James Earl Jones is known for lots of things—he played famous roles like Darth Vader’s voice in Star Wars and not-so-famous roles like General Solomon in the Command & Conquer video games. But he was also (perhaps to the surprise of those who only know him for his thespian work) a former military officer, earning his Ranger tab in the 1950s, and he had a very respectable firearms collection that is now up for sale at Checkpoint Charlie’s. It’s a wide collection, with interesting semi-auto handguns, single-shot target pistols and a few classic Wild West revolvers—like this Colt 1877 Lightning.
Rootin’ tootin’ revolvers @ TFB:
Deadly firepower, or failing dud?
Colt’s 1877-release double-action revolvers may be the most interesting of their early cartridge revolvers due to the massive disconnect between their popularity when they were released and their unpopularity now.
Brought to market as the Wild West was being tamed, the 1877 came in three different chamberings of .32 Long Colt, .38 Long Colt and .41 Long Colt. Why no .45 version? Colt wanted to keep the revolver scaled down for easier carry; they built a double-action .45 the next year, the Model 1878 Frontier, chambered in .44-40 and .45 Long Colt. Some people also think the bigger-bore cartridges would have been too much for the Model 1877’s lockwork to handle, but that seems a bit of a stretch; in its earliest years, it seems there were no serious concerns about the reliability of Colt’s first double-action revolver, based on its customer list.
The list of Wild West characters who carried a Colt Lightning (as the .38 version was known), Thunderer (the .41 model) or Rainmaker (the .32 version) reads like a Who’s Who of famous badmen.
Billy the Kid reportedly had one on him when he was shot down by Pat Garrett’s Peacemaker (Garrett also owned a .41-caliber Thunderer later in his life). John Wesley Hardin, perhaps one of the most psychopathic killers of the frontier, was known for carrying Model 1877s in all three calibres. Hardin was known for wearing a calfskin vest with custom holsters for his Thunderers. Like Billy the Kid, Hardin had one of the classic double-action Colts on him when he died, too. Doc Holliday reportedly carried a Model 1877 on his person as a backup gun; female stagecoach robber Pearl Hart also was a Model 1877 user.
It wasn’t just outlaws who favored this double-action revolver; along with Pat Garrett mentioned above, it was also used by other law enforcement in the Wild West (like famed lawman Bat Masterson) and in more civilized regions (Chicago police used the 1877, and so did British detective Jerome Caminada, who served in the English town of Manchester (and was reportedly one of the inspirations for Sherlock Holmes).
In total, between 1877 and 1909, Colt made 166,849 revolvers on the 1877 pattern, and they were widely used by people whose profession put them in harm’s way. You’d think it would be reckoned an all-time classic revolver, up there with the Model 1873, but this is not the case. Why is that?
A bad reputation
The Colt Model 1877 has a reputation for easily breaking and then only functioning in single-action, or not at all. And to a certain extent, this reputation is fair. A lot of the Model 1877 revolvers on the market are advertised as not working. For instance, the listing for James Earl Jones’ Model 1877 revolver reads this way:
“COLT MODEL 1877 ‘LIGHTNING’ DOUBLE ACTION .38 CAL REVOLVER #135288, 4.5″ BARREL, 6 ROUND CYLINDER, FAIR ORIGINAL BLUE FINISH W/ HIGH EDGE WEAR & LOSS FROM USE/AGE, EXC COLT CHECKERED PLASTIC GRIPS, VG COLOR CASE HARDENED FRAME, VG BORE & RIFLING W/ SPOTS OF FROSTING, DOUBLE ACTION HAMMER GOES BACK BUT DOES NOT FIRE OR COME FORWARD, SINGLE ACTION WORKS, TIMING/LOCKUP IS OFF A BIT & THIS ONE COULD USE A GUNSMITH TO ADJUST, OTHERWISE CONDITION AS SHOWN IN PICTURES, FROM THE JAMES EARL JONES “FAVORITES” COLLECTION W/ CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY.”
Other used Model 1877s often have similar wording.
Why was the Model 1877 so problematic? There are a wide variety of ideas (Sam goes over a few of them in his Armorer’s Bench article here), but I think it’s worth pointing out that the Model 1877 probably wasn’t problematic at all when it originally came out in the 1870s, or it wouldn’t have been so widely used. Decades later, after a lot of use and misuse and mechanical neglect and perhaps even a diet of too-powerful smokeless loads, well, it is no surprise that the Model 1877 revolvers were not working so well. And since so many shooters, not to mention the film industry, were already enamored with the robust Peacemaker revolver, it is no wonder that the Model 1873 proved to be far more popular in the long run.
In other words, looking at the Model 1877 through the lens of nearly 150 years of history, it is not a bad revolver; it’s just that others were better, including the double-action European military revolvers that Colt was trying to steal market share from.
The good news is, this disenchantment with Colt’s first double-action keeps pricing down, and it is one of the most affordable big-bore revolvers of the Wild West era as a result. Checkpoint Charlie’s is asking $1,995 for the James Earl Jones revolver, and a Single Action Army would probably be priced higher. If you don’t plan on shooting it anyway, maybe the Model 1877 makes sense, then?
All photos: Checkpoint Charlie’s
