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Unique Remington Rear sight

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Ajgall

40 Cal
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I’ve got a brass framed 1858 that has sat in a box in pieces for the last 10 or so years I may have to make a sight like this for it just to see what I can do. Being a brass frame Remington it’s already not historically correct
 
I learned about this pistol on a Civil War history site I follow. This is the first pistol I recall seeing with period custom sights; was this something that was done commonly or is this a one of item?

The pictures are not mine they are from the article that the link below is to:
https://www.historynet.com/rare-artifacts-from-confederate-maryland-soldiers.htm

Ajgall,

This may not be a "one of," but it certainly was extremely rare.

I don't believe the owner used the sight at short range, rather he most likely relied on point and shoot. Using that technique, it doesn't matter if there is this sight on the revolver or not.

If one used the front sight along with the rear "tube sight," then the pistol would shoot very high. (NSSA shooters frequently/normally modify or use a higher front sight for 25yd and 50 yard bullseye shooting, so even without this tube sight, the pistols shoot high anyway and the tube sight would make it shoot even higher.) So this tells us one of two things, in my estimation:

1. He did not use the front sight to aim and only aimed through the tube sight.

2. If he used the front sight, then it was for LONG Range, I.E. beyond 50 yards.

My guess it was number one, though of course I can't prove that.

Gus
 
I would think this was probably added way after the War maybe by a family member of the original owner or , possibly the actual veteran himself.........maybe......., if we even know that inscription is genuine or means anything.

It doesn't seem likely that a Cavalry trooper or a Confederate Militiaman would have purchased or acquired an 1858 Remington and had an ineffective tube sight added to it for actual use in combat.

It seems more like someone attempted to make this a target or Bullseye revolver using some barn workshop ingenuity.
 
I would think this was probably added way after the War maybe by a family member of the original owner or , possibly the actual veteran himself.........maybe......., if we even know that inscription is genuine or means anything.

It doesn't seem likely that a Cavalry trooper or a Confederate Militiaman would have purchased or acquired an 1858 Remington and had an ineffective tube sight added to it for actual use in combat.

It seems more like someone attempted to make this a target or Bullseye revolver using some barn workshop ingenuity.

If the tube rear sight was the ONLY modification done to the revolver, then there is a higher chance it was done after the war. However, since a loop for a lanyard was added and they have the name of the person who did it, then it seems they have documentation that it was done during the War.

I wonder if documentation may have been found in the book he wrote on his memoirs of the war "Four Years in the Saddle?" (published in New York, Harper & Bros., 1866)

Gus
 
Bannerman had a lot of Remingtons and he found he could sell a "CSA" marked gun for a lot more so guess what? The engraved backstrap attributing the revolver to Gilmore is on a pistol "made by the Southern firm of Leech & Rigdon. The revolver was a copy of the Model 1858 Colt Navy Revolver." The photo clearly shows that it's not a Remington. A lot of originals, specially Remingtons were modified for use as target guns even as late as the 1950s and I expect this one was done post Civil War. Stantheman86 is leaning in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. That rear sight would have been useless in combat but the crosshairs resemble the inserts found in front sights from the 1890s. The front sight is way too low to have been used with the rear sight unless you were shooting at 200 yards.
 
Bannerman had a lot of Remingtons and he found he could sell a "CSA" marked gun for a lot more so guess what? The engraved backstrap attributing the revolver to Gilmore is on a pistol "made by the Southern firm of Leech & Rigdon. The revolver was a copy of the Model 1858 Colt Navy Revolver." The photo clearly shows that it's not a Remington. A lot of originals, specially Remingtons were modified for use as target guns even as late as the 1950s and I expect this one was done post Civil War. Stantheman86 is leaning in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. That rear sight would have been useless in combat but the crosshairs resemble the inserts found in front sights from the 1890s. The front sight is way too low to have been used with the rear sight unless you were shooting at 200 yards.
Now that you mention it the pattern of the cross hairs looks very 1890’s Marblesish.
 
In talking with guys who have been around a little bit, they used to tell me they'd buy old percussion revolvers at Flea Markets in the 1950s for like $2 and they'd just shoot them until they either got bored with them or something broke. No one cared about "old guns" back then.

It's very likely someone came into this Remington in the 1890s-1950s and just added this rear sight.

I wouldn't even factor that inscription into any history or value. There's an 1851 Navy on GunBroker right now with an inscription and the name of a Confederate General. It seems a lot of Confederate veterans and Generals liked to inscribe revolvers :)
 
A lot of modern crooks wanting to pull the wool over buyers eyes also create fake pistols using modern reproductions and figure adding some Confederate Generals name to it to increase the price fools will pay.
 

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