Colt M1878 Colt M1878 The Colt M1878 is a double-action revolver that was manufactured by Colt's Manufacturing Company from 1878 to 1907. It is often referred to as the "Frontier" or the "Double Action Army" revolver. A total of 51,210 Model 1878 revolvers were manufactured from 1878 to 1907, including 4,600 for the US Ordnance Department. These are known as the "Philippine" or "Alaskan" models. Samuel Colt experimented with double-action revolver systems, but he considered them to be unreliable. After Colt's patent expired in 1857, other manufacturers began producing double-action revolvers, but Colt's Manufacturing did not manufacture its own double-action revolver until
Colt Model 1855 Sidehammer Pocket Revolver in the design of the Colt Army Model 1860, the Colt Navy Model 1861 and the Colt Police Model 1862. In 1855 the Sidehammer was the first Colt's solid-frame spur-trigger gun. This anatomical characteristic was taken again when the three models of the Colt Derringer started production in 1870. For the two first models production lasted in 1890, and the third model ended in 1912 (until it was re-released in the 1950s for western movies, under the name of fourth model Colt Deringer). But in the Colt Deringers the solid-frame spur-triger design was still present in the patent when Colt's