Oldest Navy Arms 1851 Navy I have come across

[elhombreconnonombre]

1960, brass frame, round barrel with stag grips, cylinder not engraved, with Gardone proof marks, but who made it , G.U. mark????

 

[Fingers McGee]

It's actually a Griswold & Gunnison and the grips aren't original. Gregorelli & Uberti made it. They were the maker for Navy Arms from 1958 through about 1964 when Uberti took over. I've got an unfired pair, one with no date code and one marked 1960. The undated one is a 10XX SN.

 

[elhombreconnonombre]

Thanks Fingers
I have bought an item or two from this seller before, but cannot do it right now. It looks like an early "Uberti" I should keep track of should the money situation improve.
El Hombre.

 

[Jim K]

The date translates to 1961. The earliest Navy Arms repros were of the Colt 1851 and had steel case-hardened frames. The brass framed "Confederate" guns came later.

Jim

 

[Fingers McGee]

The first 16 prototypes that were made in 1958 were 10 1851 Navies and 6 Griswold and Gunnisons. "Civil War Guns" by William B. Edwards, page 423, and XVI is 1960.

 

[bprevolver]

Gregorelli & Uberti Prototypes

RPRCA has William B. Edwards' 1851 Navy Prototype #1 in its collection. I have never seen or heard of any of the other Prototypes surfacing in the 20+ years I have been collecting. Dennis Russell has the original Colt 1851 Navy #82 that was smuggled into Italy for Gregorelli & Uberti to copy. These are the only two of the original revolvers that have thus far surfaced. The others are out there somewhere.

 

[StrawHat]

Here is a link to an article about the revolvers mentioned by bprevolver.

http://rprca.tripod.com/GunThatStartedItAll.htm

I have one of the G.U. steel framed revolvers. No date code but a 1200 serial number.

 

[DoubleDeuce 1]

I have a steel framed Navy Arms 1851 also. No engraving on the cylinder. It is marked "G U". I contacted Navy Arms a few years ago to find out what I could about the revolver. I was told Navy Arms had to surrender all of their records to the gubbmint when Mr. Forgett died, and didn't have much information to give.

I was told my revolver was made 1959-1960. I am the second owner. It has a lot of character.

 

[elhombreconnonombre]

Hmm..wonder what the govt wanted with Val Jrs. records. Did Val III give you that info?

 

[DoubleDeuce 1]

The secretary I spoke to at Navy Arms gave me the info.

 

[elhombreconnonombre]

Ive picked Val III's brain a couple of times, but his knowlege of the early days of Navy arms is somewhat limited as he was just a tike back then.