Original Item: Only One Available. This is an original U.S. Civil War era Colt Model 1862 Pocket Navy .36 caliber percussion revolver with a 4 1/2" octagonal barrel, five shot cylinder, matching serial number 11038, and production dating to 1862. It retains substantial original blue, visible Colt markings, strong mechanical function, a very good bore, and an attractive walnut grip with surviving varnish.

This is an antique black powder firearm manufactured before 1899. Under federal law, it may generally be owned within the United States without a special license or permit and does not require transfer through a Federal Firearms Licensee. However, state and local laws may vary. This firearm is sold solely as a historical collector’s item and has not been test fired or inspected for firing safety by a professional gunsmith. Any mechanical or bore observations provided below describe only its present condition and should not be interpreted as confirmation that the firearm is safe to load or fire. The purchaser is solely responsible for complying with all applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Introduced in 1862 as the "Pocket Model of 1862 of Navy Caliber (.36)", these 5 shot .36 caliber percussion revolver were available with 4 ½, 5 ½, and 6 ½ inch long barrels. Unlike the "Police Pocket" model, they retained the octagonal barrel and cylinder scene style associated with Colt's Navy pattern arms. This example has a 4 1/2" barrel and was made during the Civil War period. Although revolvers of this type were privately purchased and carried by officers and civilians during the conflict, no documented individual military provenance accompanies this revolver. Only bout 19,000 of these "Pocket Navy" revolvers were ever made, making them very rare and desirable.

The serial number:

11038

is stamped on the barrel, frame, trigger guard, and grip frame. The shortened serial:

1038

appears on the cylinder and barrel wedge. The arbor has had part of its end removed and retains:

103

with the final digit no longer present. Taken together, the serialized components are consistent with the revolver remaining substantially matching.

The top of the barrel retains the Colt address, though the final portion is faint:

ADDRESS COL. SAML COLT NEW-YORK U.S. AM[ERIC]A

The left side of the frame is marked:

COLTS
PATENT

and the left side of the trigger guard is marked:

36CAL

The cylinder retains traces of the "COLT'S PATENT" marking, while the original stagecoach scene is no longer visible. Several additional small inspection or assembly marks are present but are faint from exterior wear.

The barrel and cylinder retain a substantial amount of original blue. The frame, trigger, and loading lever have aged to a mottled oxidized patina. The trigger guard and grip frame retain some surviving finish, with the exposed brass aging to a warm mustard color.

The one piece walnut grip is in very good condition with an attractive aged brown color and approximately 50% of the original piano varnish remaining on both sides. There is normal edge wear and light denting, but no major cracks, missing chunks, or structural damage.

The action functions strongly during manual inspection, with accurate cylinder indexing and solid lockup. The barrel to frame connection remains firm, and the revolver disassembles correctly with removal of the barrel wedge. A small hex grub screw has been installed in the end of the arbor as a later adjustment, apparently to maintain a tight barrel and frame fit. This is a 20th century modification and is fully disclosed.

The bore is in very good condition with a mostly bright interior and strong lands and grooves. Colt's progressive rifling remains clearly visible. There is some evidence of old fouling and oxidation that has since been cleaned, but the bore remains considerably better than many surviving percussion revolvers of the period. All five percussion nipples are present and clear. Their exterior surfaces show old fouling and oxidation from use.

With its 1862 production date, matching serial number 11038, 4 1/2" octagonal barrel, substantial surviving blue, visible Colt markings, attractive varnished walnut grip, strong action, and very good progressive rifled bore, this is a particularly appealing Civil War era Colt Model 1862 Pocket Navy. The erased cylinder scene, faint barrel address, oxidized patina, later arbor grub screw, exterior nipple oxidation, and normal service wear are all fully disclosed. It would fit especially well in a Colt percussion revolver, Civil War sidearm, Pocket Navy, or advanced 19th century American firearms collection.

Specifications:

Year of Manufacture: 1862
Caliber: .36cal
Manufacturer: Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company
Model: 1862 Pocket Navy
Serial No.: 11038
Ammunition Type: Cap and Ball
Barrel Length: 4 1/2 inches
Overall Length: 9 5/8 inches
Action: Single Action
Feed System: 5 Shot Revolver
Federal Classification: Pre-1899 Antique

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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IMA considers all of our antique guns as non-firing, inoperable and/or inert. Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 921(a)(16) defines antique firearms as all guns made prior to 1899. This law exempts antique firearms from any form of gun control or special engineering because they are not legally considered firearms. No FFL, C&R or any license is required to possess, transport, sell or trade Antique guns. All rifles and muskets sold by IMA that were manufactured prior to 1899 are considered Antiques by the US BATF (United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms). Therefore, all of IMA's Antique guns may be shipped to all US States and most nations around the world.

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Pre-1899 Manufacture, no licenses required, allowed to ship to almost any deliverable address across the globe. Please note that for international shipping, these MUST be shipped using UPS WW Services. International customers should always consult their country's antique gun laws prior to ordering.