A Royal Restoration

“After” picture shows the total refinishing and re-cut lettering.

This 100-year-old Colt is now ready for its second century thanks to a restoration and tuning by Bobby Tyler.
Grips are by Scott Kolar. It carries nicely in this carved #120EK holster by Mike “Doc” Barranti.

In the May/June 2019 Handgunner I spoke of Old School Cool. It was all about a very special Colt Single Action Army dating back to before WWII. To review a little: “Checking the serial number I found this was a Colt Single Action manufactured in 1921. It was chambered in .357 Magnum which did not arrive until 1935. So sometime between 1935 and the beginning of WWII it was sent back to Colt to be converted to the then relatively new .357 Magnum, with a 51/2″ barrel. But this was only the beginning! It was then turned over to the King Gun Sight Company for extensive custom work.

“D.W. King was a rifle marksman who was not satisfied with the sights which were generally available, so he decided to make his own. This was in the late 1920s and he formed the King Gun Sight Co. King not only provided rifle sights he did a brisk business applying custom sights to sixguns especially for target shooters. A look at some pictures of his custom work will show his ideas were later incorporated into factory guns. In addition to the sights he did custom work such as cockeyed hammers and wide triggers both set up for a short action. The King Gun Sight Co. could not survive after the death of the founder and disappeared in the early 1950s.”

My new/old gun had lots of serious issues though and as I worked with it a bit I wondered if I should restore it.

This “before” photo shows the King Colt’s worn finish and faded lettering.

To Fix Or Not?

From the wear on the finish it was obvious it had a lot of use. And since it was chambered in the most powerful cartridge of the day I can at least imagine this Perfect Packin’ Pistol saw a lot of everyday use. The larger issue was the fact, as beautiful as this sixgun is, I have to say it was absolutely the most exasperating sixgun I’ve encountered in over 60 years of shooting. Many sixguns will shoot anything well that will fit into the cylinder. However, this single action .357 Magnum was very picky. Of 18 handloaded .357 Magnum and .38/44 loads only six would group five shots at 1″ or less at 20 yards.

I felt the accuracy could definitely be improved. The forcing cone was very short and I thought perhaps re-cutting it would help the accuracy. I was also in a dilemma of a historical sort — to refinish or not? Normally I would not consider refinishing a First Generation Colt Single Action, however this is not a factory original sixgun. I can see it beautifully re-blued with a case hardened frame and hammer and fitted custom stocks. On the other hand, however, would I be removing some true sixgun history in the process?

His Esteemed Editorship, Roy, asked readers to drop him a line about their thoughts on this issue. He not only received feedback, but I also had personal phone calls and e-mails. Responses fell into three categories: Yes, restore it. No, leave it alone. And then there are those who hedged their bets and gave reasons for going either way. Here are some of the responses from those who said leave it alone: Claude says “Please enjoy the old colt just as it is and listen to its stories.” Tom’s response was “Tell Taffin not to refinish the gun, he’ll ruin it.” “Don’t do it, John !” came from Seth.

I received several phone calls and emails from friends who said go for it. The following responses gave me both options, so I had to make a choice as to which one to go with. Eric said: “If money is no object and you can write another article based on the refinishing you get done, then do it and offer something really unique.” Jan responded with: “If it’s a field gun, refinish and refit it as necessary.” And from Hal, he shared in no uncertain terms: “Refinishing this gun would be a crime, but a restoration might re-create a true masterpiece.” I wonder if he’s a politician?

My favorite response was also published in the July/August 2019 Handgunner and it came from Janet: “Restore it John! Make it purty! We gals aren’t afraid of a bit of makeup and neither is that gun, I’ll bet.” Janet I love you — you’re my kind of gal.

John found the gun shot okay with some loads, but terribly with others. Work was needed!

Fortuitous Timing

About the time I was making my decision I “just happened” to see a Colt Single Action which had been tuned and refinished by Bobby Tyler of Tyler Gun Works. I talked to Bobby and told him it not only needs refinishing but also tuned up as there were a couple of problems with the action. On the cosmetic side Bobby did a beautiful job of re-bluing and case coloring. Of the case coloring Bobby said: “As far as the finish work goes, we went very straightforward and removed all blemishes and hand polished everything to completion. Your flats are still flat and your rounds remain round! You may remember the Colt roll mark was a little faint. We re-marked everything back to the way Sam would have wanted.

“When doing the coloring on the receiver, hammer, loading gate we decided to try to tame it down and keep the colors as true to the original as possible,” Bobby explained. “One of the things we decided to leave alone and absolutely untouched was the front sight blade. The King rib markings were faint as well and we just re-cut them. It was our goal for this to be as close to the original as possible. To finish this I was talking to Scott Kolar with SK Grips out in Pennsylvania. I asked about the possibility of him building a set of stag grips for this project. He did a beautiful set and as we put them on the revolver I went ahead and aged them like we do most of our stags.”

Scott’s stag grips not only look exceptionally beautiful they also feel right in my hand.

Note the hammer, sights and rib, all indications of work by King’s Gunworks.

Bobby Tyler totally stripped and hand polished the King Colt before refinishing.

Bobby Tyler case hardened the frame and hammer, adding the “seasoned” stag grips, rounding out the look.

Mechanical Magic

Cosmetics are important, however the most important thing was timing and tuning. “John,” said Bobby, “this has been an exciting project, yet challenging! One of the very challenging parts was dealing with the short stroke timing issue. We worked on and off repetitively trying to resolve this problem with very little success. Every time we would go out to test fire it, it would actually unlock the cylinder under recoil. We decided the bolt notches were too shallow in your cylinder.”

Bobby took care of this problem and the cylinder is now locking up with absolutely no perceptible play. He also helped the accuracy problem by re-cutting the forcing cone. Now it not only looks great, it shoots the same way! It is always pure sixgunning pleasure to handle a single action that has been worked over by one who really knows his way around sixguns. Bobby is such an artist.

The greatest sixgunsmiths who ever lived are alive and practicing their art today. I am privileged to know many of them, as well as experience their work. I am very pleased to add Bobby Tyler to this exclusive list. May I live long enough to add some wear to this new finish and someday may some of my great grandkids have great grandkids who will still be shooting this King Colt.

For more info:

www.tylergunworks.com

www.skgrips.com