Ephraim Kibbey
Member
When I saw all the beautiful guns on the new 1851/1860 Club, I was inspired to dig out all of mine.
I had not looked at my original 1851 in some time and I was reminded of something about it that has always escaped my understanding.
It has a 7 1/2 inch barrel with the third type of address and its serial number puts its manufacture during 1864 which matches the time frame for that type of address according to Flayderman's.
The total length is a little over 13 inches.
ALL of the SN's match numerically as well as in size and font.
The barrel still has good rifling visible and measures .36 caliber as do the six chamber mouths in the cylinder.
The cylinder engraving is gone but "Colts Patent" and the last four digits of the serial number are still visible in a single line.
So far so good right?
So WHY is the trigger guard clearly marked 31 Cal???
I have an original .31 caliber Colt 1849 pocket pistol with a 6 inch barrel and its trigger guard and grip are dwarfed by this pistol's. They would in no way fit this frame.
Is this as simple as someone at Colt with a hang-over picking up the wrong stamp or am I missing something?
I had not looked at my original 1851 in some time and I was reminded of something about it that has always escaped my understanding.
It has a 7 1/2 inch barrel with the third type of address and its serial number puts its manufacture during 1864 which matches the time frame for that type of address according to Flayderman's.
The total length is a little over 13 inches.
ALL of the SN's match numerically as well as in size and font.
The barrel still has good rifling visible and measures .36 caliber as do the six chamber mouths in the cylinder.
The cylinder engraving is gone but "Colts Patent" and the last four digits of the serial number are still visible in a single line.
So far so good right?
So WHY is the trigger guard clearly marked 31 Cal???
I have an original .31 caliber Colt 1849 pocket pistol with a 6 inch barrel and its trigger guard and grip are dwarfed by this pistol's. They would in no way fit this frame.
Is this as simple as someone at Colt with a hang-over picking up the wrong stamp or am I missing something?