A Fic Writer's Guide to "The Colt"
“Back in 1835, when Halley's Comet was overhead, the same night those men died at the Alamo, they say Samuel Colt made a gun.”
The hunter Samuel Colt (yes, that one) created "the Colt" in the fall or winter of 1835 for an unnamed hunter. In addition to acting as the key to the Wyoming Devil’s Gate, the Colt is able to kill almost anything. According to John, the original owner used the gun “half a dozen times” before coming into the possession of the vampire hunter Daniel Elkins. In 1.20, when the Colt is first revealed, it is shown to have only five bullets remaining.
The first five uses of the Colt are unknown. The sixth, seventh, and eighth bullets were all used on March 4th, 1861 (6.18) when Samuel Colt killed two demons and Dean killed the phoenix Elias Finch. Dean then dropped the gun, leaving it in its correct timeline.
The ninth bullet was used in 1.20 when John killed the vampire Luther. In 1.21, Sam uses the tenth bullet to shoot Azazel, but misses. In 1.22, bullets eleven and twelve are used when Dean kills the demon Tom to save Sam and when Sam shoots John in the leg to remove Azazel from his body. Finally, in 2.22, Dean uses the thirteenth bullet to shoot and kill Azazel.
Semi-canon note: Supernatural: John Winchester's Journal by Alex Irvine has John first learning of the Colt's existence in April of 1991. According to the entry, the Colt was created on Halloween night. In 1997, the May 23rd entry details John working through the known information on the Colt and narrows its creation down to the night of December 1, 1835. December 1st is the feast day of Saint Eloy, the patron saint of blacksmiths.
The Colt shown in the show is a Pietta reproduction of the 1836 Colt Paterson, the first commercially available revolver. It has a wooden grip with a silver-colored frame and blued steel hammer, cylinder, and octagonal barrel. Both sides of the barrel are inscribed with “non timebo mala” which means “I will fear no evil.” and is from Psalm 23. An inverted pentacle is crudely carved into each side of the grip. The frame and barrel are engraved with a filigree pattern. There is a notch in the hammer that, alongside the bit on the barrel towards the muzzle, acts as a sight. In 3.04 while testing his rebuild of the Colt, we see Bobby adjust the sight by filing down the hammer.
One notable feature of the Paterson is its folding trigger. When the user thumbs back the hammer, the cylinder is turned to the next round and the trigger drops down. This action is clearly shown in 12.14 when Sam takes aim at the Alpha Vampire. The Colt is single-action and non-automatic, meaning the hammer must be cocked each and every time you take a shot and pulling the trigger only shoots one round.
Unlike a more modern firearm, the Colt has no safety. The safest way to carry it would be to load only four of the five chambers and leave the hammer down on an empty cylinder. Of course, Sam and Dean rarely use the safety on their primary weapons, so they likely just leave the gun fully loaded if possible.
The Paterson (and by extension the Pietta repro used for the show) doesn’t have a loading gate or swinging cylinder like later revolvers. To reload a historical Paterson, remove the wedge and pry off the barrel. From there, you can load your powder and rounds into the cylinder chambers, tamp them down, add caps, and reassemble the gun. In 1.20, we see Daniel Elkins load the Colt somewhat correctly (yanking the barrel off instead of removing the wedge). However, in 12.14, we see Sam “loading” a bullet into the back of the assembled Colt’s cylinder much like the way you might load a Single Action Army.
On the topic of bullets, the Colt Paterson predates modern cartridge bullets despite what we see in the show and would've shot ball ammo. In it’s first year, the Paterson was made to shoot .28 caliber. The Pietta reproduction used in the show shoots .36 caliber rounds. Based on this and the appearance of the prop bullets, I’m going to wager a guess that the Colt shoots .38 special ammo, or something incredibly similar. It’s possible that somehow (time traveling hunter, demon, or angel?) thirteen modern .38 special bullets ended up in the possession of Samuel Colt and he built The Colt specifically to shoot them, basing the gun around the cap-and-ball model he was working on.
For both the original ammo and the modern bullets, the Colt would be fairly accurate around 50 yards (45.7 meters) in fair conditions as the weight and velocity would be nearly the same. Half that for firing while moving or being knocked around.
In 3.04, Bobby and Ruby created a ritual to create more Colt bullets. To do this, coat silver bullets with holy oil (from Jerusalem), sage, and myrrh. Then, chant “Signum est imitandum. Signum est imitandum.”.
Tada! You can now kill (almost) anything.
The Colt is used 16 more times in the show, including to kill Dean's crossroads demon, to kill Ruby, and to attempt to kill Lucifer. The Colt harms him, but he then says that there are only five things in creation that the Colt cannot kill. What these other four things are is never specified.
