When I was about in 5th grade, a girl brought one in for "show and tell". It was a cased 1849, complete with all tools, exactly as shown. I still remember her name. i ought to try and look her up. Maybe she wants to get it out of the house for a couple of bucks. This was about 60 years ago.
@J H When I was in junior high- around 1962- a kid brought in a 1917 Colt for show and tell. Another brought his grandfather's switchblade. Big, solid thing- kind of like a Buck 110. I never saw another like it.
@RadBaeron I carried a utility knife "Boy Scout Knife" from kindergarten through graduation of high school. Always using it- fixing the typewriter, loose screws on somebody's desk, etc.
@@JohnSmith-hd2tl Don't you mean the days of legally bringing a gun to school are over? The more felonious little miscreants still manage to smuggle them in all the time these days.
@Matt now you're just being full of shit. Philando Castile was high on illegal drugs, driving under the influence of illegal drugs, in possession of illegal drugs, carrying his gun half hanging out of his pocket and not concealed as is required to meet the legality of a concealed carry permit. Which by the way, no proof of him actually being a legal Minnesota CCW permit holder was ever offered, just some vague excuses about his permit being issued in a different "location", (as in a non-reciprocity to MN State) and now he somehow wasn't appearing on the list of valid Minnesota carry permit holders. All of these conditions rendered his carry permit moot under the law. Additionally, he was pulled over because he matched the somewhat unique description of an armed robbery suspect from the night before in that local area. His social media postings showed him involved in street gang activity as well. The NRA and actual law abiding gun owners and lawful concealed carry permit holders are under no obligation to profess support for someone who was engaged in misdemeanor criminal activity at best and quite possibly felony violent crime as well. Philando Castile made several bad decisions that lead to his unfortunate death that day and none of them involved his racial identity. That many of us waited for answers that never came to questions about his behavior and activities before offering support also had nothing to do with his race. His dubious CCW legal status, possible criminal activity, actual criminal activity, and the all too common reckless claims of racial bias offered in lieu of what should have been easily answered questions left many people unwilling to blindly support Castile.
A little over fifty years ago my sister always carried a pocket model of navy caliber as her go to pistol. She was scary accurate with it up to 25 or 30 yards.
Some people can’t have guns but in most states a BP gun is considered an antique and not a gun unless it’s used in a crime. (Being a felon, or otherwise prohibited possibly because of state or county laws and of course occasionally that’s the only gun they can afford or already own).
@@cyclonetaylor7838 That's cool. Sometimes I carry my '49 in my coat pocket. It's a regular five shot, 4" barrel, made in 1871. Still works like a charm.
+History and coffee I lived in Phoenix AZ for 20 years (1980's to early 2000's). Loved to prospect the AZ deserts! I had a carry permit and several revolvers and autos in 9mm/38/357 and 45 ACP to carry. However, when roaming the AZ deserts prospecting for a week or so, I carried a Uberti replica of the Remington Army .44 cap&ball revolver in a flap holster. Loaded with 220 grain concials over Swiss FFFg black, powder the .44 Army actually hit harder and penetrated deeper than my 45 ACP autos! Never felt the least bit vulnerable with that big Remington hanging on the side, and was totally confident the gun would do anything I needed. Some of my favorite times! Thinking about waking up just before sunrise to those unique smells of the desert gives me the wanderlust to head back out West again!
I go panning for gold wearing nothing but my overalls and a old ratty straw hat but, in my front pocket I keep a Bulgarian Makarov... some things gotta change
@Drakilicious Definitely need to reform the criminal justice system as it is unfair to penalize a person for life when they have proved they have moved beyond a life mistake. Be discrete and check your local laws carefully and discretely to avoid trouble. Here are my thoughts, so it is my opinion only that should be adapted to your situation. The 5 1/2 " barrel versions of the Remington Army 44 put out by both Uberti and PIetta are very good and quite concealable. I'm partial to Uberti because the faster twist rifling (Uberti 1 in 19 twist vs Pietta 1 in 30 inch twist) shoots round ball and conical weights 200 gr to 300 gr very accurately. Advise changing the stock nipples out first thing for quality replacements that have very tiny flash holes that minimize back blast that fouls the action and causes cap jams. With good nipples, the .44 Army is very reliable. accurate and powerful. I prefer Swiss black powder over GOEX as Swiss is faster burning and works better in revolvers. Not fond of the substitutes like Hodgdon 777 and Pyrodex as both have very acidic fouling that can pit a barrel, and Pyrodex is the worst. However if you have to use a substitute, Pyrodex is better as its performance does not degrade soon after opening as does 777. If you have to use Pyrodex, after a days shooting, ALWAYS immediately clean the gun with water, especially the bore to prevent pitting. Also use Ballistol oil as lube and protectant as Ballistol is an alkaline oil that neutralizes the acids of Pyrodex fouling. Ballsitol is excellent for use with black powder & substitutes as it dissolves the fouling very effectively. I make a home made lube of 3 parts beeswax to 1 part coconut oil to hot dip lube 0.457 round balls or the Lee 200 gr conicals cast from the 2 cavity Lee 450-200-2R mold. (Lard or beef tallow works as well as the coconut oil BTW.) When hot dip lubing, allow the ball/conical to get to the heat of the melted lube before pulling out of the melted lube. I use a small screen basket to dip about 60-80 at a time. The Lee conical has 2 grease grooves that hold plenty of lube so the Lee conical can be loaded directly on the charge and fired without any other wads etc. Lubed round balls can be fired with light charges as is, but with max charges under the round ball, it is best to brush extra tallow/lard into the chamber mouths for extra lube because the round ball has no grooves to hold lube as does the conical. Much faster simplified loading is why I prefer shooting conicals most of the time. A very wicked, close range self-defense load in the .44 Army is the 200gr Lee conical loaded backwards, base-forward for full wadcutter effect over a full chamber (about 35 grs of Swiss FFFg). Extremely destructive with damage effect that puts many modern self defense jacketed hollow points to shame, as the full wadcutter will rip out a large diameter tunnel making a long straight wound tunnel that goes completely thru even a big feral hog!
I use to be apart of a western gunfighting reenactment group some years ago, and one of the actors in the group had a pair of these and every year either Wyatt Earp days or Helldorado days he'd let me use them. Dual wielding two blank firing guns doesn't sound like a lot of fun, but to a 12 year old, it's the best thing ever
The Truth is in1850, it was made illegal to for horses to own fire arms after the Great Horse war of 1849. The US almost lost the war but once we cut off the salt supply lines to the Horse horde it forced them to surrender.
I've carried a 1862 pocket police, copy, for twenty years, on our land with snake shot, because it's been cheap and effective, living on a creek with substantial venomous snakes. They really fit a pocket nicely, and fit the hand very well. Mine's an Uberti, from the 70's. It's in 36, with five shots. Semper Fi, John McClain
There is a letter from Sam to his distributors berating them for not upselling the six shot pockets. The new "silver steel" that made the 1860 possible made the switch from 5 to 6 a no brainer, to paraphrase Mr Colt.
Colt's made just 18,500 .44 Dragoon models up until 1860, production exploded with the civil war and the follow on Army model sold over 200,000 in the thirteen years to 1873. The Navy model was even more popular, Colt's made over 270,000 before centerfire replaced percussion. Although the production periods don't quite align pocket size .31s outsold the others with close to 340,000 made despite being made for private sale not government contracts.
There was 4 feet between them when they stopped to make their play. And the swiftness of the 49er is still talked about today! Oh he might have gone on living But he made one fatal slip When he tried to rob the 49er with the small iron on his hip small iron on his hip
I've read that moulding bullets can be quite relaxing for some. I'd be too worried about spilling molten lead on myself, which in the 1800s could lead to a pretty nasty infection. Proper antibiotics weren't invented until 1928.
My friend had no carpet when he & his family moved into new digs. Since rug rats would, for the foreseeable future, have no rugs they were dubbed Linoleum Lizards.
Colts brought a display to the Great Exhibition in Londons Crystal Palace in 1851. That sparked the intrest in England . In 1854 he opened a factory at Pimilico in London, in 1855 he had machinery installed manufactured by Pratt & Whitney. A lot of English gunmakers challanged Colt's Patents in court, which caused grief and delay. Intially the Admiralty (Royal Navy/ Royal Marines ) purcahsed 4,000 guns. These were liberally supplied to two ships, HMS Warrior andHMS Black Prince, the Royal Navy's answer to those Damm French building the first Ocean going Ironclad La Gloire. HMS Warrior is in preservation at Portsmouth, and (Mostly ) replicas of the Colt pistol are on display on two carousels on the main gun deck, as they were in service. I was told by the Curator of the ship that when she was being restored rusted pistols were found in all sorts of odd places. The Army also purchsed some 5,000 pistols , but the guns were not adopted, so on completion of the contracts the machinery was shipped back to the US. www.hmswarrior.org/
My great grandfather was a signal repairman flr the railroad. He carried one of these, a 5" barrel and 6 shot, in his coat pocket as he went about his day. He replaced it with an iver johnson safety hammerless, which he wore out. His final edc was a h&a f&w marked 6 shot 4" .32 long.
*3:40** That's actually Colt's last and best latch update. That design carried on to the '51 Navy's, '60 Army's, eta. It won't open under normal recoil.*
That cased set for the London made one is beautiful, the mold and tool coming with it just seals the deal for me since I really like complete kits that include everything you could ever need.
Ah, I was waiting for a video on these little beauties. My personal favorite colt percussion pistol, even if they are a little, erm, small. But hey, good things come in small packages (or .31 caliber revolvers).
Indeed. Peritonitis is a hellish way to die. Aaron Burr did that to Alexander Hamilton during their duel. Burr supposedly insisted on dueling pistols with set triggers. Hamilton accidentally discharged his firearm as he was bringing it down, because of the light trigger. Burr then took a long time aiming, and shot Hamilton in the gut. Truth be told, both of them were absolute bastards.
Don't care what ya say. Guns pre about 1880 where designed with a certain art and eye appeal that more modern gun don't always. They seem to go more utilitarian.
Thank you, Ian. I have a pocket pistol handed down from my great-grandfather, who must have purchased it when he was sheriff of a frontier county. It was manufactured in 1862 and has ivory handles.
Nobody needs to carry one of these high capacity assault pistols. My grandad served in the war of 1812, and he only needed a single shot flintlock. He said these high capacity revolvers need to be banned! These didn’t exist when they wrote the Second Amendment!
Sooo cuuute..! Thanks for explaining the cylinder marking; it makes perfect sense. It had always seemed to me to be rather ostentatious, and simply a fad of the times.
I didn't realize that Colt died ten years before the SAA revolutionized the sidearm world. So I guess his heyday was when he was building up the brand with these ubiquitous, handy hold-outs.
True but cartridge ammunition was intially expensive, and fincky with supply. Black powder percussion caps and lead could be found most places alot cheaper,sowhy be an Early Adopter?
You might want to check that information on peoples hands getting larger. I have just read an article on ancient storage jars that mentioned that whilst stature has increased the breadth of peoples hands, used to define the width across the palm, used, according to religious law, to set the width of the outlet of jars used by ancient Jewish communities, has not. Historic jars show a width of 8.85 to 8.97cm, a 1980s US Army study shows a width of 8.67±0.48 across the adult male hand - if anything, somewhat smaller. For women the 1980's US Army data was 7.82±0.39cm and for Roman era jars believed to have been manufactured by women, 7.87±0.79cm
Oddly the Baby Dragoon is more pocketable than the 1849 Pocket. I've got an 1873 Colt New 22 with an 1874 .22lr 7-shot cylinder that's beyond pocket it's incredibly small and even 146/7 years later it's fully functional.
New sub here. If there was ever a guy for whom the term “a gentleman and a scholar” was appropriate, you, Sir, are it. Always informative, educational and entertaining. Keep ‘em coming! 😃
If your watching this and your thinking "i wonder if those would be fun to shoot", the answer is a definetley yes. I have the 1863 pocket police model and its a smooth little gun that points almost by itself. Having had shot other models of mine i really love the little pockets as they really do shoot well and i think modern gun designers might be able to learn some ergo design from them. Just mentioning this if anyone was thinking of buying even a reporduction to shoot as there are so many choices available.
re Pointed Bullet: I would have ordered a tool which kept the bullet in position when loading. A lever which had a small tube at the end, formed inverse to the pointed bullet, to put it into the chamber. Did no one had this idea?
If Colt set up an armoury in London in the early 1850's, then you would expect these London models to be arriving in Australia with the gold prospectors coming to the goldfields of Victoria in the mid-1850's. Especially if the London guns were manufactured in large numbers.
Colt's London Factory was only open 1853-56. Colt's made c.40,000 revolvers, mostly 1851 Navys. With nearly half of those being bought by the RN and British Army during the Crimean War.
Would like to see the police cap and ball, short style. If you could find a current copy, please take her to the range. The New York Police Dept and Larger Cities use them. Thanks.
Colt in 1870: civilian, self-defense pocket pistols make us our fortune, not military contracts Colt in 2000's: let's forget the civilian market and just chase military contracts Colt today: oh no, what happened At least they're making snake guns again. They're even good revolvers.
Not sure how true it is but I seem to remember reading somewhere a while back that although his revolvers were wildly popular there, colt became unwelcome in britain when he was found to be supplying revolvers to the Russians during the Crimean war- hence the hostility from the authorities that led to the ultimate closure of the london factory .
A thing I have always wondered about guns sold in this era is did the gun come withe a bullet mold of the right caliber to make your own cartridges or were premade cartridges sold for them? It would seem like a difficult logistic in the west to find the right cartridge for your particular gun. Thanks Ian!
Today in our world of subcompacts with 12-15 shots they may appear ludicrous, but for a 1850 gentleman, born and risen in a world where a pocket pistol had 1 shot, and if you wanted firepower you carried two of them, these were a real paradigm shift: with little more encubrance than two pocket pistols, you had 10 shots. The only alternative were pepperboxes, heavy, unreliable things with just enough accuracy for a shootout in an elevator...
I never realised they made pistols like this, kind of like a muzzle loader technique but in the barrel. Must of been a pain once your six shots were up.
Oh, it was definitely a pain if you got into trouble that just drawing the pistol couldn't stop. But wearing multiple guns was an old tradition by then.
The Colt 1903 .32 auto Pocket Hammerless of it’s era half a century earlier. Funny how for over a hundred years, private detectives of every generation had their own idea of the perfect pocket pistol.
Ian, this prompted me to dig out my '49 Pocket, which came to me as a family heirloom about fifty years ago. Were all the frames case hardened? Mine has no color remaining even though the firearm itself is in amazing condition. Also, could you mention a current range of values? Mine is a six-shot five inch model. Judging from your information, with a serial number in the 230,000 range, it was possibly manufactured during the civil war(?).
@Forgotten Weapons - Great content, as always. Did the models without a loading lever come with a separate loading tool... or did the user just utilise a rod and a small rock to seat the bullet?
They used the arbor aka the centre pin the cylinder rotates around; when you unscrew the barrel assembly to take the cylinder out you use the end of the arbor to seat the ball.
I know this will be heresey to the American gun buff but I am amazed at their popularity as they have one glaring design fault, I have shot modern repro version of Colt and find that because there is a perfect channel from the nipple to the trigger mechanism that once a cap has been fired it can fall off the nipple and drops into the inside of the gun requring complete disassembly to clear the bound up trigger to work again.
It was practice of the day to elevate the gun vertically before you pulled the hammer back for the next shot. This ensures the burst cap falls back away from the frame as the hammer clears the breech.
Pepperboxes! For personal protection only the pepperbox had true multi shot capacity to rival these small Colts, but even they were bulky to carry and had poor comparative accuracy.
So those stamped cylinder scenes were like the 19th century version of certifying authenticity with an imprinted hologram.
When I was about in 5th grade, a girl brought one in for "show and tell". It was a cased 1849, complete with all tools, exactly as shown. I still remember her name. i ought to try and look her up. Maybe she wants to get it out of the house for a couple of bucks. This was about 60 years ago.
@J H When I was in junior high- around 1962- a kid brought in a 1917 Colt for show and tell. Another brought his grandfather's switchblade. Big, solid thing- kind of like a Buck 110. I never saw another like it.
@RadBaeron I carried a utility knife "Boy Scout Knife" from kindergarten through graduation of high school. Always using it- fixing the typewriter, loose screws on somebody's desk, etc.
@RadBaeron slingshots are a felony in New Jersey. 10,000 fine and/or 2 years in jail
@@JohnSmith-hd2tl Don't you mean the days of legally bringing a gun to school are over? The more felonious little miscreants still manage to smuggle them in all the time these days.
@Matt now you're just being full of shit. Philando Castile was high on illegal drugs, driving under the influence of illegal drugs, in possession of illegal drugs, carrying his gun half hanging out of his pocket and not concealed as is required to meet the legality of a concealed carry permit. Which by the way, no proof of him actually being a legal Minnesota CCW permit holder was ever offered, just some vague excuses about his permit being issued in a different "location", (as in a non-reciprocity to MN State) and now he somehow wasn't appearing on the list of valid Minnesota carry permit holders. All of these conditions rendered his carry permit moot under the law. Additionally, he was pulled over because he matched the somewhat unique description of an armed robbery suspect from the night before in that local area. His social media postings showed him involved in street gang activity as well. The NRA and actual law abiding gun owners and lawful concealed carry permit holders are under no obligation to profess support for someone who was engaged in misdemeanor criminal activity at best and quite possibly felony violent crime as well. Philando Castile made several bad decisions that lead to his unfortunate death that day and none of them involved his racial identity. That many of us waited for answers that never came to questions about his behavior and activities before offering support also had nothing to do with his race. His dubious CCW legal status, possible criminal activity, actual criminal activity, and the all too common reckless claims of racial bias offered in lieu of what should have been easily answered questions left many people unwilling to blindly support Castile.
Like how the case hardening colours have survived all these years.
A little over fifty years ago my sister always carried a pocket model of navy caliber as her go to pistol. She was scary accurate with it up to 25 or 30 yards.
@@cyclonetaylor7838 Wow. Your sister was an interesting eccentric by the sound of it.
Some people can’t have guns but in most states a BP gun is considered an antique and not a gun unless it’s used in a crime. (Being a felon, or otherwise prohibited possibly because of state or county laws and of course occasionally that’s the only gun they can afford or already own).
@@cyclonetaylor7838 That's cool. Sometimes I carry my '49 in my coat pocket. It's a regular five shot, 4" barrel, made in 1871. Still works like a charm.
@@danielaramburo7648 That is survivorship bias. Lots of guns broke back then. We only see the well made ones that have survived today.
I guess you could call em, Small Iron.
The notches on his pistol numbered eleven, because there wasn't space for any more.
@@AshleyPomeroy (because there wasn't space for any mooooOOOOOOreee.)
@@warweasel2832 Oh he might've went on livin', but he made one fatal slip, when he tried to match the ranger with the Small Iron in his breast pocket
@@janwacawik7432 (small iron in his breast pockeeeeett)
@@BonsaiBrandy small iron, small iron. When he tried to match the ranger with the small iron in his breast pockeeeetttt....
I gots me a reproduction 49 pocket to carry when I'm out gold panning because I'm a history nerd (I also have a ridiculous prospector hat)
+History and coffee I lived in Phoenix AZ for 20 years (1980's to early 2000's). Loved to prospect the AZ deserts! I had a carry permit and several revolvers and autos in 9mm/38/357 and 45 ACP to carry. However, when roaming the AZ deserts prospecting for a week or so, I carried a Uberti replica of the Remington Army .44 cap&ball revolver in a flap holster. Loaded with 220 grain concials over Swiss FFFg black, powder the .44 Army actually hit harder and penetrated deeper than my 45 ACP autos! Never felt the least bit vulnerable with that big Remington hanging on the side, and was totally confident the gun would do anything I needed. Some of my favorite times! Thinking about waking up just before sunrise to those unique smells of the desert gives me the wanderlust to head back out West again!
@@63DW89A well, with social distancing, you could say it's your civic duty to run off to the desert for a week!
Y'know, for safety.
I go panning for gold wearing nothing but my overalls and a old ratty straw hat but, in my front pocket I keep a Bulgarian Makarov... some things gotta change
@@henryrodgers7386 Tried to give you 100+ likes on that, but YT only allows one.
@Drakilicious Definitely need to reform the criminal justice system as it is unfair to penalize a person for life when they have proved they have moved beyond a life mistake. Be discrete and check your local laws carefully and discretely to avoid trouble.
Here are my thoughts, so it is my opinion only that should be adapted to your situation. The 5 1/2 " barrel versions of the Remington Army 44 put out by both Uberti and PIetta are very good and quite concealable. I'm partial to Uberti because the faster twist rifling (Uberti 1 in 19 twist vs Pietta 1 in 30 inch twist) shoots round ball and conical weights 200 gr to 300 gr very accurately. Advise changing the stock nipples out first thing for quality replacements that have very tiny flash holes that minimize back blast that fouls the action and causes cap jams. With good nipples, the .44 Army is very reliable. accurate and powerful. I prefer Swiss black powder over GOEX as Swiss is faster burning and works better in revolvers. Not fond of the substitutes like Hodgdon 777 and Pyrodex as both have very acidic fouling that can pit a barrel, and Pyrodex is the worst. However if you have to use a substitute, Pyrodex is better as its performance does not degrade soon after opening as does 777. If you have to use Pyrodex, after a days shooting, ALWAYS immediately clean the gun with water, especially the bore to prevent pitting. Also use Ballistol oil as lube and protectant as Ballistol is an alkaline oil that neutralizes the acids of Pyrodex fouling. Ballsitol is excellent for use with black powder & substitutes as it dissolves the fouling very effectively. I make a home made lube of 3 parts beeswax to 1 part coconut oil to hot dip lube 0.457 round balls or the Lee 200 gr conicals cast from the 2 cavity Lee 450-200-2R mold. (Lard or beef tallow works as well as the coconut oil BTW.) When hot dip lubing, allow the ball/conical to get to the heat of the melted lube before pulling out of the melted lube. I use a small screen basket to dip about 60-80 at a time. The Lee conical has 2 grease grooves that hold plenty of lube so the Lee conical can be loaded directly on the charge and fired without any other wads etc. Lubed round balls can be fired with light charges as is, but with max charges under the round ball, it is best to brush extra tallow/lard into the chamber mouths for extra lube because the round ball has no grooves to hold lube as does the conical. Much faster simplified loading is why I prefer shooting conicals most of the time. A very wicked, close range self-defense load in the .44 Army is the 200gr Lee conical loaded backwards, base-forward for full wadcutter effect over a full chamber (about 35 grs of Swiss FFFg). Extremely destructive with damage effect that puts many modern self defense jacketed hollow points to shame, as the full wadcutter will rip out a large diameter tunnel making a long straight wound tunnel that goes completely thru even a big feral hog!
I use to be apart of a western gunfighting reenactment group some years ago, and one of the actors in the group had a pair of these and every year either Wyatt Earp days or Helldorado days he'd let me use them. Dual wielding two blank firing guns doesn't sound like a lot of fun, but to a 12 year old, it's the best thing ever
Is it just me or are the old Colt open top revolvers the prettiest revolvers ever made?
Absolutely. I know objectively that Remingtons are better in every way, but damn the open tops are sexy.
I'll take a Colt over a Remington any day
There just wasn't much of a need to bludgeon horses in the civilian sector.
Some people do have thick skulls though.
The Truth is in1850, it was made illegal to for horses to own fire arms after the Great Horse war of 1849. The US almost lost the war but once we cut off the salt supply lines to the Horse horde it forced them to surrender.
@@boomermoose ha ha ha ha!
@@boomermoose Lord knows if the Australian Emus had joined them, we might have had a very different outcome.
@@SlavicCelery We bought them off. Emu mercenaries were vital in our Victory. It is why we did not help Australia. Long standing treaties.
The adjustable spout on the powder flask is ingenious!
I guess a lot of people got tired of picking shrapnel out of their hands after loading in too much powder.
I've carried a 1862 pocket police, copy, for twenty years, on our land with snake shot, because it's been cheap and effective, living on a creek with substantial venomous snakes. They really fit a pocket nicely, and fit the hand very well. Mine's an Uberti, from the 70's. It's in 36, with five shots. Semper Fi, John McClain
There is a letter from Sam to his distributors berating them for not upselling the six shot pockets. The new "silver steel" that made the 1860 possible made the switch from 5 to 6 a no brainer, to paraphrase Mr Colt.
Colt's made just 18,500 .44 Dragoon models up until 1860, production exploded with the civil war and the follow on Army model sold over 200,000 in the thirteen years to 1873. The Navy model was even more popular, Colt's made over 270,000 before centerfire replaced percussion. Although the production periods don't quite align pocket size .31s outsold the others with close to 340,000 made despite being made for private sale not government contracts.
"Big sexy pistols".
You're damn right, Ian.
Smol iron on his hip
And in both pockets and his boot.
Smol brass on his waist
They look neat, no wonder they were popular.
There was 4 feet between them when they stopped to make their play.
And the swiftness of the 49er is still talked about today!
Oh he might have gone on living
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to rob the 49er with the small iron on his hip
small iron on his hip
The pistols were fascinating but the accessory box, chock full of accessory goodness was just amaze- balls covered in awesome sauce
Pretty cool to picture a group of friends sitting around all getting their black powder pistols ready to go for a night out on the town.
I've read that moulding bullets can be quite relaxing for some.
I'd be too worried about spilling molten lead on myself, which in the 1800s could lead to a pretty nasty infection. Proper antibiotics weren't invented until 1928.
That is actually.
I have absolutely no need for it but I really want something with a hexagonal or octagonal barrell.
So now I’ve had 2 baby dragoon’s wake me up, but that’s because my little bastard was running around his tank like a madman
My friend had no carpet when he & his family moved into new digs. Since rug rats would, for the foreseeable future, have no rugs they were dubbed Linoleum Lizards.
The Bread and Butter of the Colt company.
Colts brought a display to the Great Exhibition in Londons Crystal Palace in 1851. That sparked the intrest in England . In 1854 he opened a factory at Pimilico in London, in 1855 he had machinery installed manufactured by Pratt & Whitney. A lot of English gunmakers challanged Colt's Patents in court, which caused grief and delay. Intially the Admiralty (Royal Navy/ Royal Marines ) purcahsed 4,000 guns. These were liberally supplied to two ships, HMS Warrior andHMS Black Prince, the Royal Navy's answer to those Damm French building the first Ocean going Ironclad La Gloire.
HMS Warrior is in preservation at Portsmouth, and (Mostly ) replicas of the Colt pistol are on display on two carousels on the main gun deck, as they were in service. I was told by the Curator of the ship that when she was being restored rusted pistols were found in all sorts of odd places. The Army also purchsed some 5,000 pistols , but the guns were not adopted, so on completion of the contracts the machinery was shipped back to the US. www.hmswarrior.org/
My great grandfather was a signal repairman flr the railroad. He carried one of these, a 5" barrel and 6 shot, in his coat pocket as he went about his day. He replaced it with an iver johnson safety hammerless, which he wore out. His final edc was a h&a f&w marked 6 shot 4" .32 long.
Thanks Ian, what a warm and fuzzy topic to watch while having my first coffee.
*3:40** That's actually Colt's last and best latch update. That design carried on to the '51 Navy's, '60 Army's, eta. It won't open under normal recoil.*
The original Colt won't. Most factory pietta and uberti will. A better spring and a file will solve it, though.
@@randymagnum143 Ahhhh so its been a repo thing all along... Kinda like "cap sucking"..
1851 navys are my favourite, they just look awesome
That cased set for the London made one is beautiful, the mold and tool coming with it just seals the deal for me since I really like complete kits that include everything you could ever need.
Ah, I was waiting for a video on these little beauties. My personal favorite colt percussion pistol, even if they are a little, erm, small. But hey, good things come in small packages (or .31 caliber revolvers).
I saw one of these dug from private land near Shiloh Battlefield. Guy let me look at it but it wasn't for sale.
Back in the day a gut shot might not've been immediately fatal but nevertheless would prove fatal from infection.
Indeed. Peritonitis is a hellish way to die. Aaron Burr did that to Alexander Hamilton during their duel. Burr supposedly insisted on dueling pistols with set triggers. Hamilton accidentally discharged his firearm as he was bringing it down, because of the light trigger. Burr then took a long time aiming, and shot Hamilton in the gut. Truth be told, both of them were absolute bastards.
I don't think infection will decide to save you by instantly killing the guy you shot, but yeah, not to mention lead poisoning
I love just how _neat_ those boxed sets are.
Don't care what ya say. Guns pre about 1880 where designed with a certain art and eye appeal that more modern gun don't always. They seem to go more utilitarian.
Thank you, Ian. I have a pocket pistol handed down from my great-grandfather, who must have purchased it when he was sheriff of a frontier county. It was manufactured in 1862 and has ivory handles.
I picture a gambler with a nickel plated one engraved and gold inlaid with ivory grips.
I picture a gambler broke and destitute....
you got to know when to hold them
know when to fold them
@@shatbad2960 yea except back then when you lost you followed the winner out of the saloon and aired them out and took all the winnings
You either nickel plate or gold inlay. Never both. Both is too much (and muddles the looks of the gun).
So very cool seeing another stagecoach cylinder! We’ve had one in the family and I’ve never seen another, very cool learning about them. Thanks Ian!
I like the one with the loading lever more.
Nobody needs to carry one of these high capacity assault pistols. My grandad served in the war of 1812, and he only needed a single shot flintlock. He said these high capacity revolvers need to be banned! These didn’t exist when they wrote the Second Amendment!
John Van Swearingen You’re gonna get a lot of shit from gun lovers for saying that.
Thoughts and prayers are not enough! No one needs anything more than a flintlock to hunt! #SchoolmarmsDemandAction
I laughed too much.
pure gold found 🤗🤣🥰
Unironically true
Oh my lords, they're adorable! The 1849 looks just like somebody made one of those half-scale replicas of a full-sized dragoon.
Sooo cuuute..!
Thanks for explaining the cylinder marking; it makes perfect sense. It had always seemed to me to be rather ostentatious, and simply a fad of the times.
I honestly wish that guns were more pretty these days. Look at Glocks, they're just plastic boxes.
Always love the 36 navy cap n ball revolver
Those look pretty good to me as self defense revolvers for their time.
Yeah, your other options were single shot pistols or a clunky pepperbox.
Today's word of the day is: Svelte
Me: My English vocabulary is very large.
Ian McCollum: These were svelte guns.
Me: 😵
I didn't realize that Colt died ten years before the SAA revolutionized the sidearm world. So I guess his heyday was when he was building up the brand with these ubiquitous, handy hold-outs.
True but cartridge ammunition was intially expensive, and fincky with supply. Black powder percussion caps and lead could be found most places alot cheaper,sowhy be an Early Adopter?
You might want to check that information on peoples hands getting larger. I have just read an article on ancient storage jars that mentioned that whilst stature has increased the breadth of peoples hands, used to define the width across the palm, used, according to religious law, to set the width of the outlet of jars used by ancient Jewish communities, has not. Historic jars show a width of 8.85 to 8.97cm, a 1980s US Army study shows a width of 8.67±0.48 across the adult male hand - if anything, somewhat smaller. For women the 1980's US Army data was 7.82±0.39cm and for Roman era jars believed to have been manufactured by women, 7.87±0.79cm
Oddly the Baby Dragoon is more pocketable than the 1849 Pocket.
I've got an 1873 Colt New 22 with an 1874 .22lr 7-shot cylinder that's beyond pocket it's incredibly small and even 146/7 years later it's fully functional.
New sub here. If there was ever a guy for whom the term “a gentleman and a scholar” was appropriate, you, Sir, are it.
Always informative, educational and entertaining. Keep ‘em coming! 😃
I absolutely love your videos, and the frequency of which you post then aswell! Well done Ian.
If your watching this and your thinking "i wonder if those would be fun to shoot", the answer is a definetley yes. I have the 1863 pocket police model and its a smooth little gun that points almost by itself. Having had shot other models of mine i really love the little pockets as they really do shoot well and i think modern gun designers might be able to learn some ergo design from them. Just mentioning this if anyone was thinking of buying even a reporduction to shoot as there are so many choices available.
re Pointed Bullet: I would have ordered a tool which kept the bullet in position when loading. A lever which had a small tube at the end, formed inverse to the pointed bullet, to put it into the chamber. Did no one had this idea?
ball.. then you pour your powder in ...
Maybe try it in the opposite order. It will work much better.
Thank you , Ian .
If Colt set up an armoury in London in the early 1850's, then you would expect these London models to be arriving in Australia with the gold prospectors coming to the goldfields of Victoria in the mid-1850's. Especially if the London guns were manufactured in large numbers.
Colt's London Factory was only open 1853-56.
Colt's made c.40,000 revolvers, mostly 1851 Navys. With nearly half of those being bought by the RN and British Army during the Crimean War.
Ian, it would have been interesting to show how the cylinder pin was used on the 1848 to push the ball onto the powder change in the cylinder.
Colt nailed it with that handle setup. My Army points really well and really easily
Would like to see the police cap and ball, short style. If you could find a current copy, please take her to the range. The New York Police Dept and Larger Cities use them. Thanks.
Cool ! I never knew that these pocket guns even existed.
But I´d like to see how they all fit into the hand.
I want the brass bead to make a comeback on carry guns and pistols in general.
I’m here because I just bought 1 and really excited. Thanks Ian!
Very cool and informative, thanks.
There are some pocket models that are 36 caliber that were made in 1862 and 1864 Respectively. The pocket police and pocket navy
That's amazing that it still has the whole kit
Cases! I love cases.
Every gun should come with cases like that. That's just excellent.
I wonder how many concepts or one off revolvers have been lost through time
After a watching all the walker-dragoon videos.. these look TINY!
Excellent video and great little pocket revolvers.
Elmer Keith used one of these on his trapline, back in the Old daze. Would keep it in his chaps pocket.
With the exception of the squared-off trigger guard, I think that the 1848 Baby Dragoon is the best looking out of the revolvers that you showed us :)
Colt in 1870: civilian, self-defense pocket pistols make us our fortune, not military contracts
Colt in 2000's: let's forget the civilian market and just chase military contracts
Colt today: oh no, what happened
At least they're making snake guns again. They're even good revolvers.
Back in 1849 there were big pockets indeed
Very nice video, can't wait for the next one!
I have an 1849 my better half got for a surprise gift. Love the size difference between it and my pair of Colt Walkers
Not sure how true it is but I seem to remember reading somewhere a while back that although his revolvers were wildly popular there, colt became unwelcome in britain when he was found to be supplying revolvers to the Russians during the Crimean war- hence the hostility from the authorities that led to the ultimate closure of the london factory .
A thing I have always wondered about guns sold in this era is did the gun come withe a bullet mold of the right caliber to make your own cartridges or were premade cartridges sold for them? It would seem like a difficult logistic in the west to find the right cartridge for your particular gun. Thanks Ian!
Today in our world of subcompacts with 12-15 shots they may appear ludicrous, but for a 1850 gentleman, born and risen in a world where a pocket pistol had 1 shot, and if you wanted firepower you carried two of them, these were a real paradigm shift: with little more encubrance than two pocket pistols, you had 10 shots.
The only alternative were pepperboxes, heavy, unreliable things with just enough accuracy for a shootout in an elevator...
1862 Pocket Police is elegance expressed, my favorite Colt. Third model Dragoon, then 1849 Pocket Model (third).
Colt guns are beautiful, like a Ferrari is beautiful
I never realised they made pistols like this, kind of like a muzzle loader technique but in the barrel.
Must of been a pain once your six shots were up.
Oh, it was definitely a pain if you got into trouble that just drawing the pistol couldn't stop.
But wearing multiple guns was an old tradition by then.
Now I want a scene of Harambe fighting Zoo keepers engraved on my magazine
The Colt 1903 .32 auto Pocket Hammerless of it’s era half a century earlier. Funny how for over a hundred years, private detectives of every generation had their own idea of the perfect pocket pistol.
Ian, this prompted me to dig out my '49 Pocket, which came to me as a family heirloom about fifty years ago. Were all the frames case hardened? Mine has no color remaining even though the firearm itself is in amazing condition. Also, could you mention a current range of values? Mine is a six-shot five inch model. Judging from your information, with a serial number in the 230,000 range, it was possibly manufactured during the civil war(?).
found one and have it marked Colonel Colt and New York on the barrel
I really enjoyed your last video. Really made me want to get into creating my own black powder rifle
Love to had one of these. Thanks for the history Ian.
"Big sexy army guns"
-Gun Jesus, 2020
cool making of the gun
@Forgotten Weapons - Great content, as always. Did the models without a loading lever come with a separate loading tool... or did the user just utilise a rod and a small rock to seat the bullet?
They used the arbor aka the centre pin the cylinder rotates around; when you unscrew the barrel assembly to take the cylinder out you use the end of the arbor to seat the ball.
The spindle that the cylinder rotates on was used to seat the ball.
I know this will be heresey to the American gun buff but I am amazed at their popularity as they have one glaring design fault, I have shot modern repro version of Colt and find that because there is a perfect channel from the nipple to the trigger mechanism that once a cap has been fired it can fall off the nipple and drops into the inside of the gun requring complete disassembly to clear the bound up trigger to work again.
It was practice of the day to elevate the gun vertically before you pulled the hammer back for the next shot. This ensures the burst cap falls back away from the frame as the hammer clears the breech.
Oh look...it's Josey Wales' back-up piece. 😊
Or was it the back-up to the back-up? He carried so many that I lost track. 😀
@@ephraimgarrett4727 LOL...true 'nuff
Now that‘s more like it, now i can call myself Two Guns Bertmann, like my good friend Corky Corchoran in the Blue Bottle saloon in Wichita.
Thanks!
"God didn't make people equal. Mr Colt did."
Mr. Colt made people equal after god made them.
And this was good.
Stupid is always stupid.
But a Smith and Wesson beats four Aces! ;-)
God: Make
George Washington: Make America
Abraham Lincoln: Make America Great
@@moritamikamikara3879
Microwave: Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Donald Trump: Make America Great Again
Love my Uberti '49 Pocket.
I have a Colt Baby Dragoon powder flask !!! I believe for the 31 Caliber !!!! First Model 1863 !!!
1848 !! Not 1863 !!!
Have you considered making a video on the Barrett M82A2? It's quite literally a cursed gun. I'm having trouble finding videos or info on it.
Found a few pictures, but nothing else, and yeah, that... raises so many questions.
I'm waiting on the Forgotten Weapons video on the Stamped 1911A1. Only recently found out it existed, but I want to know more about it.
Great presentation!
Baby Dragoon sounds like a rapper you'd hear nowadays
45 seconds ago, the fastest in the west :)
These two revolvers look adorable to be honest
I’d like to see more videos on colt single action army revolvers. I think you only have the Elmer kieth revolver as far as SA cartridge colts go.
Pepperboxes! For personal protection only the pepperbox had true multi shot capacity to rival these small Colts, but even they were bulky to carry and had poor comparative accuracy.