Colt Special Order SAAs Description

Included in the approximate 3,400 factory engraved SAAs, there are a small number of one of a kind, custom special ordered guns. These are, of course, well documented in the Colt held factory archives by serial number and can be accessed through the office of Beverly Haynes, Colt Firearms Historian. While most of these special order guns were factory engraved, some were not, and their orders include request such as initials, monograms, inscriptions, trigger pulls, alternate sights, stocks and special targeting requirements. On handguns made between 1889 and 1914, it is possible to access some of these special order details. The original Colt Special Order and Repair Ledgers are now the property of Mr. Don Jones, formerly the Colt Collectors Association Historian, and are available to all CCA members. To quote Mrs. Haynes and Mr. Jones, "As a supplement to the Colt Factory letter, the Colt Special Order Ledger entries dovetail nicely in corroborating the original configuration detailed in the Factory letter. In effect the special order entry is the build order for the Colt firearm, tracing the order from receipt through production. As such they will document configuration details and changes that are sometimes left silent in the Colt shipping based production record. In addition, the Colt Repair Ledgers that are available are very limited in scope, but they do stand alone in their serial number based, period documentation or repairs, factory refinishing, and ownership of certain Colt handguns and rifles." Obviously, the information contained in these Colt Special Order and Repair ledgers is very important to Colt collectors, as it may seriously affect the value of certain guns.