Steve,
Over the years I’ve thought about building a Colt single-action in the style of G&H and Kornbrath circa 1924. I have worked most of this out in my head but learned there is no such thing as a pre-war Colt SAA that is anything but very valuable, never mind there are thousands for sale at any given moment. It would be a 4 ¾” .44-Special, S&W rear sight, Colt New Service target front, Engraving in the same place and style as the very early G&H’s, burl one-piece fleur-de-lis pattern grips, just like the early G&H and in a Patton Holster ;-). Dreams are good and they cost nothing.
Michael, here's a photo of my own SA Colt with S&W rear sight. This is a 'J' frame sight because I found that the somewhat larger 'K' and 'N' frame sights were simply too large for the Colt backstrap, without welding a knot onto the top rear of the strap. The elevation adjustment on the larger-frame sights requires a deep slot cut forward into the strap; the cut would have weakened the issue strap unacceptably and I didn't want to add a knot, so I used the smaller sight and have had splendid results with it for almost 40 years now.
This particular SA left the Colt factory in 1894 as a 44-40 with 7.5" barrel and ivory grips. I bought it from Thad Scott around 1970 as a 5.5" 22LR with homemade grips, with some slight amateur metal 'smithing' unfortunately already performed on the strap. I converted it back to original caliber specs with a spare 44 Special cylinder and then shot it as my preferred belt gun and test mule SA for the next 35 years, never even bothered to correct the amateur buffing job. Wore out the replacement NOS Colt 44-40 bbl (~10K rounds), then used it as a 22LR, 22WMR, 357 Mag, 41 Special (a wildcat but a MOST splendid combination!), 45 Colt plus I have at least one more bbl/cylinder set hoarded back for when I get tired of it as-is (G).
I've been rebuilding these 1st-gen SAs since 1970, have restored many dozen junkers to nice shooting condition for myself and a few friends. I really like them but there are an untold number of fakes out there so
caveat emptor!
BTW the Colt cylinder throat and bbl groove dimensions are a nightmare of conflicting reports and measurements, but it IS possible to get a good matchup by knowing which generation (1st, 2nd, 3rd) part to substitute. I won't hijack this thread any further but will supply info to anyone requesting it via email or on another thread.
Regards, Joe
