Ask A Firearms Question:
I recently purchased for $200.00 an old 45 Colt Dakota Cowboy Revolver by Armi Jager from Italy. Is there anything you can tell me about this handgun?
Thank you Sedge Bulnap.
Some Photos of The Colt Dakota Cowboy 45 Long Colt (LC) Revolver:
Answer :
Blog Administrator -
I am very familiar with the Armi Jager Dakota Cowboy Revolver, I use to have one.
I would like to start off by saying you got a great Cowboy Revolver and at a very good price.
Above are some of my old pictures of my Dakota 45LC.
Below is some history, downside to this handgun, upside to this cowboy six shooter, more photos, and a homemade video of the Armi Jager Cowboy Revolver.
These are now collectible.
I originally paid $250.00 for mine, did a cowboy action job, another $75.00, put around 1,500 rounds through it and sold the revolver for $450.00.
First the firearm is a cloned copy of the Colt Model 1873 Single Action Army Revolver.
A famous Cowboy Shooter named Bob Munden used the Dakota 45LC as part of of his shooting demonstrations and made the Armi Jager Dakota Cowboy Revolver famous -
This Post is Updated
Specification on the Dakota Cowboy Armi Jager Model 1873 Single Action Army Revolver that I personally owned -
Importer : Armi Jager of Italy
Manufacturer: E.M.F. Company
Manufactured in the 1980's by F.LLI Pietta of Italy for EMF USA.
Also marketed as: EMF DAKOTA TARGET SAA
Copy of Colt 1873 Single Action Army Model with 4 3/4 Inch Barrel
often referred to as the 'Sheriff's Model'
Caliber: 45 LC (Long Colt)
Model: Dakota
Action: Single Action 6-Shot Revolver
Single 4-Position Hammer
Standrad Slide Ejector
Rounds: Can Handle 45 LC Lead, 45 LC Flat, 45 LC Hollow Point,
anybrand including properly done reloads
Wood Mahogany Pistol Grips
Barrel Length: 4 3/4 Inches (4.75)
Overall Length: 10 1/4 Inches (10.25)
Brass Metal Frame
Standard Blued Barrel
Fixed Front Ruger Style Sights
Copy of Colt Revolver (Clone)
Metal Trigger
Metal Trigger Guard Assembly
Has 3 Stamped Proof Marks on right side of Brass Metal Frame
Metal Frame, front of Trigger Guard is the Serial Number (S/N) Location
Barrel Markings:
Top of Barrel - Armi Jager Italy
Left Side of Barrel – Dakota Cal. 45 Colt
Right Side Barrel – 2 Stamped Proof and Manufacturing Marks
Armi of Italy is the Importer not the Manufacturer.
Approximate Weight: With 5 rounds is 2 pounds.
About the Dakota Cowboy Armi Jager Model 1873 Single Action Army Revolver:
Part of the information contained in this section is attributed to Sack Peterson
a.k.a. Stag Gun Grips - http://www.sackpeterson.com
This was called Italy's first cloned Colt Cowboy Gun.
If you remember in the 60's there were a lot of so-called 'B' Rated Cowboy movies made in Italy.
Cowboy shooting became very popular in Italy and spread to other parts of Europe.
The
frontier revolver made by Great Western Arms of California had a
clone of the Colt Peacemaker.
Armi Jager otherwise know as Adler Jager was a German and Italian Gun Manufacturer located in the small town of Loano Italy. Firearms production ended in the 1990s do to lack of skilled personnel according to the owner, Mr. Piscetta. There still exist a small gun store that offers gunsmithing works in the town of Basaluzzo Italy renamed Nuova Jager.
The original company was acquired in 2009 to make AR15 style weapons distributed by San Swiss Arms.
Even with strong demand, price
competition drove them from the market place by 1961. Mail order
houses like Navy Arms, Dixie Gun Works, and EMF were sourcing their
replica inventory from central Europe, where manufacturing was less
expensive.
The Colt
Peacemaker clone now established as the signature piece of serious
replica was in demand. The first European built reproduction of the
Colt SAA was by JP Sauer of Germany. It was sturdy and inexpensive,
the Sauer clone single handedly destroyed the price competition in
America.
By the
60’s, gunsmiths and job shops of northern Italy became very adept
at supplying US frontier cowboy replicas. There, several family shops
that thrived and grew into enduring, world class gun makers: Uberti and Pietta remain today. Armi San Marco, Armi San Paolo, and
Jager were very successful over the 70’s and 80’s.
Armando
Piscetta and his Loano company Armi Jager started building Colt
Peacemaker clones in 1962. A small USA importer, Inter Continental
Arms, began selling these in the US. Inter Continental called it the
“Dakota”.
Jager’s
early single action was significant as Italy’s first Peacemaker
clone. More so, it was quite a bit better than the German Sauer
revolver. It was finished nice, functioned well, and still
affordable. It established a reputation for quality among the Italian
Cowboy Shooters.
The
History of the Jager Single Action
Cowboy
Revolver -
Early
on, the pattern for Piscetta’s Jager single action was set. It was
blue and color case hardened with Italian hardwood grips. It had a
brass grip assembly. The flamboyant brass straps are an easy to spot, but the Jager revolvers were nonetheless handsome
and well finished.
Inter
Continental Arms imported the Jager single action into the USA with
some exclusivity through the 60’s.
In the
beginning years, the Dakota didn’t have a maker’s logo. Brescian
proof marks and a “Made in Italy” script were the only indicators
of origin. In 1969 some of Inter Continental’s cowboy style
revolvers began showing a Hammerli or a Switzerland stamp. What can
be demonstrated is the Dakota was being built in two places for a
time: in Italy, by Jager, and in Switzerland, by Hammerli. Hammerli
built Dakotas were numbered within the existing Jager serial range,
indicating an aligned if not joint venture by the two companies to
furnish the Dakota to American importers.
Hammerli
already owned a stellar reputation for target pistols. New Hammerli
built cowboy revolvers made an immediate inpact on US Cowboy Shooters.
By 1972 Hammerli was signed by Interarms to make their Virginian
revolver. Hammerli then ceased building the Dakota, leaving that to
Jager as before.
Demand
for the Dakota replica remained, but importers came and went
throughout the 1970’s. Inter Continental ceased business in about
1975. EMF picked up the Dakota trademark and became Jager’s highest
volume importer. The Dakota revolver was also imported in lesser
numbers by Kassnar and Navy Arms. These guns are the same, but go by
“1873" or "Frontier” model name. Odd models with “IGI”
and “Italguns” importer markings (Kansas model) are also Jager
revolvers. By this time all guns have “ARMI JAGER – ITALY” stamped markings.
Sales of
the Jager pattern cowboy revolver were robust for the next decade but
eventually fell off. Cowboy action shooting was established in the
80’s. Single action shooters favored replicas with more authentic
appearance. EMF dropped the Jager as its flagship revolver in favor
of models by Armi San Marco and Uberti, some of which they labeled
the "New Dakota". Armi Jager stopped building the Colt
Peacemaker clone in 1993.
Colt
Clone Model Variations
-
Besides
its basic color cased and blued model, Jager also did runs in
Sheriff, Bisley, Buntline, and Target model configuration. A catalog
has become standard among replica Peacemaker manufacturers.
The
Jager’s Buntline was a detailed reproduction. Some had ladder
sights, along with a finely rendered skeleton stock.
In 1980
EMF also briefly imported the Jager revolver as an unfinished kit.
This was in effect a second take on the old Great Western Arms kit
guns (EMF having owned Great Western for a time). Jager kits are
called “Californian” models.
Inter
Continental Arms contracted with Jager for a modern, big-bore hunting
revolver to compete with Ruger’s Super Blackhawk. This model was
called the Super Dakota. It featured target sights, an elongated grip
assembly, and chambering in a selection of modern performance
calibers. These guns date from 1965 to 1970. They are high quality.
Jager
offered an engraved model to its distributors throughout production
years. Examples will generally conform to one of two basic
patterns. Among earlier production, frames are coin finished and
engraved with barrels blued. Late production engraved guns are nickel
plated. Some of these late examples feature a cattle brand pattern.
In all cases, engraving was etched or machine rolled.
A US
Army commemorative was built in the 1980’s. These are cavalry style 45 Long Colt with 7 1/2 inch barrel. About 1000 were built. They have
their own serial range.
Caliber
selection was typically a standard fare of 22, 32-20, 357, 38-40,
44-40, and 45LC. Auxiliary cylinders could be purchased with several
of those chambered to make for a convertible revolver.
The
Dakota was at times available in 30 Carbine, one of a very few
production handguns offered in this caliber.
The
Dakota was available by special order in nickel finish.
Standard
grips were walnut or a European hardwood.
Dakotas
from 1962 to 1968 have no safety mechanism. Revolvers from 1969 to 71
generally have a hammer wheel safety. Revolvers after that have a
base pin safety. On Jagers, this is an odd "twist" base
pin rather than the“Swiss” two notch pin that became common on
Italian SAA replicas.
Quality,
Collectable, and Value -
Italian cowboy revolvers from the 70’s are to this day described as cheaply made
and poorly built.
This
piece of common knowledge was never really true, The spaghetti
replicas are quite good and have been from the start. They have
always been steel rather than alloy. Also, they had quite a bit more
hand fit and finish than was required to build them at that time.
These
are traits of a high quality product, not junk.
The
Jager revolver is a good revolver. Exterior dimensions are nominally
larger than the original Colt Peacemaker. A Jager is without a doubt
much stronger than a 1st generation Colt, a useful comparison.
As
cowboy shooting grew in the USA, buyers' demand for authenticity
became more stringent. Jager nonetheless declined to change its
design. Ultimately its gun was usurped in the marketplace by more
“true-to-Colt” ASMs and Ubertis.
Jager
serial numbering was strictly numerical and ascending, starting at 1.
Examples from around 1990 have serials that approach 100,000. That
number is subsequently a reasonable estimate of total production over
30 years. Much of those guns are in Europe, where Jager also did
business.
The Armi
Dakota Legacy
-
Armi San
Marco failed in the early 2000 for reasons having nothing to do with
the overall demand for reproduction cowboy revolvers. Uberti remained as the
sole Italian clone maker, but they had just been acquired by Beretta.
Rather than expand to capture ASM's market, Uberti's distribution was
put under tighter corporate discipline as production got directed by
Beretta sales networks.
Several
mail order houses relied on Italian six shooters to anchor their
catalogs, and they failed to fulfill orders. This was an
obvious void for another Brescian company to fill, and it
was Pietta that came into supplying the need. Having not
offered a Peacemaker clone before, they started by getting Jager's
old forging for the Dakota cylinder frame. They updated the
build with modern CNC machining, and assembled finished guns
with Colt sized screws and parts. But the lineage of Pietta’s
modern rendered, authentically dimensioned the Colt Cowboy Revolver
original Dakota by Jager.
“Dakota”
remains brilliantly evocative as a private label name for a Cowboy
Six Gun. EMF owns this trademark. After contracting with Armi San
Marco and Uberti over the 1990’s for Peacemaker clones, EMF began a
long term relationship with Pietta in 2003.
Manufacturing
-
Company:
Armi Jager (Known late as Jager Adler). Hammerli marked variant
also 1969 to 1972.
Location:
Loano, Italy
Model:
Dakota, Frontier 1873, Nevada, Kansas, Pioneer
Calibers:
22, 30 Carbine, 32-20, 357 Magnum, 38-40, 41 Mag, 44-40, 44 Mag, 45
Long Colt
Barrels:
4.75, 5.5 (most common), and 7.5 inches
Variants:
Super Dakota, Buntline, Sheriff, Target, Bisley
Years
Manufactured: 1962 to 1993
The Downsides to this Revolver are -
1) The screw that holds the side ejector assembly can easily be striped, see close up photo below ....
2) The Cylinder Base Pin can be pushed in too far preventing the cylinder from rotating, see close up photo below ....
Homemade Video of my Dakota Armi Jager 45 Long Colt Cowboy Revolver with an Action Job -
The Upsides to this Revolver are -
1) Quality manufacturing
2) Very accurate
3) Easy to work on
4) Interchangeable parts with Colt
Some more photos of the Dakota 45LC -
One of my friends shooting the Dakota 45 LC in the Arizona Desert ....
Catalog from the 1980s -
==> My recommendation on the Armi Jager Model Dakota 45 Long Colt Cowboy Revolver is -
a BUY as a Collectible.
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