When I plucked the September-October issue of Smithsonian magazine out of my P.O. Box, the first article I turned to was “The Secret Life of Cormac McCarthy” by Richard Grant. As I skimmed it, a pull-quote leaped out at me: “He never left the house without a book. He never left the house wi...
Welcome, if you are a newcomer to this fun bi-weekly segment of AllOutdoor.com! Over the last three articles, we covered the history of the Remington Model 1875, the short list of variations it came in, and the dating and specification situation, which turned out to be about as frustrating as any...
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have Colt’s big bore double action in its handiest form, built in 1882 and chambered in 44-40. The Model 1878 was Colt’s answer to a market that wanted a double action revolver in a serious caliber. It sold in decent numbers and it w...
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 […] The p...
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have Colt’s first long gun and one of the more alarming ideas Hartford ever put into production. The Colt Model 1855 sporting rifle is a scaled up Root revolver. Side hammer, solid frame with a top strap, creeping loading lever and an oile...
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a Colt hand picked by the most famous man the company ever put in front of the public. John Henry Fitzgerald, Fitz to everybody who knew him, was Colt’s roving expert from the early 1920s until he died in 1945. He ran the exhibition sh...
This year, Colt was one of the exhibiting manufacturers at Rendezvous. They’re originally from New England and they’ve been around for a minute. Maybe you’ve heard of them? Allegedly, they’re famous for their AR-15s and 1911 pistols… [sarcasm alert] This Rendezvous afforded me the oppor...
After a hiatus of many years, Colt is making optics again. They have already won some Canadian military contracts and shortly thereafter brought out a range of scopes for the consumer market. The VMR 3-18x44 is the intermediate member of that family, and over the last few months I've b...
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a revolver with the front of its trigger guard removed on purpose. This is a 1937 Colt Detective Special in 38 Special, built in the factory Fitz Special configuration and shipped to the FBI’s New York office. The recipe came from Henr...
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have Colt’s first swing at a double action revolver. This is an 1877 “Thunderer” in 41 Long Colt with the 6 inch ejectorless Sheriff’s Model barrel, shipped in November 1877 to B. Kittredge in Cincinnati. Start with the na...