Gun Review: Colt Frontier Scout 62 22 Magnum Single Action Revolver
Introduction, Competing with Ruger, Left Side of Gun
The Colt Frontier Scout single action revolver made its first appearance in 1957, during a time when American shooters were in love with the old west and with guns that reminded them of it.
This was Colt's offering to compete with Ruger's Single Six, which had found a ready market when introduced in 1953. Ruger's then-reasonable pricing allowed the Single Six to sell well; it was a cheap-to-shoot old-west-type gun for those who revered the Colt Single Action, which Colt was no longer producing.
Then along came the Scout, an alloy-framed single action 22 caliber revolver from the folks who built the first successful six-shooters, whose four-click actions were said to spell C-O-L-T when cocked. The Scout went through several variations, and finally fizzled in 1970 (some sources say 1971). Colt's quality was there, but in the end, Ruger won the battle of the single action 22 revolvers.
The gun being discussed in this article is a '62 model, which began production in 1962. It originally had Staglite grips (plastic fake antler), and the frame and trigger guard/backstrap/grip frame are made of an aluminum alloy called Zamac.
The photo shows the left side of the gun. Stamped on the left side of the blued steel barrel are the words, "FRONTIER SCOUT '62 .22 MAG." Stamped on the lower left portion of the frame is Colt's rearing horse logo. There is what may be a heart on the left side of the top rear of the trigger guard.
This gun has seen its share of use. My late Uncle Kelly owned this revolver for many years before giving it to me.
During that time, a rough, hot ride under the seat of a Volkswagen Beetle caused the original grips to warp and crack. I made these walnut grips when I was eighteen years old.
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Fan Base, Right Side, Refinishing the Frame
If the Colt Scout line of revolvers had the fan base in the 1960s that it seems to have now, production of them may never have ceased. Whether poor marketing, bad timing, or some other factor was to blame is immaterial - the fact remains that the last of this line was built about four decades ago.
But in all likelihood, the fate of the Colt Scout revolvers would be the same today; more people claim to like them than would actually pay what would almost certainly be an extremely high retail price to buy a new one from Colt.
The photo shows the right side of the Colt Frontier Scout 22 mag, which bears no identification marks other than "VP" inside a triangle, stamped on the right side of the top front of the trigger guard.
The finish on this side of the frame is noticeably worse than that on the left.
When I gained possession of this gun, the grips were warped and cracked, and the black paint finish was blistering and peeling off of the alloy parts. That was more than twenty years ago now, and I wish I'd taken some photos of it before I went to work. Alas, I did not.
I stripped the factory finish from the alloy parts using a chemical paint remover kindly provided by my future father-in-law, and after thoroughly cleaning and polishing the parts I blacked them with Birchwood-Casey Aluminum Black. Considering my experiences with that product, this is probably the best finish I have seen it produce, and certainly the longest-lasting.
Earlier Scouts were made with another type of alloy, on which I have found that Birchwood-Casey Aluminum Black has no effect.
With each passing year, a few more little speckles appear on the alloy parts, and the finish on them has worn through in a number of places. But I have toted it in a holster for many miles in the woods, and I have no complaints.
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Top Rear, Sights, Making New Grips
The photo shows the top rear view of the Frontier Scout '62. The hammer is cocked, as it must be in order for the sights to be fully visible.
The front sight is a plain blade permanently affixed to the barrel, and the rear sight is simply a groove in the top of the frame. These are known as fixed sights, meaning they can't be easily adjusted, but some adjustment is possible, if done with care.
The front sight may be judiciously bent to correct for windage errors, and if the gun hits low then the top of the front sight may be filed off to correct that.
I caution strongly against filing the front sight, though, because once the steel is filed away, it's gone forever, and shooting different ammo at a different distance may cause you to wish you had your tall front sight again. As Dad always said, "It's easy to cut some off, but it's hard to cut some on."
Therefore, if you wish to adjust a Scout's sights, I recommend you limit yourself to careful windage adjustments. Dad and I adjusted this one with a brass hammer, as gently as possible.
This photo gives the impression that the grips are fairly fat, and that's because they are. I made them from a nicely figured walnut board that Dad had out in his shed, and I purposely left them large when working them (remember that thing about cutting off vs. on?).
When putting the finishing touches on the grip panels, I couldn't bring myself to narrow them down as much as the originals, which provide a fairly skinny grip. To this day, I'm glad I left them thick.
I removed the screw, ferrule, and threaded insert from the factory grips, and used them on my homemade grips.
I considered installing the Colt "rearing horse" medallions from the factory grips, but decided against it.
Stamped on top of the barrel: "COLT'S PT. F.A. MFG. CO. HARTFORD CT. U.S.A."
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This photo shows the bottom of the grip frame, which Colt calls the backstrap assembly. This one has some scrollwork stamped into it, but not all Scouts did. It also shows how my home-applied finish has worn over the years.
On the bottom of the frame at the front, the gun's serial number is stamped. I have removed a couple of the digits from the photo, even though the number is blurry. This gun's serial number consists of 4 numbers followed by the letter P.
These guns were chambered for both the 22 LR (long rifle) and 22 WMR (Winchester Magnum Rimfire) cartridges, and after 1964, some guns were sold with interchangeable cylinders. Because 22 WMR bullets are a tad larger than 22 LR bullets, 22 LR accuracy in such guns sometimes suffers.
This particular gun is built for 22 WMR, also known as 22 Magnum. It packs a lot more punch than the 22 LR, and in this little revolver, it's loud. I believe this handy little popper barks louder than any 357 revolver I've ever fired. It's definitely an ear-splitter.
While you can cram 22 LR ammo into this gun and fire it, it's not a good idea to do so. It's not likely to damage the gun, but accuracy will probably be poor, and the brass cases are likely to rupture, which may cause a dangerous condition by venting hot gases towards the shooter and/or bystanders. Use only 22 WMR (Winchester Magnum Rimfire) ammo in this gun.
I can't testify to anyone else's accuracy with this model, and I can barely testify to my own.
I just haven't fired it all that much, and I've always had trouble with the crude sights on these poppers. But it's a good-quality firearm and should be capable of reasonable accuracy.
The trigger pull on this gun weighs in at around 3 to 3.5 pounds, and feels very nice.
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The photo shows the Colt Frontier Scout '62 with factory grips and five rounds of 22 WMR ammunition.
One of the factory grip panels is quite broken up (and the inside is worse). The other one is also cracked inside and out. I have never regretted replacing them with my homemade walnut grips - in fact, I'm proud that I did so well on my first try, with very little woodworking experience.
The bluing on this gun has seen better days.
Much of it is worn off the front left side of the barrel, and the cylinder is missing some blue opposite each chamber. It hasn't had an easy life, but it's been true and dependable.
This particular gun is a personal symbol of courage and kindness and love, and will always remind me of my good-hearted uncle, Daddy's kid brother, who chose to give it to me instead of doing something much less honorable with it.
Colt Scout revolvers have nominal 4.75" and 9.5" barrels, though they typically measure 1/16" short. The long ones were marked as Buntline Scouts, but are usually listed with Frontier Scouts in reference books.
For overall feel, it's very hard to beat the pointability of a Colt single action revolver. When you pick one up, you find that it points as naturally as you'd point your finger.
Conclusion
The Colt Frontier Scout '62 is a six-shot single action revolver. This one is chambered for 22 WMR, but they were also made in 22 LR. Ammunition is not interchangeable. Some models were sold with both 22 WMR and 22 LR cylinders, which made the Scout a fairly flexible play-purty.
The Scout's fixed sights don't lend themselves to serious target shooting, but it can certainly provide a lot of fun at the range. Neither the 22 LR nor the 22 WMR is a great self-defense round, but if you have to choose one for that purpose, go with the magnum.
It's a quality gun, and I'm happy to own one.
- Russ Chastain
More of This Article
The Colt Frontier Scout single action revolver made its first appearance in 1957, during a time when American shooters were in love with the old west and with guns that reminded them of it.
This was Colt's offering to compete with Ruger's Single Six, which had found a ready market when introduced in 1953. Ruger's then-reasonable pricing allowed the Single Six to sell well; it was a cheap-to-shoot old-west-type gun for those who revered the Colt Single Action, which Colt was no longer producing.
Then along came the Scout, an alloy-framed single action 22 caliber revolver from the folks who built the first successful six-shooters, whose four-click actions were said to spell C-O-L-T when cocked. The Scout went through several variations, and finally fizzled in 1970 (some sources say 1971). Colt's quality was there, but in the end, Ruger won the battle of the single action 22 revolvers.
The gun being discussed in this article is a '62 model, which began production in 1962. It originally had Staglite grips (plastic fake antler), and the frame and trigger guard/backstrap/grip frame are made of an aluminum alloy called Zamac.
The photo shows the left side of the gun. Stamped on the left side of the blued steel barrel are the words, "FRONTIER SCOUT '62 .22 MAG." Stamped on the lower left portion of the frame is Colt's rearing horse logo. There is what may be a heart on the left side of the top rear of the trigger guard.
This gun has seen its share of use. My late Uncle Kelly owned this revolver for many years before giving it to me.
During that time, a rough, hot ride under the seat of a Volkswagen Beetle caused the original grips to warp and crack. I made these walnut grips when I was eighteen years old.
More of This Article
- Page 1: Introduction, Competing with Ruger, Left Side of Gun
- Page 2: Fan Base, Right Side, Refinishing the Frame
- Page 3: Top Rear, Sights, Making New Grips
- Page 4: Bottom View, 22 LR & 22 Magnum, Accuracy, Trigger Pull
- Page 5: New & Old Grips, Bluing, Barrel Lengths, Conclusion
Fan Base, Right Side, Refinishing the Frame
If the Colt Scout line of revolvers had the fan base in the 1960s that it seems to have now, production of them may never have ceased. Whether poor marketing, bad timing, or some other factor was to blame is immaterial - the fact remains that the last of this line was built about four decades ago.
But in all likelihood, the fate of the Colt Scout revolvers would be the same today; more people claim to like them than would actually pay what would almost certainly be an extremely high retail price to buy a new one from Colt.
The photo shows the right side of the Colt Frontier Scout 22 mag, which bears no identification marks other than "VP" inside a triangle, stamped on the right side of the top front of the trigger guard.
The finish on this side of the frame is noticeably worse than that on the left.
When I gained possession of this gun, the grips were warped and cracked, and the black paint finish was blistering and peeling off of the alloy parts. That was more than twenty years ago now, and I wish I'd taken some photos of it before I went to work. Alas, I did not.
I stripped the factory finish from the alloy parts using a chemical paint remover kindly provided by my future father-in-law, and after thoroughly cleaning and polishing the parts I blacked them with Birchwood-Casey Aluminum Black. Considering my experiences with that product, this is probably the best finish I have seen it produce, and certainly the longest-lasting.
Earlier Scouts were made with another type of alloy, on which I have found that Birchwood-Casey Aluminum Black has no effect.
With each passing year, a few more little speckles appear on the alloy parts, and the finish on them has worn through in a number of places. But I have toted it in a holster for many miles in the woods, and I have no complaints.
More of This Article
- Page 1: Introduction, Competing with Ruger, Left Side of Gun
- Page 2: Fan Base, Right Side, Refinishing the Frame
- Page 3: Top Rear, Sights, Making New Grips
- Page 4: Bottom View, 22 LR & 22 Magnum, Accuracy, Trigger Pull
- Page 5: New & Old Grips, Bluing, Barrel Lengths, Conclusion
Top Rear, Sights, Making New Grips
The photo shows the top rear view of the Frontier Scout '62. The hammer is cocked, as it must be in order for the sights to be fully visible.
The front sight is a plain blade permanently affixed to the barrel, and the rear sight is simply a groove in the top of the frame. These are known as fixed sights, meaning they can't be easily adjusted, but some adjustment is possible, if done with care.
The front sight may be judiciously bent to correct for windage errors, and if the gun hits low then the top of the front sight may be filed off to correct that.
I caution strongly against filing the front sight, though, because once the steel is filed away, it's gone forever, and shooting different ammo at a different distance may cause you to wish you had your tall front sight again. As Dad always said, "It's easy to cut some off, but it's hard to cut some on."
Therefore, if you wish to adjust a Scout's sights, I recommend you limit yourself to careful windage adjustments. Dad and I adjusted this one with a brass hammer, as gently as possible.
This photo gives the impression that the grips are fairly fat, and that's because they are. I made them from a nicely figured walnut board that Dad had out in his shed, and I purposely left them large when working them (remember that thing about cutting off vs. on?).
When putting the finishing touches on the grip panels, I couldn't bring myself to narrow them down as much as the originals, which provide a fairly skinny grip. To this day, I'm glad I left them thick.
I removed the screw, ferrule, and threaded insert from the factory grips, and used them on my homemade grips.
I considered installing the Colt "rearing horse" medallions from the factory grips, but decided against it.
Stamped on top of the barrel: "COLT'S PT. F.A. MFG. CO. HARTFORD CT. U.S.A."
More of This Article
- Page 1: Introduction, Competing with Ruger, Left Side of Gun
- Page 2: Fan Base, Right Side, Refinishing the Frame
- Page 3: Top Rear, Sights, Making New Grips
- Page 4: Bottom View, 22 LR & 22 Magnum, Accuracy, Trigger Pull
- Page 5: New & Old Grips, Bluing, Barrel Lengths, Conclusion
This photo shows the bottom of the grip frame, which Colt calls the backstrap assembly. This one has some scrollwork stamped into it, but not all Scouts did. It also shows how my home-applied finish has worn over the years.
On the bottom of the frame at the front, the gun's serial number is stamped. I have removed a couple of the digits from the photo, even though the number is blurry. This gun's serial number consists of 4 numbers followed by the letter P.
These guns were chambered for both the 22 LR (long rifle) and 22 WMR (Winchester Magnum Rimfire) cartridges, and after 1964, some guns were sold with interchangeable cylinders. Because 22 WMR bullets are a tad larger than 22 LR bullets, 22 LR accuracy in such guns sometimes suffers.
This particular gun is built for 22 WMR, also known as 22 Magnum. It packs a lot more punch than the 22 LR, and in this little revolver, it's loud. I believe this handy little popper barks louder than any 357 revolver I've ever fired. It's definitely an ear-splitter.
While you can cram 22 LR ammo into this gun and fire it, it's not a good idea to do so. It's not likely to damage the gun, but accuracy will probably be poor, and the brass cases are likely to rupture, which may cause a dangerous condition by venting hot gases towards the shooter and/or bystanders. Use only 22 WMR (Winchester Magnum Rimfire) ammo in this gun.
I can't testify to anyone else's accuracy with this model, and I can barely testify to my own.
I just haven't fired it all that much, and I've always had trouble with the crude sights on these poppers. But it's a good-quality firearm and should be capable of reasonable accuracy.
The trigger pull on this gun weighs in at around 3 to 3.5 pounds, and feels very nice.
More of This Article
- Page 1: Introduction, Competing with Ruger, Left Side of Gun
- Page 2: Fan Base, Right Side, Refinishing the Frame
- Page 3: Top Rear, Sights, Making New Grips
- Page 4: Bottom View, 22 LR & 22 Magnum, Accuracy, Trigger Pull
- Page 5: New & Old Grips, Bluing, Barrel Lengths, Conclusion
The photo shows the Colt Frontier Scout '62 with factory grips and five rounds of 22 WMR ammunition.
One of the factory grip panels is quite broken up (and the inside is worse). The other one is also cracked inside and out. I have never regretted replacing them with my homemade walnut grips - in fact, I'm proud that I did so well on my first try, with very little woodworking experience.
The bluing on this gun has seen better days.
Much of it is worn off the front left side of the barrel, and the cylinder is missing some blue opposite each chamber. It hasn't had an easy life, but it's been true and dependable.
This particular gun is a personal symbol of courage and kindness and love, and will always remind me of my good-hearted uncle, Daddy's kid brother, who chose to give it to me instead of doing something much less honorable with it.
Colt Scout revolvers have nominal 4.75" and 9.5" barrels, though they typically measure 1/16" short. The long ones were marked as Buntline Scouts, but are usually listed with Frontier Scouts in reference books.
For overall feel, it's very hard to beat the pointability of a Colt single action revolver. When you pick one up, you find that it points as naturally as you'd point your finger.
Conclusion
The Colt Frontier Scout '62 is a six-shot single action revolver. This one is chambered for 22 WMR, but they were also made in 22 LR. Ammunition is not interchangeable. Some models were sold with both 22 WMR and 22 LR cylinders, which made the Scout a fairly flexible play-purty.
The Scout's fixed sights don't lend themselves to serious target shooting, but it can certainly provide a lot of fun at the range. Neither the 22 LR nor the 22 WMR is a great self-defense round, but if you have to choose one for that purpose, go with the magnum.
It's a quality gun, and I'm happy to own one.
- Russ Chastain
More of This Article
- Page 1: Introduction, Competing with Ruger, Left Side of Gun
- Page 2: Fan Base, Right Side, Refinishing the Frame
- Page 3: Top Rear, Sights, Making New Grips
- Page 4: Bottom View, 22 LR & 22 Magnum, Accuracy, Trigger Pull
- Page 5: New & Old Grips, Bluing, Barrel Lengths, Conclusion
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