Although I've written about this before, I thought some of the newcomers might find this interesting.
Everyone calls their Remington C&B revolver a "1858" but many don't know exactly why.
Most think that their pistol reproduction represents a gun that was manufactured in 1858 but that isn't true.
Remington did make a pistol in 1858 but it is a far cry from what we today think of as a Remington.
Their first revolver was actually made in 1857 and was called the "Remington-Beals 1st Model".
Beals by the way was Remingtons top designer.
It was a .31 caliber, 5 shot pocket pistol with a 3 inch barrel. Unlike the Colts of this era, these Remingtons had a closed top frame like all of the Remingtons that were to follow.
This little gun was made in 3 different models, the first with a full trigger guard while the 2nd and 3rd model had a projecting "spur" style trigger. There was no loading lever incorporated into these guns. These small pistols were made from 1857 thru 1859. There are no reproductions of this gun made.
The pistol we think of as a "1858" style was first made using the name "Remington-Beals Army Model Revolver" but it was first made in 1861.
Remington stamped "BEALS PATENT SEPT. 14 1858/MANUFACURED BY REMINGTONS ILION, N.Y." on the barrel.
This gun was a .44 caliber 6 shot pistol with a 8 inch barrel. It had a number of little things the Army didn't like, the lack of "safety notches" on the cylinder being one of them and only about 1900 of them were made.
There was also a .36 caliber Remington-Beals Navy made. The Navy had a slightly smaller frame than the Army and this smaller frame carried on thru all of Remingtons different Navy models.
Remington redesigned the Remington-Beals Army Model and called it the "Remington 1861 Army Revolver". It carried a PATENTED DEC 17, 1861 barrel marking.
While this improved several small items, it added a "feature" that was the cause of great concern.
This feature was a clearance cut in the top of the loading lever. This allowed the shooter to remove the cylinder without dropping the loading lever.
It also allowed the cylinder pin to work its way out while the gun was holstered.
Imagine the surprise of the user when he whipped out his trusty pistol only to have the cylinder fall out.
Many of these pistols were returned to Remington where a small button head screw was added to the loading lever to block the cylinder pin while the lever was in the "up" position.
One of the design faults with all of these early Remington-Beals Army and Navy pistols was that the frame extended almost to the front of the cylinder.
Because of the closeness of the frame, the fouling that built up on the front of the cylinder and re rear of the frame caused the guns to "bind up" after only a few shots and unlike the Colt that could be "adjusted" by tapping the barrel wedge out a bit to move the barrel away from the cylinder, nothing could be done in the field to the Remington 1861 models to improve the situation.
Remington went back to the drafting board and made some changes to improve this situation.
What they came up with was the "Remington New Model Army Revolver". Interestingly, Remington marked this guns barrel with PATENTED SEPT 14 1858/E. REMINGTON & SONS, ILION, NEW YORK. USA/NEW MODEL. The "1858" date referring to Beals old patent is the reason we call this model a "1858 Remington".
This is the model that most of you folks have a reproduction of.
The big improvement was to cut the frame back so that it cleared the front of the cylinder leaving the threaded rear of the barrel as the only projection that comes close to the front of the cylinder.
The barrel and its sharp threads improved things quite a bit because its smaller area couldn't collect as much fouling and it tended to scrape the fouling that occurred on the cylinder off as the cylinder revolved during cocking.
The difference can be seen in this picture.
The New Model Army (and Navy) Revolver was manufactured from 1863 thru 1875.
About 122,000 Army models and 28,000 Navy were manufactured during those years.
I should mention that the Remington-Beals 1861 in the photo above is not an original. For a number of years the Italian makers manufactured a reproduction of it and there are many of them out there. They have the close fitting frame and the rear of the barrel only sticks out about 1/16 of an inch to the face of the cylinder.
That is the reason when I see a post which describes the gun as "locking up" after only a few shots are fired to look at the way the frame and barrel meets the cylinder. I suspect that many of them have bought a copy of the 1861 rather than the New Army (or Navy) and they are enjoying a bit of 'history' first hand.
I mentioned that the Remington Navys were smaller than the Army pistols. Unfortunately the Italian manufactures versions of the Navy uses the same frame as their Army so the smaller Navys aren't to be had.
Some of you folks have reported seeing a really small .36 caliber "Remington Navy" that has a 5 shot cylinder.
This much smaller pistol is the "Remington New Model Police Revolver" and it was manufactured from 1865 thru 1873.
It was direct competition for the "Colt 1862 Police" pistol. About 18,000 of them were made.
Unfortunately, there are no reproductions made of this fine little gun.
So what is that small little Remington with a spur trigger that looks like its bigger brother the "New Army"?
This is the "Remington New Model Pocket Pistol", a .31 caliber 5 shot gun that was made in both brass framed and steel framed versions.
There were actually three models of this little gun made.
The First Model was a brass framed gun with a brass spur trigger sheath.
The Second Model was a steel framed gun with a brass spur trigger sheath and the Third Model was all steel.
These pistols were made from 1865 thru 1873 with about 25,000 total production.
The Italian companies have reproduced this little gun in both the brass and the steel versions.
I have heard that in some of the foreign countries there is a law that all legal reproduction revolvers must be copies of guns that were first produced in 1858 or before. Obviously the "1858 Remington" doesn't meet that requirement based on the history of the gun.
For those of you who are subject to this law, I would suggest that you keep calling your pistol a "1858 Remington" and hope the authorities in your area are ignorant of the true history of this fine gun. :grin:
Everyone calls their Remington C&B revolver a "1858" but many don't know exactly why.
Most think that their pistol reproduction represents a gun that was manufactured in 1858 but that isn't true.
Remington did make a pistol in 1858 but it is a far cry from what we today think of as a Remington.
Their first revolver was actually made in 1857 and was called the "Remington-Beals 1st Model".
Beals by the way was Remingtons top designer.
It was a .31 caliber, 5 shot pocket pistol with a 3 inch barrel. Unlike the Colts of this era, these Remingtons had a closed top frame like all of the Remingtons that were to follow.
This little gun was made in 3 different models, the first with a full trigger guard while the 2nd and 3rd model had a projecting "spur" style trigger. There was no loading lever incorporated into these guns. These small pistols were made from 1857 thru 1859. There are no reproductions of this gun made.
The pistol we think of as a "1858" style was first made using the name "Remington-Beals Army Model Revolver" but it was first made in 1861.
Remington stamped "BEALS PATENT SEPT. 14 1858/MANUFACURED BY REMINGTONS ILION, N.Y." on the barrel.
This gun was a .44 caliber 6 shot pistol with a 8 inch barrel. It had a number of little things the Army didn't like, the lack of "safety notches" on the cylinder being one of them and only about 1900 of them were made.
There was also a .36 caliber Remington-Beals Navy made. The Navy had a slightly smaller frame than the Army and this smaller frame carried on thru all of Remingtons different Navy models.
Remington redesigned the Remington-Beals Army Model and called it the "Remington 1861 Army Revolver". It carried a PATENTED DEC 17, 1861 barrel marking.
While this improved several small items, it added a "feature" that was the cause of great concern.
This feature was a clearance cut in the top of the loading lever. This allowed the shooter to remove the cylinder without dropping the loading lever.
It also allowed the cylinder pin to work its way out while the gun was holstered.
Imagine the surprise of the user when he whipped out his trusty pistol only to have the cylinder fall out.
Many of these pistols were returned to Remington where a small button head screw was added to the loading lever to block the cylinder pin while the lever was in the "up" position.
One of the design faults with all of these early Remington-Beals Army and Navy pistols was that the frame extended almost to the front of the cylinder.
Because of the closeness of the frame, the fouling that built up on the front of the cylinder and re rear of the frame caused the guns to "bind up" after only a few shots and unlike the Colt that could be "adjusted" by tapping the barrel wedge out a bit to move the barrel away from the cylinder, nothing could be done in the field to the Remington 1861 models to improve the situation.
Remington went back to the drafting board and made some changes to improve this situation.
What they came up with was the "Remington New Model Army Revolver". Interestingly, Remington marked this guns barrel with PATENTED SEPT 14 1858/E. REMINGTON & SONS, ILION, NEW YORK. USA/NEW MODEL. The "1858" date referring to Beals old patent is the reason we call this model a "1858 Remington".
This is the model that most of you folks have a reproduction of.
The big improvement was to cut the frame back so that it cleared the front of the cylinder leaving the threaded rear of the barrel as the only projection that comes close to the front of the cylinder.
The barrel and its sharp threads improved things quite a bit because its smaller area couldn't collect as much fouling and it tended to scrape the fouling that occurred on the cylinder off as the cylinder revolved during cocking.
The difference can be seen in this picture.
The New Model Army (and Navy) Revolver was manufactured from 1863 thru 1875.
About 122,000 Army models and 28,000 Navy were manufactured during those years.
I should mention that the Remington-Beals 1861 in the photo above is not an original. For a number of years the Italian makers manufactured a reproduction of it and there are many of them out there. They have the close fitting frame and the rear of the barrel only sticks out about 1/16 of an inch to the face of the cylinder.
That is the reason when I see a post which describes the gun as "locking up" after only a few shots are fired to look at the way the frame and barrel meets the cylinder. I suspect that many of them have bought a copy of the 1861 rather than the New Army (or Navy) and they are enjoying a bit of 'history' first hand.
I mentioned that the Remington Navys were smaller than the Army pistols. Unfortunately the Italian manufactures versions of the Navy uses the same frame as their Army so the smaller Navys aren't to be had.
Some of you folks have reported seeing a really small .36 caliber "Remington Navy" that has a 5 shot cylinder.
This much smaller pistol is the "Remington New Model Police Revolver" and it was manufactured from 1865 thru 1873.
It was direct competition for the "Colt 1862 Police" pistol. About 18,000 of them were made.
Unfortunately, there are no reproductions made of this fine little gun.
So what is that small little Remington with a spur trigger that looks like its bigger brother the "New Army"?
This is the "Remington New Model Pocket Pistol", a .31 caliber 5 shot gun that was made in both brass framed and steel framed versions.
There were actually three models of this little gun made.
The First Model was a brass framed gun with a brass spur trigger sheath.
The Second Model was a steel framed gun with a brass spur trigger sheath and the Third Model was all steel.
These pistols were made from 1865 thru 1873 with about 25,000 total production.
The Italian companies have reproduced this little gun in both the brass and the steel versions.
I have heard that in some of the foreign countries there is a law that all legal reproduction revolvers must be copies of guns that were first produced in 1858 or before. Obviously the "1858 Remington" doesn't meet that requirement based on the history of the gun.
For those of you who are subject to this law, I would suggest that you keep calling your pistol a "1858 Remington" and hope the authorities in your area are ignorant of the true history of this fine gun. :grin: