.45 Colt: Past, Present, and Future. A Closer Look at the Iconic .45
Icon doesn’t quite do the Colt Single Action Army revolver in .45 Long Colt justice. If a Winchester lever action was the rifle that won the West, then the Colt .45 was the pistol that did likewise. It became U.S. Army standard issue sidearm in 1872 and would retain that position for the next 20 years, from the beginning of the “Indian Wars” across the Great Plains through Geronimo’s surrender in 1886 and beyond. Cowboys, gunfighters, gamblers, stage drivers, Native Americans, nearly every western character adopted both the pistol and the cartridge or one of its spin-offs between its introduction in the 1870s and the turn of the 20th century, a dynamic time in U.S. firearms history.