Keith, it certainly was not my intent to denigrate the Colt 2nd Generation revolvers as indeed, they are high quality but then, the price reflects that. Replica's got a bad name in the early days as they were indeed, very poor quality,
That has changed & some replicas are indeed, well made. All that being said, Colt realized that there was money to be made by bringing back the percussions 130 years later. As I have read and again, let me state I am not an authority on replicas... Colt had all the parts made overseas & in order to put their name on the piece, they assembled the pistols here in this country. Technically, they can say it is an American gun. Because of that, plus, they waited 130 years to bring the percussion with Colt's name back, only because of the demand for replicas & there was money to be made, I consider it in the category of replicas. The replicas fill the niche for those that love to shoot B.P. and/or are re enactors & there are those that can only afford to own replicas because of the insane prices that originals now bring. I find no fault with that but replicas will always be replicas because only the originals have seen the elephant & are a piece of history.