| The Colt .45 caliber handgun, the Peacemaker, is | | | | emergency. And the center fire 45 caliber |
| the oldest model handgun still in production in the | | | | ammunition eliminated many of the slow and |
| world. Buy one today, and you'll have the same | | | | often dangerous activities that went along with |
| pistol used by marshals, cowboys, and bad guys | | | | the muzzle loading pistols of the time. Just as an |
| of the 1800's. It was designed in 1872, put into | | | | example, Mark Twain wrote of a six cylinder |
| production in 1873, and sold for $17 throughout | | | | predecessor of the Peacemaker, the Allen |
| the United States. Cowboys liked it because it | | | | Pepperbox, which used cap and ball ammunition |
| could stop a 2,000 pound raging longhorn dead in | | | | and fired right out of the top cylinder - it had no |
| his tracks. Marshals and outlaws liked it because it | | | | barrel. "Sometimes", he wrote of the gun's |
| would fire six shots in a row without reloading, | | | | tendency to crossfire into the other five cylinders, |
| and do it accurately. It's one of the most popular | | | | "the whole broadside would go off at once. And |
| handguns ever invented, and Colt Firearms sold | | | | then there was no safe place in the country |
| 370,000 of them between 1873 and 1941. It is | | | | around except behind it." |
| often called "the gun that won the west". | | | | The Colt company remains in business today, still |
| What brought it into such demand? Innovative | | | | producing its original .45, but continuing to innovate |
| design was part of it. The rolling cylinder working | | | | with modern weapons in common use by civilians, |
| in tandem with the hammer, all on one trigger pull, | | | | law officers, and the military. |
| made the pistol instantly ready for use in any | | | | |