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Looking to see if anyone can help

dtbritendtbriten Member Posts: 3 ✭✭
edited November 2007 in Ask the Experts
I have a revolver that I am trying to identify so i can learn more about it. The information I do know is:
Colt Revolver
Black Powder
SN # 259350
Has a 7 sided barrel
Can someone suggest how I can find out more about this revolver. It's been in the family forever... Thanks

Comments

  • needmygunsneedmyguns Member Posts: 2,264 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    look on gunbroker might be one there like you got[?][?]
  • Spider7115Spider7115 Member Posts: 29,704 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    No such thing as a 7 sided barrel - count them again. It has to be 8 sided (octagon). You need to more fully describe it including all markings. It MIGHT be a Model 1849 pocket model, .31 caliber, but we need more details. Is there an engraved stagecoach scene on the cylinder? Pics would be a big help.
  • mongrel1776mongrel1776 Member Posts: 894 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    In the absence of photographs --

    What's the barrel length? Is there a loading lever underneath the barrel? Is the triggerguard round, or squared at the back? And, like Spider asked, is there a stagecoach scene pressed into the cylinder?

    The only original, octagonal-barrelled Colt with a serial number range as high as yours would be an 1849 Pocket, made over a 23-year period ending in 1873. The only other model that came close to this production total was the 1851 Navy, of which some 215,000 were made in the United States (plus another 42,000 or so, in London, but these featured their own serial number range starting at 1 -- so there would be no Navies with serial numbers as high as yours). Assuming yours to be an original 1849, photographs or a more detailed description would help establish exactly which variation you have.
  • dtbritendtbriten Member Posts: 3 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I know nothing about guns and already understand one error. When I said 7 sided barrel, what I meant was the inside not the outside. The outside is 8 but the inside isn't round. The ammunition would have to be 7 sided also. Engravings are hard to make out but it appears to be a stagecoach with 4 men in the front. One laying down, two running and the fourth near the horse. Sorry, I don't know what a loading lever is. The trigger guard is not square or round. Kind of a U shape. I don't know how to do a picture. Forum doesn't allow attachments and i can't copy it into message.The barrel, if I'm measuring it correctly, is 6 inches. How do i do a picture?
  • mongrel1776mongrel1776 Member Posts: 894 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by dtbriten
    I know nothing about guns and already understand one error. When I said 7 sided barrel, what I meant was the inside not the outside. The outside is 8 but the inside isn't round. The ammunition would have to be 7 sided also. Engravings are hard to make out but it appears to be a stagecoach with 4 men in the front. One laying down, two running and the fourth near the horse. Sorry, I don't know what a loading lever is. The trigger guard is not square or round. Kind of a U shape. I don't know how to do a picture. Forum doesn't allow attachments and i can't copy it into message.The barrel, if I'm measuring it correctly, is 6 inches. How do i do a picture?


    [:D] I know guns and history, not computers, so how you post pictures here is out of my realm.

    A loading lever is a pair of metal rods hinged together and mounted underneath the barrel. The shorter one will slide into the chambers of the cylinder as the longer one is swivelled down. It's used to ram the lead balls into the mouths of the chambers, when the gun is at half-cock and each chamber is rotated by hand into line with the rammer. The balls, or bullets, by the way, were round in cross-section -- it's the rifling of the barrel that gives the bore the appearance of being seven-sided.

    You appear to have an 1849 Pocket Colt, made in the last few years of its production run. These had barrel lengths ranging from three to six inches, with and without loading levers. Assuming, again, that it's original, no idea what it's worth -- condition would have a lot to do with that, and even then my sources are a couple of years out of date.

    My saying twice, "assuming" it's original, isn't to imply you might not be telling the truth about its age. Replicas of the various Colts have been around for many years, now, and some are starting to look old as dirt themselves. [;)]
  • nononsensenononsense Member Posts: 10,928 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    dtbriten,

    While it doesn't help identify the firearm, it sounds like the 7-sided rifling is the Alexander Henry rifling form which is heptagonal in shape.

    "The Henry rifle has a polygonal bore with seven instead of six sides." - Sir Joseph Whitworth

    Alexander Henry was Scottish gunsmith/designer who created this 7-sided rifling form in the 1860's. It eventually turned up in the Henry rifles and interesting enough in the Martini-Henry rifles as manufactured by the Providence Tool Co. through the auspices of a Mr. Henry O. Peabody of Boston. He was responsible for using this rifling form in hundreds of thousand of Peabody-Martini-Henry rifles produced for the Turkish government starting in 1872.

    This rifling form is still available:

    HENRY STYLE RIFLING

    Also known as Schalak or Pope Style Rifling, these are currently available in .577 and .458 calibers. Also .40 Cal, .375 Cal. and .32 -49 cal. available for future production.

    Krieger Barrels, Inc.

    Best.
  • Spider7115Spider7115 Member Posts: 29,704 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    OK, those "sides" are rifling grooves, cut to make the ball (bullet) spin as it leaves the barrel. The ball is not "7- sided" but is round or conical in shape.

    It definitely sounds like you have a Colt Model 1849 "pocket model" manufactured in 1864. You can post pictures by following the instructions in this link: http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=259294

    If you have a problem posting, e-mail them to me at kabarknives@att.net and I'll post them for you.
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