Colt's Patent Navy Revolver

“ Any of those named are excellent and are capable of shooting much more accurately than they can possibly be held by the most expert shots. A man with a large hand will probably find the Remington pistol or the Colt New Service revolver best suited for him ”

“ At a long range they are useless; at close quarters, which is the only situation in which an officer actually needs fire-arms, a revolver is far preferable. I know of no rifle so well adapted to an officer's use as Colt's carbine,—of eighteen or twenty-one inch barrel, and not less than 44/100 of an inch calibre. It may be depended upon for six hundred yards, the short barrel renders its manipulation easy in a close fight, and the value of the repeating principle at such a time can be estimated only by that of life. ”

“ Some of the fire-arms challenge attention, from the fact that they so closely resemble designs and samples to be seen in Venice, showing that the principle of the modern revolver was born and partially carried out centuries before the ingenious American, Colonel Colt, perfected a weapon which has since become universal. ”

“ Then the adventurers in Texas and through the Middle West came to look upon the six-shooter as the most valuable part of their outfit, and there was a sufficiently large band of these adventurers to cause a fair-sized demand. This enabled the Colt Company to struggle on until the Mexican War became certain.
Then General Taylor, who had used the Colt revolver in his Indian campaigns, recommended that the United States troops be furnished with it. The little factory in Hartford suddenly found itself confronted with an order for twenty thousand revolvers. ”

“ After the war, business did not fall off materially, for the great Western migration was on, and every one who made it went armed. The pioneer and the traveler depended upon the Colt in an emergency, and the workmanship was so good that the revolver itself never failed. It played a great part again in the Civil War, for most of the Northern troops, in addition to their Springfield rifles, carried Colt revolvers. Thus the idea that a runaway boy evolved during his trip to India helped to win the Mexican War, to settle the West, and to decide the Civil War. ”

“ The first is the safety-notch, the second is the half-cock notch, and the third is the cock-notch. The pistol cannot be fired when the hammer rests in the safety-notch or half-cock notch, and can be fired by pulling the trigger when the hammer rests in the cock-notch. The pistol [Pg 51] should be carried habitually with the hammer resting in the safety-notch.
COLT’S .38-CALIBRE, DOUBLE ACTION.
[Pg 52] There will always be a class of revolver-shooters who will prefer an arm with a solid frame. These persons will unhesitatingly select the Colt’s revolver. ”

“ I bought a first-rate Target revolver—a Colt—with which I knew I could make accurate shooting. I would not trust my life to one of those unscientific productions which are just as likely to shoot a friend as an enemy, and are more in the nature of pop-guns than defensive weapons. ”

“ The system of breech-loading, again, is as old as the sixteenth century, and we find a British patent of 1741; while the first United States patent was given in 1811 for a flint-lock weapon.
Magazine guns of American production appeared in 1849 and 1860, but these were really an adaptation of the old matchlock revolvers, said to belong to the period 1480-1500. There is one in the Tower of London credited to the fifteenth century, and a British patent of 1718 describes a well-constructed revolver carried on a tripod and of the dimensions of a modern machine-gun. ”

“ Other rounds were fired from a Colt’s navy revolver, old style, .36 calibre, at distances varying from ten to twenty feet. The holes made were so large that the barrels and ramrods could be passed without touching. The examination of the one instance noted above where the aperture in the glass was smaller than the ball is explained by Balch as follows: “A ball conoidal in form, passing with great velocity, strikes glass, penetrates, but does not break the glass at the point of entrance. ”

“ We have done our part, too, in devising deadly weapons for contending armies. The revolver, invented by Samuel Colt, made a man armed with it six times as formidable as he was before; and the breech-loader, first attempted by John Hall of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, more than seventy years ago, was generally adopted in Europe. It is said that the greater number of the military arms made in the United States for Europe are on the breech-loading system. ”

“ The stranger pushed his horse resolutely to the outer edge of the crowd where, from his point of vantage, he could easily overlook their heads. He was a quiet-appearing young fellow, rather neatly dressed in the border costume, rode a "centre fire," or single-cinch, saddle, and wore no chaps. He was what is known as a "two-gun man": that is to say, he wore a heavy Colt's revolver on either hip. The fact that the lower ends of his holsters were tied down, in order to facilitate the easy withdrawal of the revolvers, seemed to indicate that he expected to use them. ”

“ Checkered grip, cap-box in butt. A facsimile of the pistol used by J. Wilkes Booth to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.
53. COOPER FIVE-SHOT REVOLVER. L. 10"
Percussion. Double action, .31 Cal. This is the early Pittsburg revolver, not to be confused [Pg 13] with arms of the same type made at Philadelphia. Rare. Resembles the Colt 1849 Model, except that trigger is in center of trigger-guard.
54. PECULIAR DOUBLE ACTION REVOLVER. L. 5"
Percussion. Similar in action to a pepperbox. Marked "Ell's Patent." The cataloguer has never before seen a pistol of this type. Good condition. ”

“ Lateral sliding-bars or wind-gauge may be used on rear open sight, also any elevating front or rear open sight. The use of a notch for a front sight will not be permitted. Sights may be smoked or blackened in any desired manner. No device shall be worn on or over the eye, or on glasses, to secure the sight through an aperture.
[Pg 136]
Diagram of six consecutive shots, fired from a rest, at 50 yards, with a Colt’s Frontier Model revolver, .44 calibre, full charge,—40 grains of powder, 200 grains of lead. ”

“ The .38 calibre with the 6 and 7 inch barrels are very accurate up to 50 yards; the recoil is light and not unpleasant. The charge is less powerful than the .44 and .45, but about as heavy as is possible in an arm of the size and weight, and retains a satisfactory degree of accuracy. It is not difficult in shooting with a rest to place six shots within a 3-inch circle at 50 yards; and this feat has been accomplished in off-hand shooting with a .38-calibre Colt’s revolver with a 7-inch barrel. ”

“ In 1898 a new type was introduced with a lateral swinging cylinder which permitted the simultaneous ejection of all the empty shells.
Near the time of the Spanish-American War appeared what is known as the Colt automatic gun, operated by the action of the powder gases on a piston and lever near the muzzle of the barrel. This could be fired at the rate of 400 to 500 shots a minute, and by reason of its light weight could be very easily carried. The British used it effectively in the Boer War. ”

“ To meet the testimony of Proctor and Van Amburgh, the defense put on two gun experts of long standing—James E. Burns, noted rifleman, champion pistol shot, and head of a department of the United States Cartridge Company; and James H. Fitzgerald, superintendent of the testing department of the Colt Automatic Pistol Company. Burns declared that Bullet No. 3 might have been fired from either a Colt or a Bayard revolver. The latter is a Belgian gun; many have been brought here since the war. Burns declared positively that the bullet did not come from Sacco’s revolver. ”

“ These special revolvers will be referred to later under another department, and the present chapter devoted to the standard models of the Colt’s revolver manufactured to-day. The Colt’s revolvers differ from those previously described in the following points, viz.:—
The hand, or finger, or pawl, which revolves the cylinder, has two points, one above the other. The upper engages the ratchet of the cylinder when the revolution begins. ”

“ This was a “revolver” invented by Colonel Colt of Hartford, Conn., in 1835, and consisted of a single barrel with a revolving cylinder at the breech containing the charges, the mechanism being such that the cocking of the piece after each discharge [Pg 15] revolved the cylinder sufficiently to bring a loaded chamber in line with the barrel.
The greatest advance in the development of firearms was the introduction of the system of breech-loading, employing ammunition in the form of cartridges. ”

“ Colonel Colt was unquestionably the first to overcome the difficulties found to exist in the earliest productions, and when the introduction of the revolver into Europe became general, and the demands for it increased, the manufacturers were enabled, from the commencement, to avoid the defects which he had overcome in the course of his experience; and thus, their task was a lighter one than his. An immense number of revolving pistols have been constructed in a very short time ”

“ It equals in these qualities the Colt caliber .45 revolver, model 1909, while being superior to that arm in balance, safety, rapidity, accuracy of fire, and interchangeability. The Colt pistol embodies all the features considered essential, desirable, and preferable by the board of officers convened by S. O. 305, W. D., Washington, December 28, 1906, except that there is no automatic indicator showing that the pistol is loaded or indicator showing the number of cartridges remaining in the magazine. ”

“ An elevator whirled them upward; and in a few moments the young man from Chicago was opening a revolver case in his sample room.
“It’s a Colt,” said he, calmly, holding the weapon up for his friend’s inspection. “Dull metal, forty-five calibre; has a barrel that [80] assures accuracy and a grip that is a real grip. It’ll make quite a bulge in your pocket, but then it will also shoot a hole through a safe.”
“For a humdrum man of trade, Garry, you have lots of romance left in you,” said Kenyon. He took the revolver and spun it around, a forefinger through the trigger guard. ”

“ With the Webley, you place your thumb OVER instead of under, the catch in seizing the revolver, and press your thumb towards the palm of your hand in making the wrench.
With solid frame revolvers, like the new Colt and Smith & Wesson, you operate the catch, and [Pg 126] instead of twisting your wrist, you push out the cylinder with your first and second fingers, at the same time pushing the extractor plunger with your little finger, but this make of revolver is much more difficult to disarm suddenly than those I have named above. ”

“ Notwithstanding Colt's army and navy sized revolvers have been in use for a long time in our army, officers are by no means of one mind as to their relative merits for frontier service. The navy pistol, being more light and portable, is more convenient for the belt, but it is very questionable in my mind whether these qualities counterbalance the advantages derived from the greater weight of powder and lead that can be fired from the larger pistol, and the consequent increased projectile force. ”

“ Although Colt manufactured more than 55,000 pistols by the time the United States entered World War I, not enough were on hand to preclude arming some units of the American Expeditionary Force with revolvers. ”

“ They were equipped with saddle, bridle, haversack, canteen, blanket, knife, tin cup, Spencer repeating rifle, good for seven shots without reloading, six in the magazine, one in the barrel, and a heavy Colt’s army revolver. There were no 77tents or other similar conveniences, and four mules constituted the baggage train. The force was intended to be strictly mobile, and it was. Each man carried on his person one hundred and forty rounds of ammunition for his rifle and thirty rounds for his revolver. The four mules carried the medical supplies and four thousand rounds of extra ammunition. ”

“ The chief trouble with revolver ammunition to-day is its excessive fouling from the grease and powder. By firing bullets into soft snow from a revolver which has been shot a few times, the investigator will find a ragged bullet, which shows how it raked over the adamantine-like crust which adheres to the inside of a revolver-barrel, which impairs its accuracy; therefore the fine shot cleans his revolver about once in every ten shots, if shooting the full charge. We have seen frontiersmen who stated they seldom clean their revolver except when they go hunting for a victim ”

“ It is an accurate cartridge but the short length of barrel of the Colt weapon makes it impossible to do accurate work with it.
Figures 49 and 50 are the well known Luger and Mauser cartridges adapted to the pistols of that name. They are powerful charges, accurate and clean shooting. These were among the first cartridges developed for automatic pistols and are still extensively used.
The .32 Automatic Colt is adapted to Colt and other magazine pistols of this caliber. It is an accurate, pleasant shooting cartridge with very little recoil and excellent work can be done with it at the target. ”