I would say though even though I recommend the 1851 like so many others do, I would spend the extra (if any) and get the 1861 colt. That is a beautiful gun.
1849 As A First "Colt"?
- Thread starter Walkabout
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No matter which one you purchase, you will have a ball with it! That little fella is a fun shooter; doesn't cost much to shoot it, but there is a but to this message. Depending on what you will be shooting at, I would suggest a larger caliber. They just reach out farther. Fifteen yards or less you'll love the pocket pistol. FWIW...my first revolver was the Colt Walker. I loved the story behind it. It had few issues. Needed some filing here and there. After some time with 'Big Alice' shooting anything else is a piece of cake. However, the best Colt ever made was in my humble opinion was the 1860 Army. Oh, and another lesson learned. Purchase a set of quality gun files. Check out Mike Beliveaus' website, he has numerous how to do its. DuelistDen.
Bruce Vanderhoofbprvan
32 Cal
I agree.
No cap and ball Colt is reliable by today's standards, but they are all fun because we're drawn to antiquity as a hobby. You have apparently been drawn to the 1849, so go for it. If you buy something else you'll always covet an 1849. But then again, you'll have an excuse to buy one more of these magnificent anachronisms.
I have had a 49 pocket and Wells Fargo, 51, 61, and 62 police. My favorite for fun and ease of shooting is the 61 navy. The 49 was fun, but as others have said I spent lots of time with cap jams.
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I am pretty new to cap and ball revolvers. Certainly you need to expect to spend plenty of time getting used to the routine, "finishing", tuning, etc. I have an 1860 Colt and a 1862 police (small frame, .36 cal). With minimal effort( new nipples and hammer deburring) I have the 1860 colt shooting and functioning like a dream. The 1862....not so much. Perhaps because the same basic design is being boiled down into a smaller, tighter package, it is much stiffer in function. Although I am not having many actual jams, the spent cap drag is substantial in cycling, which may be a necessary evil. I want to love the little .36, but the bigger revolver is much more carefree, fun and reliable...for me.
Yeah, I'm leaning toward the 1860 Army, just because I already have a Remington in .44 and I'd like to use the same balls for both. Thanks
My wife loves shooting the little revolver as long as she has her trusty tweezers to pull the occasional stuck cap.
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Amen brother.
I bought a Uberti 1862 Police model and it was a cap jammamatic.
My first three shots were epic. After the first shot it required completely dissembling the acion and fishing a cap fragment out of that tiny frame. reassemble shoot, repeat, shoot repeat.
Clean, call it the male child of d female dog and stick it back in the rack.
It might have gone longer but the hand spring broke and it cost $150 in gun smith charges to get it running.
Same frame and i suspect same trouble.
An 1851 .36 Navy in .36 caliber or an 1861 Navy in .36 caliber. East to shoot, clean, and work on when needed to clean the frame interior.
Also economical of powder and lead.
Respectfully,
Bunk
No, stay away from the little gun till you learn how fix them, you want to start with the 1851 or 1861 navy.
Learning to fix most any Black Powder Revolver is going to save you a lot of expense and frustration. I learned by building a few kits in the 1980s. This 1849 Hartford Pocket Model by Palmetto came as a Dixie Kit. I liked it because it was 36cal instead of 31. Palmetto had a bad reputation but with some work like removing the machine marks on the exterior metal and polishing the internal moving parts it has been a real fun gun. I did have to replace the handspring, which was the only part that broke in all these years, with one I made from spring stock. It does have the occasional cap jam but not a real problem and the timing is perfect. The size is just handy to take a walk in the nearby woods with it stuck in my belt. I made these new grips recently and keep it totally clean and reblued as necessary.
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Bruce Vanderhoofbprvan
32 Cal
My first was the Remington new army a 2000 model pietta always worked perfectly and shoots very well . fits hand a lot better than the ity bity pocket.
Buzz
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There's a reason why cartridge revolvers and conversions were such a big deal when they became available
Also, SlixShots now offers nipples for Pocket models
In 150 years people will wonder how we used antiquated things like M16's and 9mm pistols in wars, and they'll think dirty shooting, brass cased ammunition that sometimes jammed and was held in simple magazines is old timey and quaint
I know what you are saying but look at how long cartridge guns have been around to how long cap and ball lastedThere's a reason why cartridge revolvers and conversions were such a big deal when they became available
Also, SlixShots now offers nipples for Pocket models
In 150 years people will wonder how we used antiquated things like M16's and 9mm pistols in wars, and they'll think dirty shooting, brass cased ammunition that sometimes jammed and was held in simple magazines is old timey and quaint
Bruce Vanderhoofbprvan
32 Cal
Well it was a great time for inovation and just kinda looks like natural progression from preceding technology. If you look back to the flintlock , around a long time because it took a quantum leap to get to percussion,
, but once there inovation abounded.
Buzz
Just a little bit of trivia, 1851 navies were well used into the 1930s by many people, and not necessarily cartridge conversions.
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Historically it takes a war for technology to advance., unfortunately.
For example the lever action firearm and caseless ammunition had been patented in the 1840's by Walter Hunt. It took a war in the 1860's for B. Tyler Henry to use Hunt's invention to design the 1860 Henry rifle.
Still working on that caseless idea.
Today's history lesson complete
Bunk
Professional Curmudgeon
It's how we got atomic energy.
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Anyone who relied on guns for their livelihood got their hands on a cartridge revolver or had their percussion revolvers converted as soon as they could
S&W was making Rimfire pocket revolvers throughout the 1850s-1860s but the Rollin White patent helped them a lot.
Technologically, percussion revolvers and muzzleloading rifle-muskets were obsolete by the start of the Civil War but both sides had to use the technology they could effectively mass produce or purchase .
European nations more militarily advanced than us like Prussia had gone with the Needle Gun in the 1850s, far superior to a rifle-musket but there's no way the US or CS could purchase mass quantities or make them in time to issue them.
The CS did purchase 10s of thousands of Lafaucheaux pinfire revolvers to issue in pairs to Cavalry along with 100s of thousands of rounds of ammunition. So the search for better weapons tech was definitely a priority for both sides.
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