In the 1880s Colt's revolvers were extremely popular, but Remington and Winchester had the rifle market cornered. Colt needed to find a way to get their foot in and what better way could they have done this than by designing a rifle specifically to compliment their revolvers? The result was three sizes of Colt Lighting rifles which were the first slide action rifles developed by Colt and were chambered for the same cartridges used in the Single Action Army. Colt proclaimed "Nothing was faster than lightning!" The capable rifles have a short pump action that allow for quick follow up shots. One trick was to hold the trigger and pump the action for "lightning" fast shots. The smaller framed version was great for target practice, and the larger frames could handle big game, but the medium framed rifles, such as this one, were great all around. Equipped with a revolver and a rifle capable of firing the same rounds, a man could feed his family and, if need be, defend them at close and long range. This exceptional example was manufactured in 1890 with deluxe special order features. It has a dovetailed beaded blade front sight, adjustable semi-buckhorn rear sight, and a short range peep sight on the upper tang. It also features a half length magazine tube and the rarely seen and highly desirable casehardened frame. The top of the barrel is marked with the two-line address/patent dates ahead of the rear sight on the round portion and "32 Cal." on the top flat at the breech. The serial number is marked on the lower tang. It is mounted with a deluxe multi-point checkered highly figured walnut forearm and pistol grip stock with a steel crescent buttplate and an initial oval on the bottom of the butt.