1851 Navy Colt

Well, I'm not a designer and I realize that nothing is hard for him that doesn't have to do it but...
I saw a thread at Zealot where someone had built a 1911 Colt .45 and, being a little more old-fashioned than that, I thought about the 1851 Navy Colt, the gun that, I think, Steve Earle referred to as a "cap-and-ball Colt", "shoot as fast as lightning, but loads a mite slow", and "get you into trouble, but can't get you out". I think a 1:1 scale model would be great. (There was also a CSA version.)

Just a thought,
Bill

[bclemens]

Interesting...my father is designing a 1:1 "Pocket" Colt. I don't know much about the gun, but as a retired technical illustrator who was trained as an old-school draftsman, he is designing it the old-fashioned way and building a prototype. I told him when he gets his designs worked out I'd help transfer them to computer files and do a laser cut version. Perhaps it wouldn't be a long jump from that to the Navy Colt...
Cheers!
Bruce

Probability says that if you put a whole bunch of monkeys at keyboards typing randomly sooner or later one of them will produce the complete works of Shakespeare (probably not enough matter in the universe to make enough monkeys and keyboards and not enough time in the life of the universe but those are just details)...put enough people on this planet and one of them will be designing a paper model of a nineteenth century revolver.

Small world...

I'm no expert but I think the difference between the "pocket" and the Navy--besides the markings of course--is the length of the barrel. And the difference between the Navy and the CSA ripoff is the shape of the barrel--one was round, the other hexagonal or maybe octagonal. (Apologies to Civil War buffs for my lack of knowledge.)

I see "nothing" has posted a thread here about his 1911 Colt. It looks fantastic.

Regards,
Bill

[nothing]

do you have a good picture or schematics?

nothing,
At one point I think I had patent drawings (I was working on making a wooden model for shooting rubber bands but I got sidetracked) and there are a lot of photos on the web, but I have no idea how appropriate they are for meshes and textures. When I was checking Google to see if a paper model of this revolver had already been done, I ran across a web site that had a "soft" model, meshes and textures, of the Navy Colt for sale for $40. I don't know what use they intended for it...

If you are interested, I'll check later today for patent drawings or whatever it was I was working from.

Regards,
Bill

[nothing]

that would help a lot. i did a google search for images however there apears to be more than 1 version.(not knowing enough about it to make the right choice) and of course no schematics came up.

trent

You're right, there were a number of versions of the Navy, which is not surprising I suppose when you consider how many were manufactured. And I'm no expert either but I sort of pared down the Google offerings to the following:

http://www.gunuts.com/images/173.png -- I think this is probably a patent drawing
http://www.texasranger.org/dispatch/4/ColtNavy.htm -- a brief review of the different versions of the Navy

http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/ad...3&subcatID=150 -- Scroll down and select any of the 1851 Navys for a group of photos of actual guns

http://www.armsbid.com/images-ks6c/6c-wraz8.jpg -- Just a nice picture of a less than perfect gun


http://64.177.205.5/handguns.htm -- Scroll down for photos of several actual worn guns

I would like to see someone tackle this; what would be really great is to include a presentation case with powder flask, etc...as I said in the beginning, nothing is difficult for him that doesn't have to (and cant't) do it.

Take care,
Bill

[nothing]

thats a great place to start. thanks for sorting that down.ill look into it.

[nothing]

ive been trying to find dimensions. without a line drawinggetting the scale right is hard. the only thing ive found right off is that it is 14" long?? wow thats a long pistol!

I think 14" is right; it was a big gun, according to one source about 2lb 10oz. I think it was the gun that Clint Eastwood used in Outlaw Josey Wales; he had four of them stuck in saddle holsters if I'm not confusing it with another movie.

Anyway, I found the actual patent document, Pat. No. 7629, patented Sep 10 1850; the document shows a gun with a shorter barrel but with no actual measurements.

I read somewhere that the barrel was 7.5 inches. This would work out IF the overall length of the gun is 14 inches AND its length is measured diagonally across the gun from the barrel tip to the tip of the grip. (This is based on some rough measurements I did on a computer image.)

Another site with some nice photos:

http://www.peteholder.co.uk/firearmlist.asp?category=1

I'll keep looking for some images with measurements.

Bill