That simply involves taking the barrel off so the cylinder can be removed from the base pin. However, there is one “safety pin” between two of the chambers on this gun’s cylinder.īefore the revolver should be fired there is a short ritual to be taken. Other Colt style revolvers that I’m familiar with have those “safety pins” between each of the chambers and, at first, I thought they were simply missing from this 1849 Model. Those pins make it possible to carry the gun fully loaded and capped with the hammer lowered between chambers or caps. There is another notch at the bottom of the striking face of the hammer and that notch engages a small pin in between the cylinder’s chambers, or nipples, that will keep the cylinder from rotating when the hammer is lowered over that pin. Like other Colt-style percussion revolvers, this 1849 copy has the rear sight as a shallow notch in the top of the hammer. With the 4-inch barrel, this gun has an overall length of about 9¾ inches. To give you a good overall description of this revolver, let me begin by saying it weighs just 1½ pounds, or 24 ounces. TODAY’S COPY OF the 1849 Pocket Revolver, made by Uberti (), is really a dandy little gun.
The guns they issued were Colt Model 1849s. One example of the acceptance of the Pocket Revolvers is found with the Baltimore Police Department, which was the first in the country to issue guns to their officers. Over 300,000 of these guns were made before production ended, along with the end of the percussion era, in 1873. They represented the first firm footing for Colt, and prior to their introduction, the company had trouble staying in business. To say the Pocket Revolver was a success would be putting it mildly. There were, however, some other options and the original 1849 revolvers were made with barrels from 3 to 6 inches in length. That loading lever is, basically, the only difference between the Wells Fargo Models and the 1849 But in 1849 those pocket revolvers were updated and improved by adding the loading lever. We refer to that today as the Wells Fargo Model, although it is rather doubtful that Colt ever gave it such a name. One little item that was missing was the loading lever under the barrel and the Baby Dragoon had to be taken apart to be loaded.Īnother pocket revolver should be mentioned as we briefly review the old Colts, and that is a version of the Baby Dragoon that was ordered with a rounded trigger guard by the Wells Fargo company. 31-caliber Baby Dragoon had the square-backed trigger guard that was like the trigger guard on the Colt Walker and the first issue of the Dragoon, giving it a “look” that makes it stand out among other Colt pocket models. 31 Baby Dragoon came in, designed in late 1847. What this led to was a need to introduce a small revolver for personal defense. 44s but with a shorter cylinder and barrel than the Walker model. The Walker was followed by the Colt Dragoon series, also.
Next came the Colt Walker revolver, which was quite an improvement but that big. The Colt Patterson revolver was a five shot with the folding trigger and a pair of those are said to have been carried by Kit Carson, probably after 1840. Sam Colt had produced some very historic revolvers beginning in 1836. Looking back along the line of the original Colts, the Model 1849 Pocket Revolvers have quite a history. 31-caliber Model 1849 a ‘dandy little gun.’