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. Additionally, with the large surplus of percussion revolvers post war, many systems were designed to convert these to take brass cartridge ammunition, in either rimfire or centerfire configurations.

Colt itself became involved in these, as there was definitely a large market. Colt revolvers however did not have a solid frame that allowed easy removal of the cylinder such as the Remington design, so they required more involved conversions. The first system they used in house was developed by Charles Brinckerhoff Richards, an engineer employed by Colt given the task of designing a conversion. As originally designed, it involved installation of a ring at the back of the cylinder, which held a captured firing pin, and also had a loading gate as seen on later revolvers. The loading rammer was removed and the channel filled in, with an ejector rod added to the right side of the barrel.

The downsides to the Richards system were the complicated machining of the conversion ring with the captive firing pin, and the overly complex and in some ways delicate ejector rod. These shortcomings were eliminated with the Richards-Mason conversions. This conversion system utilized an improved ejector design that had been patented by William Mason, and moved from a captured firing pin to one on the hammer, which also made it possible to convert revolvers to either centerfire or rimfire.

During the 1870s many percussion revolvers were converted at the Colt factory itself, and they also appear to have made kits to supply gunsmiths. Even after the Colt "Single Action Army" was introduced, conversions continued, as it was far cheaper than purchasing an entirely new revolver. Colt also made the decision circa 1873-1874 to use left over parts from percussion revolvers to make some early cartridge revolvers for both rimfire and centerfire cartridges.

This is one such example, which as best we can tell was made using parts from the Colt M-1862 Pocket Revolver of Navy Caliber, or "Pocket Navy". It has the correct rebated cylinder for the larger cartridges, and the frame is rebated as well due to this. However, it is marked with VERY HIGH serial number 307737, which as best we can tell is part of the Model 1849 Pocket serial sequence, indicating production in 1868, even though this cannot really be possible. This was a time of great change for Colt, so having things not entirely make sense is normal, and this is definitely an all original revolver.

Colt had originally developed the .38 "Short" Colt cartridge specifically for converting .36cal Navy revolvers like this example. 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 slightly enlarged for the .38 cal cartridges.

This nickel-plated example looks to be made with a new-made 3 1/2" barrel, and we see no evidence that there was any type of loading rammer channel filled, or any inlet added on the right side for cartridges. It also has no evidence of an ejector rod having been fitted, however with the short barrel it would not really be possible to install, so we believe that it is a Richards-Mason style conversion that simply did not have the ejector fitted. It also is marked with the same Colt address marking that would appear later on Single Action Army revolvers:-

COLT'S PT. F. A. MFG. CO.
HARTFORD. CT. U. S. A.

This very nice example is in lovely condition, and is marked with serial number 307737 on the barrel, frame, trigger guard, grip frame, and on the cylinder. The cylinder arbor pin is marked with shortened 07737, while the wedge is an unmarked replacement. That makes this a very nice "Mostly Matching" example, with no parts swapped out since the conversion, which probably happened before it ever left the factory. The cylinder is in very good condition, and still has a clear COLTS PATENT / № marking next to the serial number, as well as most of the "Stagecoach Holdup" scene still visible, both probably protected by the nickel plating. The left side of the frame has early 1870s patent dates marked, which are still clear:

The "36 CAL" marking on the left side of the trigger guard is still present, and has had the "6" overstamped with an "8" as we sometimes see, so it actually reads 38 CAL.

The pistol metalwork shows a lovely worn patina of age, still retaining the plating very well on the frame and cylinder, while the grip has lost some, and the barrel is missing most, now displaying an oxidized patina. There is however no major oxidation, pitting, or other damage present. The walnut grips are in very good shape, with a lovely color and the expected patina of age. They still have about 60% of the original "Piano Varnish" finish that was applied to these at the factory, with wear on the bottom of the grips as usually seen.

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 barrel to frame connection is solid, with just a bit of wiggle, and the revolver can be taken apart by removing the cylinder wedge. The bore is in very good, near excellent conditiom, showing a bright finish with crisp lands and grooves. There are just some scattered areas of past fouling and oxidation, now cleaned away, and it does not look to have seen major use at any point during its life.

A great nickel-plated example of an early Colt Factory Cartridge Converted Revolver, ready to add to your collection and display!

Specifications:

Year of Manufacture: circa 1861-1874
Caliber: .38cal "Short"
Ammunition Type: Centerfire Cartridge
Barrel Length: 3 1/2 inches
Overall Length: 8 1/4 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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