Colt Anaconda

[bouncer50]

I have one in 45 Colt 6 inch barrel. My other one is a 44 Mag with a 8 inch barrel. My 8 inch one is just too muzzle heavy i wish i could find a 6 inch barrel for it. My question is how safe is it with hotter load in the 45 Colt Anaconda. I would think it is but i need some opinion. It really a tough question which i like better my Ruger Redhawk or my Model 29 S&W or the Anaconda All three of them are very accurate. It seem to me the Redhawk and the Anaconda are more heavy duty compare to S&W model 29. People are really paying high prices for the Anaconda and the Python which i have two of them. I wonder if people are shooting them or collecting them as a investment :?: I like to shot mine i bought them all used so their not new in the box. A few guys at the range wanted to shoot my Anaconda i let them. Gee that a nice gun i never shot one before thanks.:o

[dkf]

People collect them, people go nuts over Colt for some reason.(I never saw the hype) The Anaconda can handle the hotter loads though if you want.

[country gent]

The Annacoda was only made for a few years before being dropped so there is a group that are collecting them. They are good shooting handguns and solid. Not sure if Id hot rod the 45 colt or not.

[dubber123]

Ross Seyfried felt the .45 Colt Anaconda to be quite safe with his stouter loads. Not sure if a search might turn up the article or not.

[Lloyd Smale]

had a 44 back in the day and it was a great gun.

[Petrol & Powder]

Some people will pay for the Colt name, I'm not one of them.
The frame/barrel/cylinder of the Anaconda revolver is very strong, although the penalty for that is weight. The parts of the gun that contains the cartridge & projectile that are subjected to the bulk of the forces involved are very strong. I think the gun is capable of safely handling heavy loads. Unfortunately, the Colt lock work is the weak point. Colt actions work great when they work but they don't tolerate wear as well as the Smith's & Rugers, IMHO.
I'm not saying the gun will go out of time prematurely. The Anaconda lock work is clearly stronger than the other Colt models, but the lock work (action) does seem to be the weak point. The Anaconda uses a coil spring set up similar to the one used in the Colt Trooper III as opposed to the old leaf spring action of the Python.
The gun is plenty strong where it needs to be for safety but I think it's unnecessarily heavy in general and the lock work is its Achilles heel.

[Petrol & Powder]

This is the point in the thread where someone will post, "Well I have one and I've shot a bazillion rounds of +P+++ extra heavy super duper dragon slayers through mine and it's better now than the day I purchased it" :o.

[smkummer]

I have your same gun ( 45 Colt-6 in barrel). And the lock work does NOT lock up at the point of firing like the older V spring Colts. Buffalo Bore ammo states its plus P 45 Colt ammo is safe in an anaconda. And I do shoot mine. I have shot some ruger loads in it (1100 FPS with a 255 SWC bullet) and the gun does fine with that. Currently, all my 45 Colt ammo is loaded to Colt SAA safe data and that is because I have many Colt SAA revolvers, a couple of New Service revolvers and the anaconda. If I were to deer hunt with the gun, then I would load some specifically for the Anaconda. The Anaconda likes the Lyman 454190 sized at .454 and 9 grains unique, that pushing 900 FPS and is a very good combination of power and accuracy. It is very accurate with that load that is also safe in my SAA revolvers. So if you have the option of .454 diameter bullets, that is a good place to start for accuracy. I did also have a starting load with 700X and a .452 diameter 200 grain 45 ACP bullet that was almost a 1" group shooter at 25 yards as well.
Currently I am really enjoying a New Service 45 Colt with a 7 1/2 barrel made in the mid-20's. It is lighter than the 6" anaconda. I would agree that the 8" guns were too heavy for casual off hand shooting but the 6" gun is the best overall. And I agree the Smith 25-5 has better balance.

[Petrol & Powder]

I completely agree that the newer Colt coil spring type actions (Trooper III, Anaconda, etc.) work more like the S&W or Ruger actions than the older V spring models. On a coil spring Colt the cylinder bolt should drop into the cylinder notch before the hammer falls but the timing on the Colt is much closer than what is found on the Smiths and Rugers. The old V spring Colts locked up at the moment of firing and the newer coil spring Colts lock just before the hammer is released. I didn't mean to imply that the hand locked the cylinder in place at the instant of firing like the old models.
Thank you for pointing that out and I'll go back and edit my prior post.

[Mal Paso]

Huh? Anaconda lock work is not weak, uses 2 springs, and does not lock up when firing. Have one on my hip right now, 4".

Buffalo Bore level loads are fine. Elmers load is fine but that's where I stop. Parts are scarce but it's one of my regular carry guns in the woods.

The parts of the Anaconda Colt got right beat S&W and Ruger by a mile. Mine wouldn't shoot 6 rounds without the cylinder locking up and sat is someones safe for years. The trigger was outstanding out of the box and hasn't been touched. Cylinder closes like the door on a Really fine car. The combat grips were awful. The bore is like a mirror only it's .430 and was smaller than the throats. Most on the problems were things too tight and it's an outstanding gun now.

I have the Redhawk and S&W as well.

[rintinglen]

The Mark III lock work was not fragile.
Unlike the V-spring colts that it replaced, the Mark III (used in modified form for the Mark III, Mark V, Peacekeeper, Anaconda, and King Cobra revolvers) was a thoroughly modern revision that got no love at the time of its introduction. Despite being much more durable than it's predecessors, the DA trigger pulls were derided as being rough and needlessly heavy. Though no worse than the Ruger and Dan Wesson counterparts that were selling by the boat load, the Mk III's suffered from being percieved as having a higher price point with out the quality that should have. The Mk V and later guns were modified to reduce the trigger pull, but by then, the wondernine revolution was in full swing and the revolver share of the market was shrinking. The Anaconda was too late on the scene to reap it's proper glory but had it come out 9 or 10 years earlier, I believe Redhawks would be scarce on the ground, because the Anaconda was a more striking gun, more than strong enough for the intended use and it had the cachet of the Colt name to justify it's higher price.
Whatever might have been, Colt had a serious work stoppage, made a series of bad guns, got hit by a bunch of spurious law suits, and got a big contract from Clinton to build M-4s so Colt stopped making everything but the 1911 and SAA handguns.

[MtGun44]

"The cachet of the Colt name" has been stomped on and p***ed on so
much by various incarnations of the company that there is very little left.
Like my Colts, have many, but the magic has largely gone out of the name, IMO.

Sorry to say that, they used to build really good guns, and it appears that
current incarnations are pretty good quality, too. Not so much in between.

A reputation takes many years to build and not much time to wreck, and they
are in the rebuildingstage, IMO.