Anyone else have a 1862 Pocket Navy?

[flintman]

Mine is a Uberti,I like it pretty good.It's a 5 shot and is pretty compact and all,octagonal barrel,seems like a must have to me!
Right now it is the only BP revolver I have.

 

[mykeal]

I have a Uberti 1862 Pocket Police; the difference between it and the Pocket Navy is the barrel: round on the Police, octagonal on the Navy.

My Police has an interesting anomoly: the nipple threads are .200x28, a very unusual and frankly undocumented thread size. They should be 12x28 like all other small frame Ubertis. That .016 difference is real (a regular 12x28 nipple will not start in any of the nipple holes) but inexplicable. It's the only gun like it I've found.

Fine gun, fun to shoot. They tend to have a problem with spent caps jamming the action due to lack of clearance between the recoil shield and the cylinder, but there is a fix mentioned in Cumpston and Bates' book

Please post some pictures.

 

[Pancho]

I have a pair of 1862 police and they are great. I tend to lean away from the octagon barrel of the pocket navy. Just a matter of taste. Make sure you check out the stickies at the beginning of this forum there is a lot of great information on shooting C&B revolvers. Also, let me put in a pitch for a holster company that makes an affordable flap style holster for the pocket 36's Dellsleatherworks.com. I have two of them. They are made in upper state New York for $35 plus shipping and when you call them you get the owner/craftsmen.

 

[Tommygunn]

I have both the 1862 Pocket Navy and the Police version. Both are fun. The police revolver shoots quite high, but is still a neat little gun. The 1862 Pocket navy is more accurate and is still fun.

 

[mec]

Original Pocket Police (a good shooter, see below) and original Pocket 31.
In late 1861, Colt introduced not only the modern version of the .36 Navy with all the features of the 1860 Army Revolvers but also extended the line of pocket revolvers. The Pocket Navy or, Pocket Revolver of Navy Caliber, was a scaled-down, five-shot version of the 1851, while the Pocket Police revolvers were of the same size utilizing the modern features including the ratcheted loading lever, cylinder flutes and round barrel. Both mirrored the Army and Navy by rebating the frame and reducing the rear of the cylinder to allow a .36-caliber arm on the .31 Pocket Model frame. William Clark Quantrill, the Confederate raider, reportedly favored this model. These revolvers would remain in production until 1873 and reach production numbers of about 19,000 of the old Navy pattern and in the high 20,000 range of the modern type. Some of the later design remained in the factory and became cartridge revolvers in the early 1870s.
Our examples include an original Colt and a couple of replicas. All are fine shooters.

.36 Uberti Pocket 80 gr. Ball- .375&.380" Velocity fps Spread (5)
15 Grains Goex FFFg 774 60
15 Gr/Vol. Pyrodex P 774 23
15 Gr/Vol. H777 596 290
.36 Pocket Navy
15.8 Goex FFFg 690 13
15 Grains Swiss 787 58

Recorded velocities with the standard 15-grain charge resemble the performance of the .32 Smith and Wesson cartridge that began to appear in pocket revolvers in the late 1870s. Pyrodex and Goex FFFg were virtually identical while the H 777 turned in the same wildly erratic performance observed in compressed full loads in other handguns.
The original Colt Pocket Police is in very good condition with the exception of a pitted bore. There is evidence of some mishandling in that the safety pins are flattened off and there are some hammer strike marks on the rear of the cylinder on either side of the nipples. It has some remaining blue and nickel plate left on the front portion of the grip frame. We charged it up with .380 balls, 15 grains of Goex FFFg and Remington number ten caps. The loading, handling, and shooting sensations were indistinguishable from the Uberti replicas. Number ten Remington caps were a perfect fit, and the seating pressure for the .380-inch balls was the same as with a Uberti. Cycling was very smooth and as problem-free as the replica pocket models we have modified for reliability with burst caps. Cumpston fired five “duelist” from twenty-five yards and registered a group about ten inches above point of aim and a bit to the right. The five-shot cluster measured about five inches, which is right in line with the expected off-hand accuracy with the replicas.
New Pocket Police Model revolvers and the full line of spare parts are available from Uberti USA and Cimarron Arms. They are very fine shooters once one has grown accustomed to the small grips. A five-inch off-hand group at twenty-five yards is not unusual and a properly sighted Pocket Police or Navy would make a decent small-game revolver.

Colt Pocket Navy
The Pocket Navy has the same rebated frame and cylinder as the Pocket Police, the New Navy and the 1860 Army. Built on the 31 Pocket revolver frame, it uses the same loading lever assembly as the earlier and still popular so-called 1849 revolvers. The inclusion of the Pocket Navy may well stem from Colt’s well-known penchant for economy and making efficient use of all available parts. The unfluted cylinder may be a bow toward the nostalgic sensibilities of ’51 Navy owners. Imaginative collectors early dubbed this revolver “The New Pocket Navy of 1853,” but it was clearly a product of the Civil War period.

Note high front sight to correct poi
Our Uberti version, made in 2004, had a heavier trigger and rougher action than most of the larger Uberti replicas made in the same period. Bates addressed the trigger pull by laying a ridge of epoxy on the front of the hammer under the full-cock notch. In this way, he was able to reduce creep and apparent trigger pull without interfering with surface hardening of the metal. The action became smoother as we used the revolver and displayed reliable function when we switched from CCI number 11 to the Remington number 10 caps that fit this revolver better. The 690 foot-per-second velocity with the .375-inch ball over 15.8 grains of Goex FFFg was a bit lower than seen with the Pocket Police revolvers with a smaller charge. Such variations among similar and even identical arms are common. The thirteen feet-per-second spread over five rounds is typical of expected consistency with black powder.

off brand 4f prime. Note extra tall front bead to correct high poi
The circa five-inch barrel of the Uberti Pocket Navy provided fine balance and contributed to very satisfactory off-hand shooting at paper targets at various distances. Point of impact was more than a foot over the sights at sixty feet and twenty-five yards. Bates cut a dovetail in the barrel and installed a taller blade sight. He then regulated the revolver to hit to the sights at the above distances. The modified revolver makes a fine kit gun for field shooting and small-game hunting at close range.

 

[DrLaw]

Man, Mec, you always have the classiest photos for these threads and some pretty fine guns there.

I have the Uberti Police model and the Wells Fargo. I find both to be pretty right on where I aim them at 25 yards. Great little guns.

The Doc is out now.

 

[Pancho]

Mec, Does the round barrel Police have enough metal at the muzzle to allow for a dovetail sight to be cut in?

 

[bigbadgun]

Welcome to the Sport Flintman becareful these Revolvers are very addictive.

 

[mec]

Does the round barrel Police have enough metal at the muzzle to allow for a dovetail sight to be cut in?

Good question. I'm not sure about that. I do believe it would need to be a shallow dovetail though. I really think these guns shot high not because they were sighted in for 100 yards but because the shorter beads are harder to knock off than the tall ones.

 

[bigbadgun]

mec where did you get that gator powder?

 

[mec]

Clarksville Rod and Gun. It is a basic, low grade prime powder that doesn't have the smaller particles filtered out. according to the properietor, he encountered a bulk supply of it and the only container available was a gator aide bottle. So they named it Gator. I don't really know how it compares to goex or other ffffg but it was slower than 3f in that particular pistol.

the guy says that flintlock shooters really swear by it and it saves them a little money.

 

[bigbadgun]

thanks for the info mec