Sunday, August 17, 2008

Colt Single Action .22lr


I decided to take pictures of my oldest gun. I found this just wasting the years away in my grandma's closet. Its a Colt Single Action Frontier Scout .22lr. I think its from the 70's. Its old. Its dirty. Its fun.


When I found it, I had never held a revolver. Ever. I had no idea what to do with it. It took me 5 minutes to figure out how to load it. Then I didn't dare shoot it, who knows what shape it was in. I was sure it would explode, taking with it my youthful face, banishing me to a leper-like existence. You could feel grit when you pulled the hammer back. There was rust and pitting everywhere.

I took it home (dorm room at the time) to clean it up. Except, I had no idea what I was doing. I decided I needed to completely take it apart. I started removing screws and parts at random. Bad idea.

Eventually I found plans for it on the internet, printed them out, and taped parts where they belonged. I cleaned it up.


And now reassembly. Not good. Remember- I know nothing about wheelguns at this point. Long story short, it took me 3 hours and multiple attempts at getting the trigger back together. Sweating, stringing together impolite phrases (think the father vs. the furnace in "The Christmas Story"), and slowly becoming inebriated from cleaning solution in a small room, I battled. Twice I had it all reassembled only to realize the trigger wasn't working.

But eventually I got it. I took it out, shot it nervously, and was happy to find it worked, it did not explode in my face, and it was accurate.

So now I have this old gun. Its not pretty. The blueing is worn everywhere and the cylinder is full of bright silver spots where I took rust off. But dang it, Grandpa's old gun is kind of a fun little thing, and I might just make me a believer in the revolver, even with the smallest of bullets.




If anyone knows where and how I could get grips that would be a little nicer than the old plastic ones on them, let me know at: gunandstrum@hotmail.com

5 comments:

Xavier said...

That is a sweet shooter. Treasure it!

I wouldn't change a thing!

Anonymous said...

Where did you find those instructions?

"Tarak" said...

You know, its been about 5 years so I'd say I can't remember for sure.....but here's a site with an exploded diagram: http://www.coltparts.com/pt_scout.html

Thanks for the question!

Anonymous said...

Ihave a Colt Single Action Frontier Scout 22LR 108156F Colt PTFAA MFG Co Hartford Ct
Excellent condition. What is this gun worth. MaryJ

"Tarak" said...

MaryJ-

I am no expert on colt pistols, and unfortunately have no idea what the value of your gun would be. I would perhaps encourage you to contact Colt.

Thanks for the read.

Tarak