More Favorite Things…

But before I start, a couple of links- Alma for her comments on record keeping while we were fondling examining the various guns (Next time she will probably run screaming into New Mexico). Β And Peter for his take on the trip…

And now…

COLTS!!! πŸ™‚ Not that I’m biased or anything… Nope, not a bit… πŸ˜€

These aren’t on display, but still ‘classic’ Colts. Bottom Colt 1851, top 1860 Army. All matching numbers on both pistols. There were another four 1860s in one of the drawers, of those three were matching serial numbers and the last one was a parts gun, probably assembled by a troop armorer somewhere…

Right sides of the same pistols. Of note, you can see the modifications between the 1851 and 1860 clearly here. On the 1860 (top), note the notch in the bottom of the round behind the cylinder, and the trough in the feed toward the percussion caps. The trough feeds directly to the cap nipple, allowing one to simply slide the cap on without having to fiddle with it.

It’s for the ‘first’ Shoulder thingie that goes up!!! πŸ™‚ It’s called a shoulder stock (Picture is common use from the net, not a piece in the museum).

Next up are a pair of Gen 1 SAAs, the top one had some beautiful original case hardening, both of these are from the early 1900s and show a bit of the difference between a daily carry/well used old Colt and one that was more of a Sunday-go-to-meeting old Colt. The stag grips were excellent fit and easily allowed one to grip the butt firmly.

Left sides of the same pistols. Note the difference in wear of the left and right rubber grips on the bottom Colt. Based on wear patterns, the shooter was right handed.

And I’ll take drawer number 3, Alex… πŸ™‚ A bunch of Colts and that one beat up S&W 22 from yesterday and a S&W with MoP grips. The reason I took this was we were laughing at how much Ray would have loved the mother of pearl grips!

And one I need y’alls help on…

This pic is a Bisley and two SAAs, each with a different grip material. The top one is the one we can’t figure out. It’s either bone or horn from ‘something’, but nothing we recognized. As you can see, it’s deeply ridged, 1/16th to 1/8th inch deep. No cracks show on either side of the grips. Any help/ideas appreciated!!!

The middle on is a beat up set of plain wooden (issue) grips, and the bottom is some beautiful white ivory grips.

Sigh… I really needed more time to go through the Lightnings and Thunderers in that drawer. One oddity we did come across is on one of the display weapons, according to the Colt serial number list, there were either one each of a Lightning and/or a Thunderer, with the same serial number built in 1890… Wierd…

More pics tomorrow from other places! Thanks for stopping by and the comments!

Comments

More Favorite Things… — 18 Comments

  1. That unusual grip in the last picture looks a lot like an antler to me, not a horn.

  2. A small note, the two SAAs shown, the Sunday go to meetin’
    revolver is the later iteration with a spring loaded cross bolt for cylinder pin retention, the daily use revolver is the early frame frequently called the “black powder frame” with an angled screw to retain the cylinder pin. The changeover to the spring loaded pin was in the 1890s. This I know due to the Frontier model hanging on my wall, made in 1889, from my grandfather’s collection of early Colts. (The collection was broken up after his death & distributed throughout his large family and now is but a memory from my childhood of racks & rows of early Colts & muzzle loaded rifles.)
    The ability to handle those old revolvers is a great opportunity to feel the quality of those old warhorses and sense the history each one could tell if they could only talk.

  3. I no longer remember the finer points of those black powder pistols, but sure & I loves me some revolvers. Just enjoying the pictures, here.

  4. Ian- That’s a possibility, but we couldn’t figure out what horn… sigh

    Roger- Excellent point and truly sorry to hear that.

    Rev- Thanks!

    Gfa- πŸ™‚ We were wearing bibs, trust me! LOL

  5. We like the same things.

    I like ivory grips. They’re not politically correct, but I still like them a lot.

  6. I’ve often wondered what it would have been like to wear these gems on your hip all day. Beautiful guns from a different era.

    • It tends to make you list to starboard a bit, and if you’re not careful every so often you’ll pull it out and twirl it around your finger. That last tends to be a bit habit forming.

  7. Grip looks like stag or elk horn to me, but I don’t know much…
    Thanks for the photos and info. Learning something every day!

  8. LL- Yeah, sigh…

    CP- They weigh about the same as a 1911. The holsters were wider belts, so more comfortable (IMHO).

    Brig- Not sure, I’ve not seen horns that deeply ridged…

  9. Hey Old NFO;

    from the looks of the pics, y’all had a good time. There is something about an “old firearm” the history if it could talk.

  10. Steelghost- We looked at that, no curvature that matched any known horns between the four of us…

    Kidevu- Huh, didn’t think about that, thanks!

  11. Have you been to Fort CHADBOURNE in Bronte, TX, south of Abilene? Very nice collection there – I’m sure you’d enjoy it!

  12. Damn those are nice. Real nice. Thanks for the pics. Bring back memories of your early military service, did they? πŸ˜‰