to market since I last tested an SAA pellet pistol it will be.
Tom,
Could whoever wrote that it is rifled be thinking that the fluting that grabs the pellet on the individual cartridge is rifling?
Siraniko
Siraniko,
I don’t think so.
BB
BB,
I never did check the rifling, but based on these small groups I got with my 7.5″ Umarex Colt SAA, I would say this thing must be rifled. 😉
Granted, this is only at 5-meters; but these groups were shot at our old house, before we moved to the farm.
And now this revolver has been passed on to be enjoyed by my (history buff) grandson.
I never really shot any groups with it here; but I’ve used it to take down soda cans on the 15-yard range.
It’s good for 48 powerful shots; I’ve fired up to 60 on one cartridge (and those last shots were weak), but told my grandson not to exceed 48, in order to ensure he never gets a pellet lodged in the barrel.
To help him with that, I sent him exactly 48 cartridges along with the pistol. 🙂
He likes the realism of loading the cartridges into the revolver; but I told him that if he’s ever feeling lazy (as I often do), he can leave the cartridges in the pistol and just press pellets into the rear of them; once you do it a couple of times it becomes pretty easy.
Blessings to you,
dave
P.S. Those groups were NOT shot offhand; they were shot off a rest, a cat tree perch, LOL!
One more replica then. And quite aged ones. Could it be that PA want to promote sales of the kind? In any case I will keep trying to persuade Tom that testing newer models of air pistols, not only replicas, might be of interest to the readership here. Hatsan Velox comes to mind.