By Jim Dickson| Contributing Writer
The term “.45 Colt” has been used to label Colt revolvers in that caliber since 1873, and the Anaconda is the latest Colt to carry on that tradition.
A gleaming mirror polished stainless steel beauty, it weighs in at 2 pounds, 14 ounces (46 ounces) with a 4¼-inch barrel. This length is far better for a carry gun than the longer barrels as anyone who has tried to sit in a pickup truck with a long barrel revolver can testify. With this barrel length, it measures 9 7/8 inches overall with a height of 6¼ inches and a width of 1¾ inches. This is the proper size for a .45 Colt revolver and makes it easy to carry and steady and pleasant to fire.
El Paso Saddlery makes two holsters for this revolver, the 1942 Tanker shoulder holster and the Number 20 Tom Threepersons hip holster. Tom Threepersons was a famous lawman and gunfighter of the early 20th Century. Often called the last of the old West gunfighters he developed the holster that bears his name. It is an excellent design offering an extremely fast draw from a holster where the gun is held securely with a safety strap.
Upon picking up the gun Colt had loaned for review at Reeves Ace Hardware in Clayton, Georgia, I was delighted to find that it had the good trigger pull for which Colt has long been famous. Their prewar Colt New Service Shooting Master target revolvers had the finest double action trigger pulls of all time. I wish you could still buy one.
The sample Anaconda had a double action trigger pull of 10½ pounds and a single action trigger pull of 6 pounds 3 ounces as measured by a Lyman mechanical trigger pull gauge from Brownells Gunsmithing Supplies. The pull was smooth as silk and broke cleanly. I could hardly wait to get back to my farm where I could shoot it.
I had 590 rounds of ammunition for this field test consisting of the following:
- 500 rounds of Black Hills 250-grain RNFP Cowboy Action loads at 725 FPS. I have fired thousands of rounds of this excellent ammunition over the years and highly recommend it. Black Hills is a government contractor that both develops and makes sniper loads for the U.S. Military and the owner, Jeff Hoffman, is also a police SWAT Team sniper. All their ammo is extremely accurate.
- 50 rounds of Steinel red coated lead 200-grain loads at 640 FPS. This ammo has such a mild recoil that you hardly notice it even in the American Derringer Company .45/.410 double Derringer, which weighs a mere 14 ounces. This pocket powerhouse makes a perfect backup pistol to the big Colt Anaconda. American Derringer guns are entirely handmade and meet the same quality standards as Colt and the other big names in the American gun industry. Just remember that these double Derringers are for point blank emergency use and not long range target shooting. Grip them tight and the recoil will never be a problem.
- 20 rounds of Steinel 250-grain XTP at 850 FPS with nickel plated cases that will not corrode in the leather loops of a cartridge belt. This is the optimum bullet weight and velocity for this caliber.
- 20 rounds of Steinel 240 grain JHP at 1170 FPS with nickel plated cases.
The big revolver was pleasant to shoot with all loads and quite accurate. The contoured rubber grips absorbed much of the felt recoil and aided accurate pointing. After all, many times when a handgun is needed it is too dark to use sights and there may not be time for them anyway.
Pistols were intended to be pointed accurately and fired. The sights are there to help you find where it wants to point easier. With practice, you should be able to shoot more accurately without the sights than with them.
The .45 Colt Perseveres
Fads come and go but the full size .45 Colt double action revolver remains the best choice for some scenarios.
For police use it should be the only pistol allowed because a policeman often has to hold a suspect at gunpoint who may be innocent. You don’t want an accidental discharge hurting an innocent man and for that matter, you don’t want to hurt the guilty if you can help it as that is the job of the judge and jury, not the police. Semi-automatic pistols and single action revolvers are both far easier to accidentally fire when a nervous hand is on the trigger than the long pull of a double action revolver is.
For the casual shooter who only wants a handgun in case of someone breaking into his house and may only shoot a box of shells through it in his lifetime, there is no better choice. Stainless steel won’t rust if neglected in a night stand and all the shooter has to remember is to point and pull the trigger. No safety to take off, no hammer to have to remember to cock. Just the utmost simplicity in a crisis where they may not be able to think clearly after being startled out of a deep sleep by a terrifying threat. With a full size .45 Colt you can fire rapidly with the knowledge that one shot in the vitals per customer is all you need. Women may want a smaller, less effective pistol but if they are going to use two hands on the pistol there will be no problem for even the smallest and weakest of them using this gun. My 5 foot two, 105 pound wife, Betty, had no problem shooting the heaviest magnum revolvers with the heaviest loads with one hand.
A lot of woodsmen like the simplicity of a revolver and you really have no business out in the woods without a gun. No matter where you are you may face predators, both the 4-legged and 2-legged kind.
Wild hogs are a plague in many states and they can be very dangerous. I have been attacked and it did not turn out well for the hogs, unlike the case I covered of poor unarmed Christine Rollins who was eaten alive by a family of wild hogs in Texas. Christine wasn’t even out in the woods. She was the caregiver to a senile old couple and had just got out of her car and headed for the front door when the hogs came around the corner of the house and got her.
Aside from the well documented cases of coyotes killing 3 year old Kelly Keen in 1981 in Glendale, California and 19-year-old Taylor Mitchel in Canada in 2009 I know of two instances of hunters in Georgia being attacked by coyote packs. If Taylor Mitchel had a Colt .45 Anaconda instead of the pocketknife she tried to defend herself with, she would still be here. Unfortunately she was Canadian and that pretty much took pistols out of the picture for her.
In more remote areas you may face bears or wolves. Irate moose and bison are serious trouble and diplomacy won’t let you talk your way out. The .45 Colt has always proved more than adequate in all these situations. It is a proven solution to the worst case scenarios in the wild.
Lots of Power
That brings us to the subject of power. The .45 Colt and its sibling, the .45 ACP, are the epitome of manstopping power. Enough diameter and weight at the optimum velocity to transmit the energy into the target without penetrating so fast that they take most of the energy with them downrange. It offers reliable stopping power with one shot to the vitals without needing a double tap, which can prevent your dealing successfully with multiple opponents.
Many predatory animals run in packs which also can make them more aggressive. The normal undergrowth of the woods can hide their approach until they all burst out at once at close range. Noise and recoil at reasonable levels permitting proper rapid-fire can quickly become a life and death issue at these times.
I don’t like magnum handgun cartridges for serious reasons. They are not as reliable as manstoppers as the .45’s. They tend to have more recoil, which means they are slower for repeat shots. That can get you killed quick with multiple attackers. Their decibel level of noise is significantly higher leading to more cases of permanent hearing loss.
You may wear hearing protection on the range but few have it in when hunting and no one has time for that in an emergency. If you have to fire indoors or next to a wall the damage will be even more likely. It’s not just magnums that you have to watch out for.
Back when the .32-20 was loaded hot there was a saying that every .32-20 pistol had been dropped when the new owner fired the first shot and then grabbed his ears in pain. The army’s experiments with a .30 carbine caliber pistol ended abruptly when the prototype was first fired and the noise was unbearable. Post war both Kimbel and Ruger tried to market pistols chambered for the .30 carbine cartridge and both were unsuccessful due to the ear splitting bang.
For hunting with a handgun both the .45 Colt and the .45 ACP have successfully taken all North American big game. They also kill small and medium size game without ruining much meat. If you want more power, get a rifle. Stop trying to make a handgun into something it can never be successful at. There is a proper size and a proper place for everything and the .45 Colt and .45 ACP in full size service pistols fill the pistol niche perfectly.
All good things must come to an end it seems and when the time came to return the Anaconda to Colt I cleaned it with Shooters Choice cleaning patches and bore cleaner and lubricated it with Ballistol oil before sending it back.
I regard the Anaconda as Colt’s current best double action revolver. At a MSRP of $1,160 it is affordable by today’s standards. Anyone wanting a centerfire double action revolver will be well served if they choose this one.
