My USFAs story....
Several years ago....I was in a shop not far from USFA as my parents live three towns south of Hartford. The shop had this early USFA SAA that was made when they were still "under the Dome" at the old Colt plant and was marked US Pt. Firearms Company. The odd thing was it was a dedicated .22 Magnum. The gun sat on the shelf for a few months and just about the time I decided to buy it it disappeared...no great loss I figured....but being a .22 Magnum lover I always thought about another one "that got away".
A year or so later I go back into the shop and there is "another one" just like it....this time I didn't hesitate.
I had the gun for a couple of years...it shoots very well but just a little low and left of a 1" bullseye at 20 yards. Then another USFA comes up in another shop near my parents...a LNIB unfired 4 3/4" SAA for a whole $800.00....with the $250 TruIvory upgrade...
This gun shoots SPOT ON with standard 255 Colt rounds....and then....comes the "used" again unfired in the box Flat Top Target .22/.22 Magnum at a big shop near my house. I called USFA and asked about ordering one...$1500 and a 3-4 month wait. The shop wanted $1350 for this one...so it went home...
I found the holster, a long discontinued Safariland with Sight-Trac, on eBay for $65.00. It is perfect for the FTT as the Sight-Trac keeps the leather from getting cut up with the front sight....
One day while shooting the FTT the gun goes out of time with the Magnum cylinder so my next trip down to Hartford I take the FTT and the SAA .22 Magnum with me. Now I had already made a call to USFA regarding the .22 Magnum SAA wanting to know when the gun was made.... They were not much help but the one thing I did learn is that when the company was known as US Pt. Firearms only about 18 rimfires were made and only a "few" were .22 Magnums.
I get to the factory at noon and of course it is lunch time... I explain my need to what turns out to be the CS rep I had spoken to on the phone and he says "come with me"....and into the heart of the factory we go. There are not too many people there as it is lunch time... But there is one older gentleman who turns out to be one of their senior smiths...whose farther worked building Colts a long time ago....
So the guy looks at the FTT and says "yea, these guns are made really tight..." He pulls the cylinder pin, fits a new one and then cocks the hammer... You know the joke that anything can be fixed, you just need a hammer big enough. Well that is what he does to the cocked hammer...smacks it with a BIG rawhide mallet....6 times...and voila...it is timed... I then asked him if they have any white grips around as I really like the set on the .45 SAA...and he finds a few sets of the standard checkered plastic ones, fits one and it's "on the house".
Then I pull out the .22 Magnum SAA and ask him what he knows about it... "Well the first thing I can tell you is it shoots a little low and left..." His eye was that good he could see the front sight just a little off. He went on to say that USFA only built two of these guns in .22 Magnum "and the other one is floating around the factory somewhere..."!!! The caliber on the barrel was hand engraved so they didn't have to bother making a roll stamp....
..and the one piece grips were special ordered from out west somewhere but he couldn't remember where...
The CS rep was gone by the time I had finished with the smith but when I got home I called and asked if I could get a letter on the gun. It took several tried to get it right but finally did. On another trip to Hartford I was able to stop and see the "sister" to this gun. (My gun was the second built) The only difference was the grips on the other one are walnut...can't remember if they were one piece or two.... The final story on the gun was that it was part of their big display in their Gun Library. A local customer saw it and asked if he could buy it...the sale was arranged through the shop that I had bought the .45 SAA about 10 miles from the factory. They never could tell me when the gun was made, only the ship date. For that matter they couldn't even tell me what year the name changed to USFA.
It is a small company...just one metal building... When I was there getting the FTT fixed the smith showed me a prototype of their Sparrowhawk. It was also going to be available in .41 Special but they said it could also be made in .41 Magnum. I wanted to order a FTT in .41 Special but so far the project is on hold because there are no .41 blanks in house yet...
I ended up selling the .45 but swapped grips with the FTT as they were just too beautiful to let go......
Sorry to be so long....Bob
ps...just remembered on my second trip to the factory while waiting for the CS rep I was in the gun library and what do I find in the parts area...the parts to make the third .22 Magnum....
