Tag Archives: Colt Dragoon

Putting the ‘Navy’ in the 1851 Colt

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Samuel Colt launched his revolutionary revolver business in 1835 but within a decade started to see his products increasingly knocked off and the brand diluted by counterfeit and very much unlicensed clones.

Colt’s solution to helping make said cloning harder to pull off successfully was to introduce a series of scrollwork to his revolvers, specifically around the cylinder. His Model 1851, for example, had a naval scene.

Detail of Colt Model 1851, Serial No. 2, in the collection of the Met, note the naval combat scene on the cylinder. Some 215,348 Colt Navy models were produced. (Photo: The Met/Open Access Image)

But what naval scene was it?

More in my column at Guns.com. 

Dragoon Snubbie?

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Photo and caption via the University of Utah’s collection:

Colt's 1st Model Dragoon Revolver, Serial No. 3262 Stekes Utah Historical Collection

“This was Colt’s 1st Model Dragoon Revolver, Serial No. 3262. This revolver was made in 1848 or 1849 as records show that “a little over 4000 of the first model were made in 1848.” The barrel has been shortened from the original 7 1/2 inch length to 2 1/2 inches. The loading lever has been removed and a new front sight has been dove-tailed in on the barrel. This was a common practice to enable quicker drawing and firing & to carry concealed. The revolver was allegedly brought to Salt Lake City in 1936 by a lady from “Southern Utah,” who said that it had some connection with John D. Lee. It could hardly have belonged to Lee as William Stokes, Deputy U.S. Marshall, who arrested Lee at Panquitch on the morning of Nov. 7, 1874, related that Lee was curious about a similar revolver that he (Stokes) used. Could this perhaps be the Stokes modifed “dragoon pistol?” C.K. Gift of Charles Kelly. “

For reference, John Doyle Lee was famously convicted as a mass murderer for his role in the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre and executed by firing squad at the Mountain Meadows site in 1877.

For further reference, this is what an unmodified Colt Dragoon looks like:

Pvt. Mabry W. Wafer, Company C, First Texas Partisan Rangers Colt Dragoon revolver Texas Historical Society Civil War

Pvt. Mabry W. Wafer, Company C, First Texas Partisan Rangers, shown with his Colt Dragoon revolver, photo via the Texas Historical Society

Stolen Museum Gun Shows Up On TV

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So you’re the curator of a museum and you have a near priceless antique Colt vanish. The police have no leads. No signs of it on Craigslist, Gunbroker, or the local pawnshops. Then late one night almost a year later, while watching TV, in walks your missing gun.

Jim Gordon’s Casa Escuela Museum in Glorieta, New Mexico is a small privately run collection of vintage firearms. Like many small museums, the Escuela does not have regular business hours to eliminate overhead and is by appointment only for interested historians and collectors. One Wylie Gene Newton, a 65-year old collector scheduled a private viewing of the museum. After a second visit, in March 2011, a very rare and beautiful 1849 .44-caliber Colt Dragoon revolver came up missing. Detectives soon paid ole Wylie a visit but came up without the Dragoon. The gun had pulled an Amelia Earhart……

Read more in my column at Firearms Talk.com