Colt Shooting Master

About the Colt Shooting Master

The Colt Shooting Master is a hand-fitted, large-frame double-action target revolver built on the Colt New Service frame. Introduced in 1931 as Colt's top-of-the-line revolver, it featured a flat-top frame with adjustable target sights, a checkered trigger and backstrap, checkered walnut grips with silver medallions, and an anti-glare Parkerized stippling across the topstrap and hammer to cut glare during outdoor matches such as those at Camp Perry. Each example was hand-honed by Colt's most skilled assemblers for an exceptionally smooth single- and double-action pull. Chambered most commonly in .38 Special, it was the finest revolver Colt offered until the Python arrived in 1955.

Built one at a time by Colt's best assemblers, the Shooting Master was the company's flagship target revolver of the 1930s and was dropped in 1941 alongside the Single Action Army as wartime production took over.

Colt Shooting Master specifications

Offered in five standard calibers across roughly 3,500 guns: .38 Special (about 2,500), .357 Magnum (about 500, from circa 1936), .45 ACP (about 250), .45 Colt (about 156), and .44 Russian/.44 S&W Special (about 94). A handful of one-off examples are known in .22 rimfire, .38 S&W (38/200), and .455 Eley.