Colt Vs. Uberti..... Class is in Session!

odentheviking

Hello All and Happy New Year!!!!

I would love to open up a class here to "fact-find" as much as we can about the connection between the Colt 2nd and 3rd Generation BP pistols and the Uberti reproduction BP pistols made in Italy. I have to admit I am no expert on the matter but back in the 1970's American Civil War Re-enacting was really taking off, and many folks were getting Italian made pistol kits to use. When they would screw up and return the kits in pieces, I would buy the bad kits from the dist. for $20 and try and put them together and resell them/ trade for gear. Over the years I worked on all the brands/makers and found that Colt and Uberti parts were the same,(many re-enactors/living historians use the Colts because they are stamped/marked as the originals but the NPS will not allow original guns in their Parks!).

In my recent research I have found many folks/personnel accounts stating that Uberti parts were used,(and by "Used" I mean refit, refinished, finetuned, made pretty, etc...), to build the Colt Sig Ser line. The only real "proof" I could find was this old G&A article:
http://archives.gunsandammo.com/content/cap--ball-resurrection
and a part interview with Lou Imperato of U.S. Iver Johnson Arms. In short, the article and Lou state that the very first Colt 2nd Gen's, the "C" ser's Mdl 1851 Navy only, were parts from Italy, fit, finished, and assembled by Colt. But after that the "F" ser's and all the 3rd Gen. were done by outside contractors using No Colt tools, employees, equipment, etc.... And the finished product was sent to Colt for final inspection.

Can anyone backup or shoot down any of this information?

I would ask that to site rep sources that we all can check/read ourselves. Many thanks to all that play along and lets have a good debate!

steg

To begin with oh great Odin, why don't you buy a book? Getting information about Colts of any era from the internet is like getting information about the Catholic Church from a Jehovah's Witness! And since you consider the "opinion" of someone who has one of the largest Colt libraries on the East Coast and who has been a guest in the old Hartford plant, the Ivor Johnson plant in N. J. as well as the Colt Blackpowder factory in Brooklyn, N.Y. to be fairytales, I leave you. Perhaps, as the chief god of the Norse........

JohnnyBGood

quote:Originally posted by odentheviking
I would love to open up a class here to "fact-find" as much as we can about the connection between the Colt 2nd and 3rd Generation BP pistols and the Uberti reproduction BP pistols made in Italy.

Gatofeo

I have read both your posts and agree with Steg.
Yes, some parts were made in Italy. Yet, I've always found it odd that Belgian-made Brownings command a higher price than those made in the U.S.A., and no one seems to make much distinction between New Haven and Miroku Winchesters.
Colt once had a plant in London. Are these then, quasi-Colts?
And incidentally, Sam Colt obtained his first patent for the revolver in 1835, in London! Later, he obtained a U.S. patent.
The 2nd and 3rd generation cap and ball revolvers were marketed by Colt or with the approval of Colt. You went to a Colt dealer to order one. Colt listed them in its catalogs.
To me it's a Colt, just as a Miroku-made Winchester is a Winchester or an FN is a Browning, if sold and marked as such.

flyingcollie

Just for what it's worth, through the winter, I acquired two 1851 Colt Navies, one a second generation, the other a signature series. Up to this time, I've had two 1861 Uberti Navies, and I've shot them a lot. Today was "the first day of spring" I shot ten rounds through each of the Colts, and performance-wise, there's no comparing them with the Ubertis, which have always been difficult at best, troublesome at worst. The Colts fire and operate smoothly, no glitches, and they're impressively accurate.