The little boy watches the seasoned gun fighter pull his .45 Colt from his holster, level it, and fire five times, obliterating a white rock each time he fires. The man's speed is awesome. The boy had been admiring the gun fighter's revolver in its leather holster, sneaking looks on the sly. So far its deadly barrel had been hidden from view, concealed in its scabbard with only its pearl grips betraying its lethal purpose. Until now. Each time the man fires the little boy hears a deafening roar breaking the silence in the mountains. The gunfighter and his 45 Colt Single Action Army Peacemaker embody a deadly violence that is quicker and more deadly than the most dangerous predator alive.

The revolver carried by the gunfighter in Shane, perhaps the best Western movie ever produced, is the Colt .45 Single Action Army.  Produced in 1953 in Jackson hole, Wyoming, with the magnificent Tetons ever present in the background, the film starred Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur and Van Heflin.  I'll never forget that film, especially the part when the hired gun, Jack Wilson, superbly played by Jack Palance guns down a hapless homesteader with his 45 Peacemaker.

More than any firearm that ever existed or ever will, the Colt 45 Single Action Army is THE GUN, the weapon that has been most closely connected to the individualistic hero of the Old West--or badman-- in movies, legend, and fact.