While it is possible to stumble across Colt Lightnings in poor condition for around $600, they generally fetch much higher prices.
#WORLD OF GUNS GUN DISASSEMBLY SHOOTING RANGE 5 SERIES#
(It is not unusual when inspecting old shooting gallery 22’s to find that the last few inches of rifling scored away long ago by unscrupulous boardwalk barkers looking to ensure a series of missed shots.) This is particularly true on the small frames, many of which saw hard use as rental and gallery guns. Also, some examples have seen far more hard use than others, so be sure to keep in mind the guns age and former use when inspecting it. 22 caliber Colt Lightning.Ĭolt stopped production of these guns as a group by 1904, so even the newest of these on the market will be a century old. 44 and polymer stocks with a tactical rail would still be popular in law enforcement. We’d like to venture that this gun, if made today in say. The weight of the Baby carbine was a cuddly 4.5-pounds. Some 89,777 of these weapons came off the lines.Ī ‘Baby” version of this already small rifle was made with a cute little (and very un-ATF friendly these days) 15-inch barrel that held 10-shots in its abbreviated mag. Compared to single shot rifles and even the somewhat slower lever-actions, these were the patrol carbine of their day. With its long, tubular magazine, the gun would hold 15+1 rounds of ammo, ready to go. This enabled a loyal Colt shooter who already had a revolver to use the same cache of ammo for their new rifle.
These were sold as ‘same caliber’ partners to Colt’s revolver line and as such, were chambered in the then-popular large caliber revolver cartridges including. This gun was actually introduced first, in 1884, with the small and large frame guns coming out three years later. The advertising said it all: “Nothing was faster than lightning”.įemale hunter and her Brittany hunting dog with a Colt Lightning, c. Colt concentrated on this design concept and in 1884 introduced a gun with a short slide action that was so slick and so fast they dubbed it the “Lightning”. Besides their lever-actions, there were also new slide action rifles: the user pumped a moving arm set under the barrel and around a tubular magazine, kicking out a spent round and loading a new one with every “stroke”. Why was it made?Īround the 1880s, Colt was looking to diversify but both Remington and Winchester had the rifle market sewn up. But as their six-shooters were earning the name ‘peacekeeper’ around the world, business-minded engineers in Hartford were saying, what if we sell a companion rifle, chambered for the same rounds as our hit revolvers? Then make another version for big game and then a third in a smaller caliber for target practice? That, my friends, is what you call lightning in a jar-and the genesis of the Colt Lightning pump action rifle.
A “swell gent” enjoys a Colt Lightning rifle on a sunny day.Īt the end of the 19th century, Colt Firearms was very well known for their revolvers indeed, every man worth his salt (and quite a few women) carried a Colt.
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