Original Item: Only One Available. The expiration of Rollin White's patent on revolvers with bored through cylinders in 1869 was a true watershed moment for the U.S. Firearms industry. Now all firearms manufactures would be able to directly manufacture cartridge revolvers without having to risk lawsuits or pay royalties. Colt was no exception, especially considering that Samuel Colt himself had PASSED on the chance to purchase exclusive rights to the patent in the 1850s.

Colt was however still somewhat committed to percussion revolvers, so it wasn't until 1873 that their first purpose-made cartridge revolver, the Single Action Army, was introduced. That did not mean however that this was their only effort, as there was also a fairly large market producing parts and materials for converting percussion revolvers to take rimfire and centerfire cartridges. For designs such as the Remington "New Model" Revolver, this was relatively simple, as the cylinder could be swapped out easily with one that took cartridges. Some would use a back plate, while others would modify the hammer slightly.

Colt revolvers however did not have a solid frame that allowed easy removal of the cylinder, so they required more involved conversions. There were private companies that made conversion kits to supply gunsmiths, and companies that did all work in house as well. Colt also made the decision circa 1873-1874 to use left over parts from percussion revolvers to make some early rimfire cartridge revolvers. They also may have converted revolvers left over in stock, and definitely allowed customers and retailers to send back revolvers for the conversion.

This is one such example, which at first we thought was made using left over parts from the the "Pocket Model of 1862 of Navy Caliber (.36)" revolver. There were approximately 6,000 of these revolvers made circa 1874, utilizing a mixture of original, modified, and purpose built parts. However, based on the very high serial number, we believe this started life as a late production M1849 pocket revolver, which received similar modifications, probably sometime in the mid-late 1870s. Colt had developed the .38 "Short" Colt cartridge specifically for converting Model 1851 Navy revolvers, and also used them. The frames for the M1849 Pocket and M1862 "Pocket of Navy Caliber" are nearly identical, so either could have been used. We leave it to the new owner to decide the true history.

During the early conversions. parts such as the grip, grip frame, and trigger guard were left alone, while the frame, trigger, and cylinder required modification. The recoil shield on the right side was machined out and a spacer installed in front. This allowed the cylinder to be loaded from the rear, and extensions were added to the hammer to contact the cartridge rims. The rear of the cylinder was machined away, leaving the ratchet but completely removing the cap bolsters. In this case the cylinder would also need to have the chambers enlarged for the .38 cal cartridges. We believe that the barrel was completely replaced on these conversions.

However, this example is not rimfire, but definitely in a centerfire configuration, and does not look to have been converted from rimfire after the original conversion. The recoil shield insert is clearly for a centerfire cartridge. It is also nickel plated, which definitely would have to have been done after the modifications. It also looks to have had modification to the rear of the barrel for a better sight line at some point, which removed part of the address marking. It now only reads COLT'S PT F / HARTFORD, with the rest of the address removed. However, this modification was done AFTER the nickel plating. There area a lot of interesting aspects to this revolver.

This very nice example is in choice condition, and has serial number 310922 on most parts, including the barrel, frame, grip, and trigger guard! The cylinder is marked 0922, and the arbor pin faintly with 10922, while the barrel wedge is unmarked. If this is an M1849 Pocket originally, that would indicate production in 1869. We did notice that the "22" next to the serial numbers is stamped with a slightly smaller font, so we have considered that it is not part of the serial number. It is also possible that they had a "22" die, and used that to stamp the number.

The cylinder is in very good condition, and still has the original COLTS PATENT marking above the serial number, as well as much of the "Stagecoach Holdup" scene still visible. The patent markings on the left side of the frame are no longer present, we assume having been worn away. The trigger guard however has a VERY interesting marking: 38CAL. However, looking with a magnifier, we can clearly see that originally it said "31CAL", adding more evidence that this was originally a model M1849 pocket.

The revolver not only looks great but it is in tight fully functional condition, with a strong hammer pull, solid indexing and a firm cylinder lockup. We did not notice any of the usual finicky behavior we often see with revolvers of this age. The bore shows clear lands and grooves, with a partly bright finish, showing some wear from use as well as past powder fouling.

The pistol metalwork still retains much of the Nickel plating in some areas, though others have lost most of it, such as on the barrel and sides of the frame. We assume that this revolver saw a good amount of use after the cartridge conversion, and at some point the owner shaved down the back of the barrel for betting sighting. The revolver displays a peppery polished patina where the plating has flaked away. The walnut grip is in good shape, showing long use. It has lost all of the original "piano varnish" finish and definitely shows some missing chunks and wear.

A great example of an early Colt Factory Cartridge Converted Revolver with some good research potential, ready to add to your collection and display!

Specifications:

Year of Manufacture: circa 1869 - converted later
Caliber: .38 "Short" Colt
Ammunition Type: Centerfire Cartridge.
Barrel Length: 3 1/2 inches
Overall Length: 11 3/4 inches
Action: Single Action
Feed System: 5 Shot Revolver

History of the Colt Pocket Percussion Pistols:

The family of Colt Pocket Percussion Revolvers evolved from the earlier commercial revolvers marketed by the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company of Paterson, N.J. The smaller versions of Colt's first revolvers are also called "Baby Patersons" by collectors and were produced first in .24 to .31 caliber, and later in .36 caliber, by means of rebating the frame and adding a "step" to the cylinder to increase diameter. The .31 caliber carried over into Samuel Colt's second venture in the arms trade in the form of the "Baby Dragoon"-a small revolver developed in 1847–48. The "Baby Dragoon" was in parallel development with Colt's other revolvers and, by 1850, it had evolved into the "Colt's Revolving Pocket Pistol" that collectors now name "The Pocket Model of 1849". It is a smaller brother of the more famous "Colt's Revolving Belt Pistol of Naval Caliber" introduced the same year and commonly designated by collectors as the "1851 Navy Model" (and which was a basically a larger, .36 caliber of the Pocket Model, "belt pistol" referring to a weapon sized to fit into a belt holster, as opposed to the saddle holsters generally called for by Colt's larger cavalry combat models). In 1855 Colt introduced another pocket percussion revolver, the Colt 1855 "Sidehammer", designed alongside engineer Elisha K. Root.

The Pocket Model revolvers all have a traditional "Colt-style" frame, generally with brass grip straps and trigger guard, and a case-hardened steel frame. In appearance, the frames are almost identical to the larger 1851 Navy and .44 caliber 1860 Army Models, with the exception of being smaller, and so having a proportionately larger trigger guard. Since they appear so similar to the larger weapons, without an object nearby to give them scale, the Pocket Revolvers tend to give an impression of being larger than they actually are; it is difficult to fit all four fingers onto the slender grip, even for a person with average-sized hands. Except for by noting the relative size of the trigger guard to the frame, it is easy for a casual observer to mistake a .31 caliber Model 1849 for an 1851 Navy (un-rebated frame, slab-sided webbing around a regular pivoting loading lever, octagonal barrel, unfluted cylinder); indeed, the Model 1851 Navy was basically no more than a scaled -up 1849 Pocket Model. Likewise, the larger .36 caliber Pocket Police Models are virtually identical to the 1860 Army Model, with rebated frame and stepped cylinder (to accommodate a size up from .31 to .36, instead of .36 to .44 as with the Army Model), a graceful, flowing webbing surrounding a new style "creeping" loading lever, and a round barrel. The most obvious difference is that the Pocket Police had a fluted 5-shot cylinder, while most Army Models were unfluted, and held six shots. The reason for this close similarity is that all four guns were closely related, and followed similar paths of development; the original .31 caliber Model 1849 was scaled up to create the .36 caliber 1851 Navy Model. Later, the Navy Model was increased in bore size by rebating the frame and enlarging the cylinder, and became the 1860 Army Model. With the success of this project, the .31 caliber of the 1849 Model was similarly increased to .36, using the same method, creating the Pocket Police and Pocket Navy models in 1860.

In 1860, the .36 caliber Police Pocket model was created, after lessons were learned from experimentation aimed at reducing the size of the .44 Colt Holster Pistols (i.e. large cavalry weapons), Colt took advantage of stronger mass-produced steel by rebating the frame of the Navy revolver to hold a larger-diameter 44/100-inch chambered cylinder, basically fitting the power of a large cavalry saddle holster-gun and fitting it into the .36 caliber Navy Model, a gun that could be carried in a belt holster. Previously, it wasn't thought that the smaller frame could handle the power of the .44 round, but the introduction of stronger metals made it possible. Learning the lessons from this, the Colt factory applied the same technology to the .31 caliber Model 1849 Pocket revolvers, using high-strength (for the time) steel for the frame, which allowed them to remove enough material to fit a larger-diameter .36 caliber cylinder which still had five shots (the alternative was to simply retain the original cylinder diameter, and create a 4-shot .36 caliber version. The stronger steels made this sacrifice unnecessary. Other changes including lightweight fluted cylinders, and a round barrel, to offset the added weight, and a "creeping" loading lever as used in the 1861 Army Model; the result was the "Police Pocket Model of 1862", even though production started in 1861. The Pocket Navy was a version similarly up-sized to .36 caliber, but which retained the octagonal barrel and traditional loading lever of the earlier pocket mode. Between 1862 and 1873, Colt records document production of 19,000 of the Pocket Navies and over 20,000 Pocket Police revolvers. Relative to the .31 Pocket Revolvers, the period of manufacture was short and overall numbers were further limited by a fire at the Colt Factory in 1862 and War production concerns.

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