Editing Colt Single Action Army (section)

==History==
Bound by the [[Rollin White]] patent ({{US patent|12648|#12,648, April 3, 1855}}), and not wanting to pay a royalty fee to [[Smith & Wesson]], Colt could not begin development of bored-through revolver cylinders for metallic cartridge use until April 4, 1869.<ref name="EPR">{{cite book |last=Hartink|first=A.E.|title=The Complete Encyclopedia of Pistols and Revolvers|publisher=Chartwell Books, Inc|year=2002|pages=447|location=Edison, NJ|isbn=978-0-7858-1519-8}}</ref> For the design, Colt turned to two of its best engineers: [[William Mason (Colt)|William Mason]] and [[Charles Brinckerhoff Richards]] who had developed a number of revolvers and black powder conversions for the company. Their effort was designed for the United States government service revolver trials of 1872 by Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company and adopted as the standard military service revolver. Production began in 1873 with the Single Action Army model 1873,<ref name="colt-official-history">{{cite web |url=http://www.colt.com/company/history.aspx |title=History: The Colt Legend |publisher=[[Colt's Manufacturing Company]] |access-date=November 19, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122041900/https://www.colt.com/Company/History.aspx }}</ref> also referred to as the "New Model Army Metallic Cartridge Revolving Pistol".<ref name="Taylor">{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Chuck |title=Complete Book Of Combat Handgunning |publisher=Paladin Press|year=1981|location=Boulder, CO|page=200|isbn=978-0-87364-327-6}}</ref>

The first production Single Action Army, serial number 1, thought lost for many years after its production, was found in a barn in [[Nashua, New Hampshire|Nashua]], New Hampshire, in the early 1900s.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|pages=148–151}} This gun was chambered in .44 S&W, a centerfire design containing charges of up to {{Convert|40|gr}} of fine-grained black powder and a {{Convert|255|gr|adj=on}} blunt roundnosed bullet. Relative to period cartridges and most later handgun rounds, it was quite powerful in its full loading.<ref name="Taylor" />

The Colt Single Action Army revolver, along with the 1870 and 1875 [[Smith & Wesson Model 3#Schofield revolver|Smith & Wesson American and Model 3 "Schofield" revolvers]], replaced the [[Colt Army Model 1860|Colt 1860 Army Percussion]] revolver.  The Colt quickly gained favor over the S&W and remained the primary U.S. military sidearm until 1892 when it was replaced by the [[.38 Long Colt]] caliber [[Colt M1892|Colt Model 1892]], a [[Trigger (firearms)#Double-action|double-action]] revolver with swing-out cylinder. By the end of 1874, serial no. 16,000 was reached; 12,500 Colt Single Action Army revolvers chambered for the .45 Colt cartridge had entered service and the remaining revolvers were sold in the civilian market.<ref name="Cruse2008">{{cite book|last=Cruse|first=J. Brett|title=Battles of the Red River War: Archeological Perspectives on the Indian Campaign of 1874|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eAdIkIpxn-4C&pg=PA45|year=2008|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|isbn=978-1-60344-027-1|page=45}}</ref>