GUNS Magazine December 1958 - Jeffersonian

" '"COLT RIFLES. COLLECTOR-ITEMS ONLY FOR MANY ADECADE. ARE NOW VERY MUCH A PART OF THE SPORTING ARMS PICTUREBy WILLIAM B.EDWARDSAuth or, " The Sto rv 0/ Colt's Revolver"THE RETURN of Ameri ca's oldes t repeating rifle maker to thebusiness of supplyin g shoo ters with modern spo rting rifles ha sbeen a surprise to many gun fan s. Colt's, which launched its 3-shotpercussion-cap revolving rifles by an ad vertisement in the New Yorkpapers on December 18, 183 7, was until after the Civil War th epremi er repeating rifle maker in the world. Dozens of models were made-most were revolver breech rifles , oth er lever action and pump acti onrepeaters which today, aft er a half- century of discontinuance, stilllook " modern," still have definite appeal with that rampant C oltstamped on them.Th e man who has ramrodded the return of th e Colt is a squarejaweddynamo named Fred Roff, Jr.Nominally VP and sales manager ,.1.IJC UUIU w uv Uet;::, .I ClJ.lU vuu.....ll()flJ\_.. ~ \le nrl ~ l l~Jf\r&l. ,-,ti n\fu . 111f1 ~in.-R1 u~lltejawed dynamo named Fred Roff, Jr.Nominally VP and sales manager ,Roff spends more tim e making surethe Colt name appears all over th enation , than he does at the Colt plant.In emulation of Mr. Colt him self, Roff'snights are spent travelling, his da ys atpolice conventions awarding Colt gun sor conferring with governors on hunter-safety programs. When he isat the plant, things happen. What happened last year was the long.rumored, half-century overdue issue of a Colt rifle-the precedent.shattering "Colt 57."Behind that gun lies quite a story . Part of it is in implementationof Roff's plan that no shooter should have to go outsid e the Colt lin eto satisfy his needs for firearms. A straw in the wind of th e Coltrifle story was the promotional tour of Joe Bodrie, exhibition shoo terfor Colt's. Bodrie demonstrated his claim to the title of " fastest gunali ve," not only with the familiar Colt Single Actions but also with oneof the Elliott-patent pump-action Colt rifles made fr om ab out 1385till the turn of the century. An octagon barreled .44·40, thi s collecto r'sgem was in new condition, bein g drawn from the two or threeremaining "factory stoc k" guns deposited in the Colt museum.Acc ording to promotion man John Millington who set up Bodrie'stour, th e most remarkable commen t from th e thousands of peoplewho watched the show was the mu ch-repeat ed obser vati on "Oh, isColt's once again making rifles ?" Somehow, hundreds of th ousands ofpeopl e accept ed it as a natural thing to see a Colt rifle, th ough Milling .ton is mor ally certain most of them had never reall y seen a ColtTouring shooter Bodrie focussed nation's attentionon Colt rifles by expert use of Lighting Model .44.