POTD: The Colt Match Target Woodsman – Picked by Fitz

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 shooting, showed up at Camp Perry, wrote a book called Shooting in 1930 and did the testing that Colt’s advertising leaned on. Most people know him for the Fitz Special, where he took a New Service or a Detective Special, chopped the barrel to two inches, bobbed the hammer and cut the front out of the trigger guard. Every snub nose since has followed that outline. He was also pushing a two hand hold back when most shooters still thought one hand was the gentlemanly way to do it.

The other half of the job was quality control with a name attached to it. Fitz shot test targets, set aside the guns that grouped best and signed the target that went out with them. This one shipped to a Hartford dealer in July of 1940 with his handwriting on the target.

A Match Target was already the most accurate 22 Colt sold. One that Fitz pulled out of the rack is the good one out of a batch of good ones, and I would take that over a modern match grade sticker every time.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Excellent ‘Fitz’ Selected Colt 1st Series Match Target Woodsman.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/1237/excellent-fitz-selected-colt-1st-series-match-target-woodsman. Accessed 31 Aug. 2026.

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