Roger Rapid Posted February 1 Posted February 1 (edited) A few months ago I posted that Davide Pedersoli was going to announce its new version of the Colt 1884 Lightning rifle at the Shot Show in Las Vegas, Jan. 20-24, 2025. Last week I had the opportunity to meet with Stefano Pedersoli at the Show for a personal demonstration of the Lightning. The new model, renamed the Silver Spur, features floating cartridge guides that provide smooth feeding and eliminate the possibility of stove-piping. Background: The original medium-frame Colt Lightning – and all Lightning clones made by other manufacturers – featured a short cartridge guide about 1˝ long fitted into each side of the receiver. The guides are designed to prevent a cartridge from popping up out of the action when the lifter brings the cartridge up. Once the round is fired and the bolt extracts the cartridge from the chamber, the guides also act as ejectors to flip the shell out of the action (thus they are often referred to as “cartridge guides / ejection plates”). New Pedersoli Feature: Colt’s large-frame Lightnings had longer cartridge guides to accommodate the size of the larger calibers of the day. Pedersoli cleverly borrowed from the design of Colt’s large-frame Lightnings and applied the long-guide design to its new Silver Spur Lightning rifle. The long guides trap the cartridges to ensure a smooth and error-free path to the chamber. Because the guides are longer, they have to open once the cartridge begins to enter the chamber – thus the name “floating cartridge guides” and then they snap closed once the cartridge is chambered. The guides open again when the fired case is extracted from the chamber. In operation, the movememt of the floating guides is quick, easy, and very efficient. Pretty slick! Pedersoli's new Silver Spur Lightning is focused on the cowboy action shooting market and will be released in the June/July time frame in .45LC with a 24˝ round barrel, checkered walnut foregrip and main stock, curved buttplate, adjustable-elevation ramp sight, and case-hardened receiver. Other calibers and configurations to follow. Roger Rapid Edited February 1 by Roger Rapid 6 6 Quote
Rooster Ron Wayne Posted February 1 Posted February 1 (edited) Its another iteration of the Jackal 44 they had at shot show 2025 . See it in the background ! Edited February 1 by Rooster Ron Wayne 1 Quote
H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 Posted February 1 Posted February 1 I wish the .44 Magnum had conventional sights and stocks. I'd buy one if it did. 2 Quote
Shawnee Hills Posted February 1 Posted February 1 For those who may be interested, my dealer looked into this and found it available to pre-order from IFG with an price of $2,075.00. The Jackal is priced at $2,145.00. Their webpage confirms Roger's timeframe for delivery. 1 Quote
Roger Rapid Posted February 2 Author Posted February 2 (edited) On 2/1/2025 at 12:53 AM, Rooster Ron Wayne said: Its another iteration of the Jackal 44 they had at shot show 2025 . See it in the background ! RRW... Actually, the new Silver Spur Lightning is not an iteration of the Jackal - it's the other way around. The Jackal 44 rifle was derived from Pedersoli's Silver Spur Lightning and brings the mechanical and pump-operating features of the Lightning to the Jackal short-range hunting rifle with a 17˝ barrel, a contemporary pistol-grip stock, and in 44 Magnum. Regarding the question about price, I'll get the specifics tomorrow when they are open. And to calibers, the Silver Spur will first be released in .45LC with other calibers to follow. RR Edited February 2 by Roger Rapid Quote
H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 Posted February 2 Posted February 2 Still want the .44 Magnum in standard configuration. 1 Quote
watab kid Posted February 3 Posted February 3 i like the looks of it , a friend here has has a couple of these from first production by whomever did it that have never worked , i hope this gen does better in the reliability department , id like to have one in 38/357 myself - long as it works , Quote
Roger Rapid Posted February 3 Author Posted February 3 On 2/1/2025 at 5:50 AM, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said: I wish the .44 Magnum had conventional sights and stocks. I'd buy one if it did. H.K. Uriah... Thx.. Just want to confirm that you mean .44mag and not .44-40? (Pedersoli’s previous versions, what they now refer to as the “classic” version was only available in .45LC, .44-40, and .357 and not .44mag. I wonder how many other CAS shooters would like .44mag?) And by “standard configuration” do you mean as shown in the photo above? RR Quote
H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 Posted February 3 Posted February 3 (edited) I do indeed mean .44 Magnum, the cartridge created by making the .44 Special longer. It has been humorously referred to as ".44 Russian Extra Long" on occasion here on the wire. I honestly don't know how popular it would be amongst Cowboy shooters in general, but amongst us Lightning fans, it might be. I mean, I'd enjoy the option of using one instead of my 92 when I trot out my .44 Mag pistols. Plus, every Lightning shooter I know, including myself, likes having multiple rifles in different calibers. Getting one in .44 Magnum would very much give me an excuse to get another one. It would be my first Pedersoli, and would help to add something to my Colt/AWA/Taurus collection. Yes, standard configuration would be one that looks like this... When it comes to these old timey designs, I am very much a traditionalist when it comes to looks. I don't like the features or odd changes that most "updated" versions of these types of things have. I do sometimes think that the "tachticool" versions of some of these guns are interesting, but they don't have bayonet lugs, so I don't bother. That's be a traditionalist in the other direction, I guess. Edited February 3 by H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 2 Quote
Rooster Ron Wayne Posted February 4 Posted February 4 6 hours ago, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said: I do indeed mean .44 Magnum, the cartridge created by making the .44 Special longer. It has been humorously referred to as ".44 Russian Extra Long" on occasion here on the wire. I honestly don't know how popular it would be amongst Cowboy shooters in general, but amongst us Lightning fans, it might be. I mean, I'd enjoy the option of using one instead of my 92 when I trot out my .44 Mag pistols. Plus, every Lightning shooter I know, including myself, likes having multiple rifles in different calibers. Getting one in .44 Magnum would very much give me an excuse to get another one. It would be my first Pedersoli, and would help to add something to my Colt/AWA/Taurus collection. Yes, standard configuration would be one that looks like this... When it comes to these old timey designs, I am very much a traditionalist when it comes to looks. I don't like the features or odd changes that most "updated" versions of these types of things have. I do sometimes think that the "tachticool" versions of some of these guns are interesting, but they don't have bayonet lugs, so I don't bother. That's be a traditionalist in the other direction, I guess. I really want one too 1 Quote
Roger Rapid Posted February 4 Author Posted February 4 H.K. Uriah… Thanks for the clarification on the caliber. Got it. I don’t think we’ll see a .44 Magnum version of the Silver Spur Lightning rifle due to the limited market size for that caliber. It is my understanding that .357 will follow the .45LC version but I have no info on the release date of the .357 version. Yes, that photo will be the configuration of the first release of the Silver Spur Lightning including: 24˝ round barrel, open ramp sight, curved buttplate, .45LC, case-hardened receiver, checkered foregrip and main grip in walnut, plus the new floating cartridge guides. I too am a traditionalist for the early designs and I especially love the look of the Lightning! RR Quote
Roger Rapid Posted February 12 Author Posted February 12 On 2/3/2025 at 6:49 PM, Griff said: If only it could run the C45S! 😁 So, Griff's comment got my attention.... On a hunch, I borrowed 10 rounds of .45 Cowboy Specials from a friend and ran them through my Pedersoli Lightning and they ran without a hitch!!!! Here's a photo of a .45 Cowboy Special in the receiver showing the cartridge still under the cartridge guides ready to be fed into the chamber. Unlike a '73, the Lightning has a cartridge stop lever that feeds only one round onto the lifter at one time which means that the Lightning is not OAL dependent. Of course, this was one static test with only 10 rounds and not done under the adrenalin rush of a cowboy match. Anyone else tried this? I plan to load up a bunch and try them at a match. More to follow... RR 2 3 Quote
H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 Posted February 12 Posted February 12 3 minutes ago, Roger Rapid said: Anyone else tried this? Kind of. I took some .45-70's trimmed back to the same length as a .45 Colt. (Part of a project I am working on.) They ran flawlessly through my Colt Large Frame Lighting. Quote
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