Just an observation here. I think there's nothing about the 1878 that couldn't have been built by American gunsmiths (aside from the barrels, most likely). That said, I'm puzzled by the lack of scholarship on these early Colt shotguns. Most of the other makers have had at least one devoted scholar (a couple, notably Walt, are regulars here) dive deeply into their manufacturing history and sales records. Furthermore, I'm under the impression that many of the most skilled craftsmen moved from town to town, factory to factory, and maker to maker during careers that spanned many decades. The 1878 was Colt's first foray into scatterguns (which is the cause of some of this speculation), and surely, if they were building them in Hartford, they would have needed to steal a few workers away from other companies. On the flipside, surely some Colt workers would have eventually migrated to Lefever, Ithaca, Parker, etc. And wouldn't some of the fine research done on other doubles have turned up more information on that kind of cross-pollination by now? I'm struck by just how thin the details available to us seem to be, particularly as we're talking about one of the two most famous makers in history. Thoughts on this? TT
