“Mercifully, revolver technology moved on pretty quickly. The power, size, and solidity of the Colt Walker did set a standard that Colt’s long-barreled Single Action Army (a/k/a Peacemaker) in .45 caliber well satisfied.” [Rockingham, post 8]
Colt’s percussion revolvers were all somewhat delicate and prone to shooting loose: they weren’t a solid-frame design, but instead a group of four major assemblies - barrel, cylinder axis, cylinder, frame - held together by a wedge through a slot in the front of the cylinder axis, which threaded into the frame’s recoil shield. Simpler to make, easier to maintain, but not that strong.
Remington percussion revolvers (mid 1850s) had a solid frame and were much stronger.
Colt’s Single Action was actually a smaller, sleeker handgun: their first solid-framer in a major caliber. Considerably stronger and more durable, but a bit delicate (using the same lockwork Sam Colt invented back before 1836). It dominated western movies & TV more than it did it did the Wild West; mad in fairly large numbers (357,000) over a 70-year production run. Chief advantage was smaller size and quicker handling, chambered for powerful cartridges (45 Colt, 44-40, 38-40). Grip size & shape were taken from the 1861 Navy, one of the very last sidearms Sam Colt had a personal hand in designing.
There were numerous other revolver makers in the same period: Smith & Wesson, Whitney, Ethan Allen, Remington, Marlin, Manhattan, Sharps, Stevens, H&R, Iver Johnson, Hopkins & Allen, Merwin Hulbert are just a few. Many nameless makers who never marked their products. A great many made single-shot pistols. And there were seemingly a thousand and one cartridge conversions of percussion revolvers, some sold by the original makers themselves, especially Colt’s and Remington.
Films & TV have given us a false picture of uniformity.