Full Review of Colt's New Alaskan Revolvers

Sturdy and reliable, these double-action revolvers are built to take on the most rigorous environments.

April 10, 2025 By Joseph Von Benedikt

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Grizzly. Kodiak. The names are evocative of danger, of adventure, and of brute strength. Colt’s new revolvers are themed after Alaska’s rugged terrain and gnarliest bears, and they are built to suit. Colt’s classic double-action wheelguns were traditionally named after dangerous snakes. Not all (there was the Detective Special and so forth), but famously there was the Python, the Viper, the King Cobra, the Anaconda.

The serpent-named revolvers tend to be quick-handling and relatively lightweight (for their caliber), and most of them are built to carry comfortably all day in law enforcement duty conditions. Colt’s new Alaska-themed revolvers are different. They’re robust. Nonfluted cylinders give them extra strength for the high-pressure, heavy-for-caliber bullets they’ll most likely be fed.

There are currently two in the Alaska line. The Grizzly is chambered in .357 Magnum; the Kodiak is chambered in .44 Magnum. Aside from frame size, the two are remarkably similar, so I’ll discuss design and features of them both at the same time.

Big, Boxy & Strong

Both wear 4.25-inch barrels with full-length underlugs that add weight up front and help tame muzzle rise during recoil. Vented ribs up top are machined integral to the barrels. Three round ports are drilled through each barrel on each side of the front sight. Their purposes are to reduce recoil and additionally to curb muzzle jump.

Atop the ribs, there are nice ramped grooved blade-type front sights with red inserts. They’re replaceable, so you can swap out various heights if the elevation adjustment in the rear sight isn’t enough to get sighted-in with a certain load. More on that later. The muzzles have cleanly beveled crowns that are well recessed to help protect them from being damaged during rigorous use. Barrel breech ends are fitted nice and close, with minimal cylinder gaps.

Front sight of Revolver — (Photo Provided by Author)

Each revolver wears its name engraved on the left side of the barrel, along with a pawprint of a grizzly bear. It’s a good-looking and distinctive mark that sets the Alaska-themed revolvers apart. Engraved on the right side of the barrel is “Colt’s MFG., HARTFORD, CT USA.” Both the Grizzly and the Kodiak are built on frames that are big and boxy and radiate strength and durability. Rather than having weight-reducing, streamlining scallops machined into each side of the cylinders’ topstraps, they’re flat-top revolvers.

Well-conceived adjustable rear sights are fitted into channels in those flat-top frames. They’re adjustable for height via slot-head screws. To adjust windage, first loosen the tiny hex-head locking screw in the base of the sight blade, then turn the small slot-head screw in the right side of the sight. Snug the locking screw down to lock the sight blade in place when you’re happy with your point of impact.

In front of the .44-caliber Kodiak’s rear sight assembly, two holes are drilled and tapped into the topstrap, enabling the owner to easily add a scope base if desired. Presumably Colt anticipates .357 Magnum owners are unlikely to put an optic on their sidearm because the .357-caliber Grizzly is not drilled and tapped for a scope base.

Both revolvers are fitted with Colt’s traditional pull-to-release thumb-activated cylinder latches on the left sides of the frames. Well-serrated kidney-shaped tabs make them easy to snag with the thumb of the shooting hand and pull rearward to unlatch the cylinders. When brand new, the latches on both revolvers were fitted so snugly that they were a tad sticky. Sometimes I’d have to tug pretty hard to get them to release. That’s not a bad thing; it indicates that these wheelguns are built with good, tight lockups. As the guns broke in with the first 50 rounds or so, the latches smoothed out and became easier to operate.

Colt Grizzly revolver — The new Grizzly and Kodiak double-action revolvers feature ported barrels, adjustable rear sights, replaceable front sights, unfluted cylinders, and recoil-taming grips. (Photo Provided by Author)

While the cylinders are locked closed, the ejector rods are completely housed in and protected by the barrel underlugs. When unlatched, the cylinders rotate out on robust cranes, sturdy enough that they should take considerable abuse without being bent or distorted. The ejector rods are well-fitted and operate without binding, and my testing proved that the ejectors reliably pushed fired cases out of the cylinders.

The frames are beautifully polished to such a mirror finish that I can clearly see my reflection. They are free of embellishment, aside from the manufacturer’s traditional Rampant Colt engraved in the historic position on the left sides of the frames, just beneath the cylinder latches. The Rampant Colt emblem has some cool history. Inspired by a medieval coat of arms, it depicts a horse defending its fallen knight by breaking a lance in half, holding one half in its legs and the other in its mouth. According to the site coltfever.com, it’s an ancient symbol of loyalty.

Both the Grizzly and the Kodiak are double-action models and have compact hammers with generous, grooved spurs set into the rear of the frames. The mechanisms utilize transfer bars, ensuring that a blow on the rear of a hammerspur cannot accidentally cause the firing pin to hit a primer and detonate a cartridge. The triggers are well set in beautifully profiled trigger guards and are comfortably curved to fit the trigger finger. Deep grooves in the trigger faces give them nonslip surfaces.

Rear sight of Colt — (Photo Provided by Author)

The grips—or stocks if you prefer—are Hogue’s popular OverMolded versions, private-labeled with the Colt logo on each side. These grips are popular for a reason—they’re comfortable, thanks to excellent ergonomic proportions; they have deep finger grooves and a rubbery surface that ensures a nonslip grip even when wet and slick with mud, sweat, or blood; and they are compressible enough to help take the bite out of sparky recoil.

Colt revolvers are historically renowned for smooth, light double-action trigger pulls and light, crisp single-action pulls. When I picked up the two revolvers from my local dealer, my first impulse was to try the triggers and see how they compared to the old Colt’s I’ve used. At first blush, the double-action pulls on both are remarkable—smooth, clean, and without noticeable stacking. The single-action pulls are decent but leave a bit to be desired. Both required around 6.0 pounds of pressure to fire.

At Home on the Range

When it was time to put the new revolvers through their paces at the shooting range, I collected three different types of ammo for each and headed out. Keeping in mind the intended realm of the Alaska-series guns, I opted for three heavy-for-caliber .44 Magnum loads, including Federal’s 270-grain Hammer Down, Hornady’s 300-grain XTP, and Garrett’s 310-grain Hard Cast.

I was a bit more eclectic with the .357 Magnum ammo, figuring that revolver may see use for anything from home and personal protection to backup carry in bear country. So I opted for Hornady’s .38 Special 158-grain XTP load, Remington’s UMC 125-grain JSP load, and Federal’s 180-grain A-Frame load.

Sandbagging the .357 Magnum Grizzly at the 25-yard berm, I began firing groups. I thought it best to start with the lighter-recoiling revolver in order to maintain good form as long as possible—which later proved to be a valid plan. It was immediately apparent that the Grizzly is a shooter. Groups were tidy, mighty tidy. Not one group out of the many I fired with the revolver measured more than 2.0 inches; in fact, the largest was 1.82 inches.

Federal’s 180-grain Swift A-Frame load took top honors, producing an impressive 0.98-inch average. I was delighted, since that’s the load I’d choose to carry in the Lower 48 and in interior Alaska’s grizzly country, were I packing the .357 Magnum revolver. Both of the other loads averaged less than 1.5 inches. That’s darned good for an off-the-shelf revolver on a windy day at the range.

During testing I fired all shots single action so as to maximize my ability to execute clean, consistent pulls. As a result, I became pretty familiar with the Grizzly’s trigger. It’s not perfect. As I squeezed, the hammer would ear back ever so slightly farther before it dropped. I’m not a gunsmith, but if I’m not mistaken, that indicates there’s a slightly incorrect angle somewhere in the trigger/sear/hammer relationship. And every once in a while, the trigger would emit a small “click” and move rearward a tad. Continued squeezing would then fire the gun.

Initially, the sights put bullets about 6.0 inches high and about 4.0 inches right. Ten clicks down on the rear sight bottomed it out but brought vertical point of impact precisely on point of aim. A half-dozen clicks to the side zeroed out windage. From that point on, most shots stacked inside my 2x2-inch aiming spots.

It’s worth noting that the small setscrew in the rear sight blade was not snugged down to secure the windage adjustment. And I could not secure it, as it requires a very small hex-head wrench—smaller than the 1/16 wrench that’s the smallest in my gunsmithing screwdriver set. (Once home, I found a needle-like wrench and tightened the setscrew.)

When I stepped away from the bench and fired informal drills after accuracy-testing the .357 Magnum Grizzly, I mostly used the double-action trigger function. For whatever reason, said double-action trigger was not nearly as light with ammo in the cylinder as it was without. It stacked considerably near the end of its travel.

Colt revolver accuracy — Joseph found accuracy to be good with both revolvers and was particularly impressed with the .357 Magnum Grizzly that produced this sub-1-inch, five-shot group at 25 yards. (Photo Provided by Author)

This left me a bit perplexed. I suspect that another couple hundred rounds through the Grizzly would burnish whatever parts are binding and smooth out the system. At any rate, the Colt Grizzly’s trigger was the only gripe I have about the firearm. Aside from not quite living up to Colt’s reputation for best-in-class triggers, it’s a very good-quality gun.

When I shifted to the .44 Magnum Kodiak revolver, I found it is a distinctly large revolver. It’s built tough as a wheelbarrow. It feels great in the hand, and it functioned flawlessly.

I should, however, have gone into testing a lineup of heavy .44-Magnum ammo with my eyes a bit wider open. Recoil was stout, notwithstanding the sturdy nature of the Kodiak with its excellent ergonomics and ported muzzle. I suppose that’s what I should have expected from 270-, 300-, and 310-grain bullets loaded to the hilt in .44 Magnum ammo.

Possibly because of the more aggressive recoil, I wasn’t able to milk quite the degree of accuracy out of the Kodiak as I was out of the Grizzly. Not that it shot poorly—far from it. Top honors went to the Garrett 310-grain hard cast load, which averaged 1.74 inches over three consecutive groups. The Hornady load averaged less than 2.0 inches, and the Federal load averaged 2.21 inches. It helped that the Kodiak’s trigger was free from the small imperfections present in the Grizzly’s trigger. It broke clean and crisp.

Remember how I mentioned that the front sights are interchangeable, in case a shooter is unable to get zeroed with a given load and the standard-height sight that comes on the revolver? Were I to send Colt a check for this Kodiak rather than return the sample, I’d need to get a taller sight. Why? Because even with the rear sight at its lowest position, point of impact was about 8.0 inches high at 25 yards.

Thinking it may be a function of the heavy-for-caliber bullets, which often tend to hit higher on a target than lighter versions, I got some classic 240-grain .44 Magnum loads, but they impacted exactly the same elevation as the 310-grain hard cast loads. It’s definitely a sight issue. Thankfully, it’s an easy fix.

Data from Grizzly revolver — (Data Provided by Author)

I must also mention that the setscrew on the Kodiak’s rear sight blade wasn’t snugged down to lock in the sight either, just like the Grizzly’s. And in this case, probably thanks to the zesty recoil of the heavier cartridge, I found the rear sight walking a bit to the side over a series of shots. That setscrew needs to be tightened at the factory. On the subject of point of impact, it’s worth noting that all the loads I fired through each revolver hit nearly the same in relation to the sights. That’s an unusual and endearing characteristic in a revolver.

Done accuracy-testing the .44 Magnum, I paused to send a text message to my family. I was amused to find that my right-hand thumb—in fact my whole hand—was trembling slightly from the oft-repeated concussion of the heavy-recoiling Kodiak revolver. Were I to practice a lot with the gun, I’d load down some light bullets or buy a bunch of .44 Special ammo to shoot through it. When the smoke had cleared and the dust had settled, I wiped down the Grizzly and Kodiak revolvers. Thanks to the high-polish finish, they cleaned up beautifully in mere seconds.

Is there anything I’d change about either revolver? Nope. I really like the configuration Colt has chosen for both. What I would do, however, is scrutinize finish work a bit more. I’d require triggers to be lighter, like the classic snake series. And even more importantly, I’d be sure none escaped the factory with slight glitches in the trigger like my sample Grizzly has. Too, the loose setscrews in the rear sights should be snugged down, and during proof- and test-firing, I’d have technicians determine that the installed front sights paired properly with the rear sights, ensuring adequate elevation adjustment to get point of impact mated with point of aim.

Kodiak accuracy data — (Data Provided by Author)

Those nitpicky items aside, I think Colt’s new Alaska revolvers are a winning combination. The two versatile cartridges provide useful tools for just about any task an outdoorsman may have.

Will we be fortunate enough to see extensions of the Alaska series? I hope so. It would be cool to see a lightweight, compact .357 Magnum suitable for everyday carry in the home, around town, and on the trail. Perhaps it could be called the Wolverine. And I sure wouldn’t complain about a rimfire version designed for the trapline. Keeping with the predatorial naming theme, it could be dubbed the Lynx.

I have little doubt that in a half-century, the Kodiak and Grizzly revolvers will be well-burnished wheelguns with a reputation for toughness, dependability, and accuracy. They’re a great way to carry on Colt’s legacy of fine revolvers.