POTD: The 22 Rimfire Peacemaker – Colt’s Salvage Job

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a full size Single Action Army with a seven and a half inch barrel chambered in 22 rimfire. I know how that sounds. There is a real reason for it. Back in the mid 1870s Colt built a small run of Peacemakers in 44 Rimfire. On paper the logic was fine. Plenty of people already owned 44 Henry rimfire rifles, so a revolver that ate the same ammunition should have sold itself. It did not. The 44 Rimfire guns got their own serial range and sat there, and at least 79 of them came back to Hartford unsold.

Rather than eat the loss, Colt converted them to 22 rimfire. This one started life in 1875 as a 44 and came back as a 22, then shipped out to a New York dealer in May of 1889, the same year 22 officially joined the Single Action Army lineup.

There is a wrinkle collectors have to live with on these. A lot of them got written into the factory ledgers twice, once as a 44 Rimfire and once as a 22, with nothing in between noting the conversion. Order a letter and you might get either answer for the same revolver.

A 22 Peacemaker reads like a punchline until you sit with it. Same frame, same grip, same sights, same trigger, ammunition that costs nothing. I would shoot the wheels off one.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Antique Colt Single Action Army Revolver in Rare .22 Rimfire.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/1143/antique-colt-single-action-army-revolver-in-rare-22-rimfire. Accessed 4 Sept. 2026.

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