Colt Barrel Lengths

[jaxenro]

I can only recall seeing pics of a very few original cased sets of percussion Colts with more than one barrel of different lengths. It would seem to me that with the barrels being so easily interchangable it would have been easy to make sets with long and short barrels for, say, an 1851 Navy. Say 3-5" for pocket, 7-8" for holster, and 12-16" for using with that shoulder stock. Any ideas as to why this was not done?

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

I can only recall seeing this done with Paterson revolvers. It does seem like it would have worked with other models, but I can't remember ever seeing it done.

 

[jaxenro]

I know there's a cased pocket pistol set that has two barrels

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Maybe economics...Colt could have thought that they would make more money selling more whole guns to collectors or shooters who want various length barrels, just as all of the repro companies do today. :hmm:

Dave

 

I think 1851 Navys and Pocket Navys came in differing barrel lengths. However when you shorten the barrel, you also have to shorten the loading lever which increases the difficulty in forcing the ball into the cylinder due to loss of leverage.