Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a follow-up to yesterday’s Photo of the Day. This is the “improved” version of the Colt 1878 that came about mostly as a result of conflicts in the Philipines at the turn of the century. It is a long and repeated story but allow me to state the gist of it. In the very early 1900s conflicts between the US military/Philippine Constabulary and the Philippine Moro people. Basically, this set of conflicts would showcase that the Smith & Wesoon 38 revolvers had the drawback of not having enough stopping power. There are many documented cases of Moro fighters who would wrap themselves up tightly in cloth so that if they were to be hurt (even mortally) they could continue to fight for longer because of the compression on their body. They had constant pressure on them so they would not bleed out. The military and police force began taking their old Colt 45 SAAs out of retirement and ordering a whole batch of the newly improved Colt 1902. This version of the Model 1878 had a much stiffer hammer spring to deal with the light primer strike issue but as a result, had a very tough trigger pull. This is why the trigger is longer(more leverage) and by proxy so is the trigger guard.
“Manufactured in 1902. U.S. marked and “R.A.C.” and “J.T.T.” inspected. With lanyard. Letter verifies the caliber, barrel length, blue finish, and rubber grips when it was 1 of 100 shipped to Springfield Armory on April 19, 1902.”
Lot 6455: Colt 1902 Revolver 45 Colt – R.A.C. Inspected Colt Model 1902 Philippine/Alaskan Model Double Action Revolver with Factory Letter. (n.d.). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved February 6, 2023, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/1028/6455/colt-1902-revolver-45-colt.
