1.
Rifle
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A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called lands, which contact with the projectile. When the projectile leaves the barrel, this spin lends gyroscopic stability to the projectile and prevents tumbling and this allows the use of aerodynamically-efficient bullets and thus improves range and accuracy. The word rifle originally referred to the grooving, and a rifle was called a rifled gun, the word rifle is now used for any long hand-held aimed device activated by a trigger, such as Air rifles and the Personnel halting and stimulation response rifle. Rifles are used in warfare, hunting and shooting sports, formerly, rifles only fired a single projectile with each squeeze of the trigger. Modern rifles are capable of firing more than one round per trigger squeeze, some fire in an automatic mode. Thus, modern automatic rifles overlap to some extent in design, in fact, many light machine guns are adaptations of existing automatic rifle designs. A militarys light machine guns are chambered for the same caliber ammunition as its service rifles. Generally, the difference between a rifle and a machine gun comes down to weight, cooling system. Modern military rifles are fed by magazines, while machine guns are generally belt-fed, many machine guns allow the operator to quickly exchange barrels in order to prevent overheating, whereas rifles generally do not. Most machine guns fire from a bolt in order to reduce the danger of cook-off. Machine guns are often crewed by more than one soldier, the rifle is an individual weapon, the term rifle is sometimes used to describe larger crew-served rifled weapons firing explosive shells, for example, recoilless rifles. In many works of fiction a rifle refers to any weapon that has a stock and is shouldered before firing, the origins of rifling are difficult to trace, but some of the earliest practical experiments seem to have occurred in Europe during the 15th century. Archers had long realized that a twist added to the feathers of their arrows gave them greater accuracy. This might also have led to a increase in accuracy. Rifles were created as an improvement in the accuracy of smooth bore muskets, the black powder used in early muzzle-loading rifles quickly fouled the barrel, making loading slower and more difficult. Since musketeers could not afford to take the time to stop and clean their barrels in the middle of a battle, rifles were limited to use by sharpshooters, muskets were smoothbore, large caliber weapons using ball-shaped ammunition fired at relatively low velocity. Due to the high cost and great difficulty of manufacturing, and the need to load readily from the muzzle
2.
Colt's Manufacturing Company
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Colts Manufacturing Company is an American firearms manufacturer, founded in 1855 by Samuel Colt. It is the corporation to Colts earlier firearms-making efforts, which started in 1836. Colts earliest designs played a role in the popularization of the revolver. Although Samuel Colt did not invent the concept, his designs resulted in the first very successful ones. The most famous Colt products include the Colt Walker, made 1847 in the facilities of Eli Whitney Jr. Though they did not develop it, for a long time Colt was also responsible for all AR-15 and M16 rifle production. The most successful and famous of these are numerous M16 carbines, including the Colt Commando family, in 2002, Colt Defense was split off from Colts Manufacturing Company. Colts Manufacturing Company now serves the market, while Colt Defense serves the law enforcement, military. The two companies remained in the same West Hartford, Connecticut location cross-licensing certain merchandise before reuniting in 2013, following the loss of its M4 contract in 2013, Colt was briefly in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, starting in 2015. Samuel Colt received a British patent on his design for a revolver in 1835. That same year, he founded his first corporation for its manufacture, the first firearm manufactured at the new Paterson plant, however, was the Colt First Model Ring Lever rifle beginning in 1837. This was followed thereafter in late 1837 by the introduction of the Colt Paterson. This corporation suffered quality problems in production, making firearms with interchangeable parts was still rather new, and it was not yet easy to replicate across different factories. Interchangeability was not complete in the Paterson works, and traditional gunsmithing techniques did not fill the gap entirely there, the Colt Paterson revolver found patchy success and failure, some worked well, while others had problems. The United States Marine Corps and United States Army reported quality problems with these earliest Colt revolvers, production had ended at the New Jersey corporation by 1842. Colt made another attempt at revolver production in 1846 and submitted a prototype to the US government, during the Mexican–American War, this prototype was seen by Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker who made some suggestions to Colt about making it in a larger caliber. Having no factory or machinery to produce the pistols, Samuel Colt collaborated with the Whitney armory of Whitneyville and this armory was run by the family of Eli Whitney. Eli Whitney Jr, the son of the patriarch, was the head of the family armory
3.
Carbine
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A carbine, from French carabine, is a long arm firearm but with a shorter barrel than a rifle or musket. Many carbines are shortened versions of full-length rifles, shooting the same ammunition, while others fire lower-powered ammunition, the smaller size and lighter weight of carbines make them easier to handle. An example of this is the US Armys M4 carbine, which is standard-issue, the carbine was originally a lighter, shortened weapon developed for the cavalry. After the Napoleonic Wars, cavalry began fighting dismounted, using the only for greater mobility. By the American Civil War, dismounted cavalry were mostly the rule, the principal advantage of the carbine was that its length made it very portable. A carbine was typically no longer than a sheathed sabre, and like a sabre was carried arranged to hang clear of the riders elbows. Carbines were usually less accurate and less powerful than the muskets of the infantry, due to a shorter sight plane. With the advent of fast-burning smokeless powder, the velocity disadvantages of a shorter barrel became less of an issue, eventually, the use of horse-mounted cavalry would decline. During the early 19th century, carbines were often developed separately from the rifles and, in many cases, did not even use the same ammunition. A notable weapon developed towards the end of the American Civil War by the Union was the Spencer carbine, one of the very first breechloading, repeating weapons. It had a spring-powered, removable tube magazine in the buttstock which held seven rounds and it was intended to give the cavalry a replacement weapon which could be fired from horseback without the need for awkward reloading after each shot. In the late 19th century, it common for a number of nations to make bolt-action rifles in both full-length and carbine versions. One of the most popular and recognizable carbines were the lever-action Winchester carbines and this made it an ideal choice for cowboys and explorers, as well as other inhabitants of the American West, who could carry a revolver and a carbine, both using the same ammunition. Other nations followed suit after World War I, when they learned that their traditional long-barreled rifles provided little benefit in the trenches, the US M1 carbine was more of a traditional carbine in that it was significantly shorter and lighter, with a 457. A shorter weapon was more convenient when riding in a truck, armored personnel carrier, helicopter, or aircraft, based on the combat experience of World War II, the criteria used for selecting infantry weapons began to change. In addition, improvements in artillery made moving infantry in areas even less practical than it had been. The majority of enemy contacts were at ranges of less than 300 metres, most rounds fired were not aimed at an enemy combatant, but instead fired in the enemys direction to keep them from moving and firing back. These situations did not require a heavy rifle, firing full-power rifle bullets with long-range accuracy, the lower-powered round would also weigh less, allowing a soldier to carry more ammunition
4.
Gun barrel
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A gun barrel is a part of firearms and artillery pieces. The hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore, a gun barrel must be able to hold in the expanding gas produced by the propellants to ensure that optimum muzzle velocity is attained by the projectile as it is being pushed out by the expanding gas. Modern small arms barrels are made of known and tested to withstand the pressures involved. Artillery pieces are made by various techniques providing reliably sufficient strength, early firearms were muzzle-loading, with powder, and then shot loaded from the muzzle, capable of only a low rate of fire. During the 19th century effective mechanical locks were invented that sealed a breech-loading weapon against the escape of propellant gases, the early Chinese, the inventors of gunpowder, used bamboo, a naturally tubular stalk, as the first barrels in gunpowder projectile weapons. Early European guns were made of iron, usually with several strengthening bands of the metal wrapped around circular wrought iron rings. The Chinese were the first to master cast-iron cannon barrels, early cannon barrels were very thick for their caliber. Bore evacuator Bore snake Cannon Muzzle Polygonal rifling Rifling Slug barrel Smoothbore
5.
Cartridge (firearms)
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Military and commercial producers continue to pursue the goal of caseless ammunition. A cartridge without a bullet is called a blank, One that is completely inert is called a dummy. Some artillery ammunition uses the same concept as found in small arms. In other cases, the shell is separate from the propellant charge. In popular use, the bullet is often misused to refer to a complete cartridge. The cartridge case seals a firing chamber in all directions excepting the bore, a firing pin strikes the primer and ignites it. The primer compound deflagrates, it does not detonate, a jet of burning gas from the primer ignites the propellant. Gases from the burning powder pressurize and expand the case to seal it against the chamber wall and these propellant gases push on the bullet base. In response to pressure, the bullet will move in the path of least resistance which is down the bore of the barrel. After the bullet leaves the barrel, the pressure drops to atmospheric pressure. The case, which had been expanded by chamber pressure. This eases removal of the case from the chamber, brass is a commonly used case material because it is resistant to corrosion. A brass case head can be work-hardened to withstand the pressures of cartridges. The neck and body portion of a case is easily annealed to make the case ductile enough to allow reforming so that it can be reloaded many times. Steel is used in some plinking ammunition, as well as in military ammunition. Steel is less expensive than brass, but it is not feasible to reload, Military forces typically consider small arms cartridge cases to be disposable, one-time-use devices. However, case weight affects how much ammunition a soldier can carry, conversely, steel is more susceptible to contamination and damage so all such cases are varnished or otherwise sealed against the elements. One downside caused by the strength of steel in the neck of these cases is that propellant gas can blow back past the neck
6.
.44-40 Winchester
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The. 44-40 Winchester, also known as.44 Winchester.44 WCF, and.44 Largo was introduced in 1873 by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. It was the first metallic centerfire cartridge manufactured by Winchester, and was promoted as the standard chambering for the new Winchester Model 1873 rifle. As both a rifle and a caliber, the cartridge soon became widely popular, so much so that the Winchester Model 1873 rifle became known as The gun that won the West. When Winchester released the new cartridge, many other firearm companies chambered their guns in the new round. 44-40, settlers, lawmen, and cowboys appreciated the convenience of being able to carry a single caliber of ammunition which they could fire in both pistol and rifle. The cartridge was sold as.44 Winchester. When the Union Metallic Cartridge Co. began selling their own version of the cartridge, it adopted the name. 44-40, over time the name stuck, and eventually Winchester adopted the. 44-40 designation for the round after World War II. Winchester uses the designation 44-40 Winchester on packaging, the initial standard load for the cartridge was 40 grains of black powder propelling a 200-grain round nose flat point bullet at approximately 1,245 ft/s. Winchester catalogues listed velocities of 1,300 ft/s by 1875, in 1886 U. M. C. also began offering a slightly heavier 217-grain bullet at 1,190 ft/s, also with 40 grains of black powder. Winchester soon began to carry the 217-grain loading as well, in 1895 Winchester introduced a 200-grain cartridge bulk loaded with 17-grain of DuPont No.2 Smokeless powder and a bullet for 1,300 ft/s, and in 1896 U. M. C. Followed suit with a 217-grain bullet @1,235 ft/s Soon both companies were offering the cartridge with lead Metal Patched, and full metal jacket versions. H. V. Boasting a velocity of 1,540 ft/s with a 200-grain copper-jacketed bullet from a 24-inch barrel length, U. M. C. the most common current loading is a 200-grain bullet @1,190 ft/s. By 1942 more modern cartridges had all but eclipsed the. 44-40, List of handgun cartridges List of rifle cartridges Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
7.
Action (firearms)
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In firearms terminology, an action is the mechanism that handles the ammunition or the method by which that mechanism works. Breech-loading weapons have actions, actions are not present on muzzleloaders. The mechanism that fires a muzzle-loader is called the lock, actions can be categorized in several ways, including single action versus double action, break action versus bolt action, and others. The term action can also short, long, and magnum if it is in reference to the length of the rifle’s receiver. The short action rifle usually can accommodate a cartridge length of 2.8 in or smaller, the long action rifle can accommodate a cartridge of 3.34 in, and the magnum action rifle can accommodate cartridges of 3.6 in, or longer in length. Manual operation is a term describing any type of firearm action that is loaded one shot at a time by the user rather than automatically. For example, break action is a form of operation using a simple hinge mechanism that is manually unlatched by the operator. These are actions wherein the breechblock lowers or drops into the receiver to open the breech, there are two principal types of dropping block, the tilting block and the falling block. In a tilting or pivoting block action, the breechblock is hinged on a pin mounted at the rear, when the lever is operated, the block tilts down and forward, exposing the chamber. The best-known pivoting block designs are the Peabody, the Peabody–Martini, the original Peabody rifles, manufactured by the Providence Tool Company, used a manually cocked side-hammer. The 1871 Martini–Henry which replaced the trapdoor Snider–Enfield was the standard British Army rifle of the later Victorian era, charles H. Ballards self-cocking tilting-block action was produced by the Marlin Firearms Company from 1875, and earned a superlative reputation among long-range Creedmoor target shooters. Surviving Marlin Ballards are today highly prized by collectors, especially those mounted in the elaborate Swiss-style Schützen stocks of the day. A falling-block action is a firearm action in which a solid metal breechblock slides vertically in grooves cut into the breech of the weapon. Examples of firearms using the falling block action are the Sharps rifle, in a rolling block action the breechblock takes the form of a part-cylinder, with a pivot pin through its axis. The operator rotates or rolls the block to open and close the breech, it is a simple, rugged, a break action is a type of firearm where the barrel are hinged and can be broken open to expose the breech. The earliest metallic-cartridge breechloaders designed for military issue began as conversions of muzzle-loading rifle-muskets. The upper rear portion of the barrel was filed or milled away, an internal angled firing pin allowed the re-use of the rifles existing side-hammer. The Allin action made by Springfield Arsenal in the US hinged forward, france countered in 1866 with its superior Chassepot rifle, also a paper-cartridge bolt action
8.
Lever action
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Lever action is a type of firearm action which uses a lever located around the trigger guard area to load fresh cartridges into the chamber of the barrel when the lever is worked. This contrasts to bolt-action, semi-automatic, or selective-fire weapons, most lever-action firearms are rifles, but some lever-action shotguns and a few pistols have also been made. One of the most famous lever-action firearms is the Winchester Model 1873 rifle, even Colts Mfg. Co. produced 1883 until 18856403 lever-action Colt-Burgess rifles. Mossberg produces the 464 in centerfire. 30-30 and rimfire.22, probably the first lever-action rifles on the market were Colts 1st and 2nd Model Ring Lever rifles, both Cap and ball rifles, produced by the Patent Arms Mfg. Co. Paterson, N. J. -Colts Patent between 1837 and 1841, the ring-lever was located in front of the trigger. This loading-lever, when pulled, would index the cylinder to the next position, the first significant lever-action design was the Spencer repeating rifle, a magazine-fed lever-operated breech-loading rifle designed by Christopher Spencer in 1860. It was fed from a removable seven-round tube magazine, enabling the rounds to be fired one after another, and which, the Henry also placed the magazine under the barrel, rather than in the butt-stock, a trend followed by most tubular magazines since. The Martini–Henry rifle was the rifle of British and Empire forces from the early 1870s to the turn of the 20th century. It was used in areas, either by civilians or by the local military. Variants copying the Martini–Henry mechanism but using more modern cartridges were also produced, john Marlin, founder of Marlin Firearms Company, New Haven, Connecticut, introduced Marlins first lever-action repeating rifle as the Model 1881. This was chambered in rounds such as the 45/70 and 38/55 and its successor was the 1895 solid top design, which we know as the model 336 today. It also gave rise to the Marlin Model 1894, which is still in production today, by the 1890s, lever-actions had evolved into a form that would last for over a century. Both Marlin and Winchester released new model lever-action rifles in 1894, the Marlin rifle is still in production, whereas production of the Winchester 94 ceased in 2006. While externally similar, the Marlin and Winchester rifles are quite different internally, the fledgling Savage Arms Company became well known after the development of its popular hammerless Models 1895 and 1899 lever-action sporting rifles. Unlike most Winchester and the Marlin lever-action rifles, which used a tubular magazine requiring round-nose or flat-nose bullets and this allowed the 99 to use cartridges with spitzer pointed bullets for increased ballistic performance. The 99 was produced in different cartridges and several different model variations. The final models eliminated the very expensive-to-produce rotary magazine, using a box magazine instead. But the 99 was still expensive to produce when compared to the other lever-action rifles
9.
Magazine (firearms)
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A magazine is an ammunition storage and feeding device within or attached to a repeating firearm. Magazines can be removable or integral to the firearm, the magazine functions by moving the cartridges stored in the magazine into a position where they may be loaded into the chamber by the action of the firearm. The detachable magazine is often referred to as a clip, although this is technically inaccurate, magazines come in many shapes and sizes, from those of bolt-action express rifles that hold only a few rounds to drum magazines for self-loading rifles that can hold one hundred rounds or more. Various jurisdictions ban what they define as high-capacity magazines, with the increased use of semi-automatic and automatic firearms, the detachable box magazine became increasingly common. Soon after the adoption of the M1911 pistol, the magazine was settled on by the military and firearms experts. The defining difference between clips and magazines is the presence of a mechanism in a magazine, typically a spring-loaded follower. Use of the clip to refer to detachable magazines is a point of strong disagreement. The first mass-produced repeater was the Volcanic Rifle which used a bullet with the base filled with powder and primer fed into the chamber from a spring-loaded tube called a magazine. It was named after a building or room used to store ammunition, the anemic power of the Rocket Ball ammunition used in the Volcanic doomed it to limited popularity. The Henry repeating rifle is a lever-action, breech-loading, tubular magazine fed rifle, designed by Benjamin Tyler Henry in 1860, it was one of the first firearms to use self-contained metallic cartridges. The Henry was introduced in the early 1860s and produced through 1866 in the United States by the New Haven Arms Company and it was adopted in small quantities by the Union in the Civil War and favored for its greater firepower than the standard issue carbine. Many later found their way West and was famed both for its use at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and being the basis for the iconic Winchester rifle which are made to this day. The Henry and Winchester rifles would go on to see service with a number of militaries including Turkey, switzerland and Italy adopted similar designs. The first magazine-fed firearm to achieve success was the Spencer repeating rifle. The Spencer used a magazine located in the butt of the gun instead of under the barrel. The Spencer was successful, but the rimfire ammunition did occasionally ignite in the magazine tube and it could also injure the user. The new bolt-action rifles began to favor with militaries in the 1880s and were often equipped with tubular magazines. The Mauser Model 1871 was originally a single-shot action that added a magazine in its 1884 update
10.
Repeating rifle
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A repeating rifle is a single barreled rifle containing multiple rounds of ammunition. These rounds are loaded from a magazine by means of a manual or automatic mechanism, Repeating rifles were a significant advance over the preceding breech loaded single-shot rifles when used for military combat, as they allowed a much greater rate of fire. Repeating rifles saw use in the American Civil War during the early 1860s, while some early long guns were made using the revolver mechanism popular in hand guns, these did not have longevity in the marketplace. The bolt closes the end of the barrel and contains the firing pin. The bolt is held in place with a lever that fits into a notch, moving this lever out of the notch will release the restraint on the bolt, allowing it to be drawn back. An extractor removes the spent cartridge, which is ejected through the lever slot. A spring at the bottom of the magazine pushes up the reserve rounds, pushing the bolt lever forward chambers this round and pushing the lever into the notch locks the bolt and enables the trigger mechanism. The complete cycle action also resets the firing pin, the Russian Mosin–Nagant rifle, the British Lee–Enfield, and the Norwegian Krag–Jørgensen are examples of alternate bolt-action designs. In a classic lever-action firearm of the Henry-Winchester type, rounds are loaded into a tubular magazine parallel to. A short bolt is held in place with an over center toggle action, once closed, the over center action prevents opening solely by the force on the bolt when the weapon is fired. This toggle action is operated by a grip that forms part of the trigger guard. When operated, a spring in the magazine pushes a fresh round into position. Returning the operating lever to the home position chambers the round, an interlock prevents firing unless the toggle is fully closed. The famous Model 1873 Winchester is exemplary of this type, later lever-action designs, such as Marlin leverguns and those designed for Winchester by John Browning, use one or two vertical locking blocks instead of a toggle-link. There also exist lever-action rifles that feed from a box magazine, a one-off example of Lever action reloading on automatic firearms is the M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun. This weapon had a lever beneath its barrel that was actuated by a gas bleed in the barrel. This unique operation gave the nickname potato digger as the lever swung each time the weapon fired, with a pump-action firearm, the action is operated by a movable fore-end that goes backwards and forwards to eject, extract, and chamber a round of ammunition. Pump-actions are usually associated with shotguns, but one example of a rifle is the Remington Model 7600 series
11.
Winchester Repeating Arms Company
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The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American maker of repeating firearms, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The ancestor of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company was the Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson partnership of Norwich, Jennings rifle was a commercial failure, and Robbins & Lawrence ceased production in 1852. Smith designed a much-improved rifle based on Jennings, and the partners also hired away Robbins & Lawrence shop foreman Benjamin Tyler Henry. In 1855 the Smith & Wesson partnership, in order to manufacture what they called the Volcanic lever-action rifle and pistol, sought investors and its largest stockholder was clothing manufacturer Oliver Winchester. The Volcanic rifle had only limited success, the company moved to New Haven in 1856, but by the end of that year became insolvent. Oliver Winchester and his partner John M. Davies purchased the firms assets from the remaining stockholders. After Smiths departure Benjamin Henry continued to work with a Smith development project, the self-contained metallic rimfire cartridge, Henry also supervised a new rifle design based loosely on the Volcanic to use the new ammunition, retaining only the general form of the breech mechanism and the tubular magazine. This became the Henry rifle of 1860, which was manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company, the Henry rifle ensured New Haven Arms success, and together with the Spencer rifle established the lever-action repeater in the firearms market. In 1866 Benjamin Henry, angered over what he believed was inadequate compensation, Oliver Winchester, hastening back from Europe, forestalled the move and reorganized New Haven Arms yet again as the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Another extremely popular model was rolled out in 1873, the Model 1873 introduced the first Winchester center fire cartridge, the. 44-40 WCF. These rifle families are known as the Gun That Won the West. The Model 1873 was followed by the Model 1876, a version of the 73. It was chambered for longer, more powerful cartridges such as. 45-60 WCF. 45-75 WCF, Oliver Winchester died in December 1880, his son and successor, William Wirt Winchester, died of tuberculosis four months later. William Wirt Winchesters widow, Sarah Winchester, used her inheritance, several of these are still in production today through companies such as Browning, Rossi, Navy Arms and others which have revived several of the discontinued models or produced reproductions. The early years of the century found the Winchester Repeating Arms Company competing with new John Browning designs. The race to produce the first commercial self-loading rifle brought forth the.22 rimfire Winchester Model 1903 and later centerfire Model 1905, Model 1907, and Model 1910 rifles. Winchester engineers, after ten years of work, designed the Model 1911 to circumvent Brownings self-loading shotgun patents, one of Winchesters premier engineers, T. C. Johnson, was instrumental in the development of these self-loading firearms and went on to superintend the designs of Winchesters classic Model 1912, Model 52 and Model 54
12.
Winchester rifle
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Winchester rifle is a comprehensive term describing a series of lever-action repeating rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Developed from the 1860 Henry rifle, Winchester rifles were among the earliest repeaters, the Model 1873 was particularly successful, being colloquially known as The Gun that Won the West. In 1848, Walter Hunt of New York patented his Volition Repeating Rifle incorporating a tubular magazine, the Hunt rifle fired what he called the Rocket Ball, an early form of caseless ammunition in which the powder charge was contained in the bullets hollow base. Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson of Norwich, Connecticut acquired the Jennings patent from Robbins & Lawrence and its largest stockholder was Oliver Winchester. Smiths cartridge, the.22 Short, would be introduced commercially in 1857 with the landmark Smith & Wesson Model 1 revolver and is manufactured today. Wesson had left Volcanic soon after it was formed and Smith followed eight months later, Volcanic moved to New Haven in 1856, but by the end of that year became insolvent. Oliver Winchester purchased the firms assets from the remaining stockholders. Benjamin Henry continued to work with Smiths cartridge concept, and perfected the much larger, Henry also supervised the redesign of the rifle to use the new ammunition, retaining only the general form of the breech mechanism and the tubular magazine. This became the Henry rifle of 1860, which was manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company, confederates called the Henry that damned Yankee rifle that they load on Sunday and shoot all week. After the war, Oliver Winchester renamed New Haven Arms the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, the company modified and improved the basic design of the Henry rifle, creating the first Winchester rifle, the Model 1866. It retained the.44 Henry cartridge, was built on a bronze-alloy frame, and had an improved magazine. In 1873 Winchester introduced the steel-framed Model 1873 chambering the more potent. 44-40 centerfire cartridge, in 1876, in a bid to compete with the powerful single-shot rifles of the time, Winchester brought out the Model 1876. The first Winchester rifle – the Winchester Model 1866 – was originally chambered for the rimfire.44 Henry. Nelson Kings improved patent remedied flaws in the Henry rifle by incorporating a loading gate on the side of the frame and integrating a round, france purchased 6,000 Model 1866 rifles along with 4.5 million.44 Henry cartridges during the Franco-Prussian War. The Ottoman Empire purchased 45,000 Model 1866 muskets and 5,000 carbines in 1870 and 1871, the Model 1866 compelled Russians to develop a new rifle, the Mosin–Nagant, after the war. The Swiss Army initially selected the Model 1866 to replace their existing single-shot Milbank-Amsler rifles, however, ensuing political pressure to adopt a domestic design resulted in the Vetterli Model 1867, a bolt-action design utilizing a copy of the Winchesters tubular magazine, being adopted instead. Due to public demand, the Model 1866 continued to be manufactured and sold until 1899, the Model 1873 was one of the most successful Winchester rifles of its day, with Winchester marketing it as The Gun that Won the West. Still an icon in the day, it was manufactured between 1873 and 1923
13.
Receiver (firearms)
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For the purposes of United States law, the receiver or frame is legally the firearm, and as such it is the controlled part. The definition of assembly is the legal receiver varies from firearm to firearm. For an AR-15 rifle, the assembly is considered the legal receiver. In a rifle such as the FN-FAL, it is the receiver that is serialized. For a FAL rifle, the assembly is considered the legal receiver. Generally, the law requires licensed manufacturers and importers to mark the designated receiver with a number, the manufacturer or importer. In addition, makers of receivers are restricted by International Traffic in Arms Regulations, thus, in the case of a firearm that has multiple receivers, the legally controlled part is the one that is serialized. Unfinished receivers, also called 80 percent receivers or blanks, are partially completed receivers with no serial numbers, purchasers must perform their own finishing work in order to make the receiver usable. The finishing of receivers for sale or distribution by unlicensed persons is against US law, because an unfinished 80% receiver is not a firearm, purchasers do not need to pass a background check. The resulting firearm is called a ghost gun. An AR-15 variant made from an 80% receiver was used in the 2013 Santa Monica shooting, two 3D printed polymer lower receivers for the AR-15 have been released, the AR Lower V5 and the Charon
14.
Bluing (steel)
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Bluing is a passivation process in which steel is partially protected against rust, and is named after the blue-black appearance of the resulting protective finish. True gun bluing is a conversion coating resulting from an oxidizing chemical reaction with iron on the surface selectively forming magnetite. Black oxide provides minimal protection against corrosion, unless treated with a water-displacing oil to reduce wetting. A distinction can be made between traditional bluing and some more modern black oxide coatings, although bluing is a subset of black oxide coatings. In comparison, rust, the red oxide of iron, undergoes a large volume change upon hydration, as a result. Cold, Hot, Rust Blue and Fume Blue are oxidizing processes simply referred to as bluing, cold bluing is generally a selenium dioxide based compound that colours steel black, or more often a very dark grey. It is a product to apply evenly, offers minimal protection and is generally best used for small fast repair jobs. The Hot process is a salt solution, referred to as Traditional Caustic Black. This method was adopted by larger companies for large scale. It does provide good rust resistance which is improved with the use of oil, Rust Bluing and Fume Bluing provide the best rust and corrosion resistance as the process continually converts any metal that is capable of rusting into magnetite. Treating with an oiled coating enhances the protection offered by the bluing and this process is also the only process safely used to re-blue vintage shotguns. Many double barrelled shotguns are soft soldered / silver brazed together, the higher temperatures of the other processes as well as their caustic nature will weaken the soldered joints and make the gun hazardous to use. Bluing can also be done in a furnace, for example for a sword or other item traditionally made by a blacksmith or specialist such as a weaponsmith. Blacksmith products to this day may occasionally be made from blued steel by traditional craftsmen in cultures. Bluing is most commonly used by gun manufacturers, gunsmiths, and gun owners to improve the appearance of. It was also used by machinists, who protected and beautified tools made for their own use, Bluing also helps to maintain the metal finish by resisting superficial scratching, and also helps to reduce glare to the eyes of the shooter when looking down the barrel of the gun. All blued parts still need to be oiled to prevent rust. Bluing, being a conversion coating, is not as robust against wear and corrosion resistance as plated coatings
15.
Case-hardening
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For iron or steel with low carbon content, which has poor to no hardenability of its own, the case-hardening process involves infusing additional carbon into the surface layer. The term face hardening is used to describe this technique. Because hardened metal is more brittle than softer metal, through-hardening is not always a suitable choice for uses where the metal part is subject to certain kinds of stress. In such circumstances, case-hardening can provide a part that will not fracture, early iron smelting made use of bloomeries, which produced two layers of metal, one with a very low carbon content that is worked into wrought iron, and the rest a high carbon cast iron. Since the high carbon iron is hot short, meaning it fractures and crumbles when forged, the wrought iron, with nearly no carbon in it, was very malleable and ductile but not very hard. Case-hardening involves packing the low-carbon iron within a high in carbon. This forms a surface layer of higher carbon steel, with the carbon content gradually decreasing deeper from the surface. The resulting product combines much of the toughness of a steel core, with the hardness. This carburizing package is then heated to a high temperature but still under the point of the iron. The longer the package is held at the temperature, the deeper the carbon will diffuse into the surface. The resulting case-hardened part may show distinct surface discoloration, if the material is mixed organic matter as described above. The steel darkens significantly, and shows a pattern of black, blue and purple, caused by the various compounds formed from impurities in the bone. This oxide surface works similarly to bluing, providing a degree of corrosion resistance, case colouring refers to this pattern and is commonly encountered as a decorative finish on firearms. Case-hardened steel combines extreme hardness and extreme toughness, something which is not readily matched by homogeneous alloys, carbon itself is solid at case-hardening temperatures and so is immobile. Transport to the surface of the steel was as gaseous carbon monoxide, generated by the breakdown of the carburising compound and this takes place with pure carbon but too slowly to be workable. Although oxygen is required for this process it is re-circulated through the CO cycle, the sealing is necessary to stop the CO either leaking out or being oxidised to CO2 by excess outside air. It is a common fallacy that case-hardening was done with bone. Although bone was used, the main donor was hoof
16.
Revolver
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A revolver is a repeating handgun that has a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. Revolvers might be regarded as a subset of pistols, or as a subset of handguns. Though the term revolver usually only refers to handguns, other firearms may also have a revolving chamber and these include some models of grenade launchers, shotguns, and rifles. Most revolvers contain five or six rounds in the cylinder, though the original name was revolving gun, the short-hand revolver is universally used. The revolver allows the user to fire multiple rounds without reloading, each time the user cocks the hammer, the cylinder revolves to align the next chamber and round with the hammer and barrel, which gives this type of firearm its name. In a single-action revolver, the user pulls the back with his free hand or thumb. In a double-action revolver, pulling the trigger moves the back, then releases it. Loading and unloading a double-action revolver requires the operator to swing out the cylinder and insert the proper ammunition, the first guns with multichambered cylinders that revolved to feed one barrel were made in the late 16th century in Europe. They were expensive and rare curiosities, not until the 19th century would revolvers become common weapons of industrial production. One of the first was a flintlock revolver patented by Elisha Collier in 1814, the first percussion revolver was made by Lenormand of Paris in 1820 and the first percussion cap revolver was invented by the Italian Francesco Antonio Broccu in 1833. He received a prize of 300 francs for his invention, although he did not patent it, however, in 1835 a similar handgun was patented by Samuel Colt, who would go on to make the first mass-produced revolver. The first cartridge revolvers were produced around 1854 by Eugene Lefaucheux, revolvers soon became standard for nearly all uses. In the early 20th century, semi-automatic pistols were developed, which can hold more rounds, Automatic pistols also have a flat profile, more suitable for concealed carry. Automatic pistols have almost completely replaced revolvers in military and law enforcement use, revolvers still remain popular as back-up and off-duty handguns among American law enforcement officers and security guards. Also, revolvers are still common in the American private sector as defensive, in the development of firearms, an important limiting factor was the time it took to reload the weapon after it was fired. While the user was reloading, the weapon was useless, several approaches to the problem of increasing the rate of fire were developed, the earliest being multi-barrelled weapons which allowed two or more shots without reloading. Later weapons featured multiple barrels revolving along a single axis, the earliest examples of what today is called a revolver were made in Germany in the late 16th century. These weapons featured a barrel with a revolving cylinder holding the powder
17.
Colt Single Action Army
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The Colt SAA has been offered in over 30 different calibers and various barrel lengths. Its overall appearance has remained consistent since 1873, Colt has discontinued its production twice, but brought it back due to popular demand. The revolver was popular with ranchers, lawmen, and outlaws alike and its design has influenced the production of numerous other models from other companies. The Colt SAA revolver is a piece of Americana, known as The Gun That Won the West. For the design, Colt turned to two of its best engineers, William Mason and Charles Brinckerhoff Richards who had developed a number of revolvers and black powder conversions for the company. Their effort was designed for the United States government service revolver trials of 1872 by Colts Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company, production began in 1873 with the Single Action Army model 1873, also referred to as the New Model Army Metallic Cartridge Revolving Pistol. The very first production Single Action Army, serial number 1, thought lost for years after its production, was found in a barn in Nashua. It was chambered in.45 Colt, a centerfire design containing charges of up to 40 grains of fine-grained black powder, relative to period cartridges and most later handgun rounds, it was quite powerful in its full loading. The Colt Single Action Army revolver, along with the 1870 and 1875 Smith & Wesson Model 3 Schofield revolver, the Colt.45 is a famous piece of American history, known as The Gun That Won the West. The Single Action Army became available in barrel lengths of 4¾, 5½ as well as the Cavalry standard. The shorter barrelled revolvers are sometimes called the Civilian or Gunfighter model, there was also a variant with a sub 4 barrel, without an ejector rod unofficially referred to as the Sheriffs Model, Bankers Special, or Storekeeper. From 1875 until 1880 Colt marketed a single-action revolver in.44 rimfire Henry caliber in a number range from no.1 to 1,863. A Flattop Target Model was listed in Colts catalogs from 1890 to 1898, Colt manufactured 914 of these revolvers with a frame which was flat on top and fitted with an adjustable leaf rear sight. The front sight consisted of a base with an interchangeable blade, in 1920, larger, highly visible sights replaced the original thin blade and notch. The revolvers remained essentially unchanged from that point until cessation of manufacture at the beginning of World War II, from 1873 through 1940, production of the Colt Single Action Army reached 357,859. This is identified as the Pre War or First Generation of the model, calibers, at least thirty in all, ranged from.22 rimfire through.476 Eley, with approximately half, or 158,884, chambered for.45 Colt. The next most prevalent were the. 44-40 Winchester Center fire at 71,392, 38-40 at 50,520, 32-20 Winchester at 43,284 and, the 41 Colt at 19,676. All original, good condition, U. S. Cavalry and Artillery Single Action Armies are among the most valuable to collectors, especially valuable, often going for well over $10,000, are the OWA and the rare Henry Nettleton inspected Single Action Army Colts
18.
A. Uberti, Srl.
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Thanks to their quality, Uberti replicas are also sought after by collectors and historical firearm enthusiasts. Uberti is located in Gardone V. T, a suburb of Brescia, Italy, that has for centuries been the home to other firearm manufacturers and similar craft businesses. Independent for many years, Uberti was purchased and made into a subsidiary of Beretta Firearms and subsequently acquired by Benelli, also a member of the Beretta Holding Company. Aldo Uberti founded his company in the foothills of the Italian Alps in 1959 to recreate long-obsolete but iconic firearms from the days of the American West and the U. S. Civil War. The factory was in Gardone in the province of Brescia, a renowned for arms. In particular, a tradition of that area has been that of replicating foreign-style armor, most notably armor in the German style to be exported to. This was done in part to establish the area as an important arms-manufacturing center, which it remains today. Aldo Uberti had attended the Zanardelli gunsmithing school, and by age 14 he was already apprenticing with Beretta, a determining factor in his early career. He founded Uberti on the eve of the U. S. Civil Wars 100th anniversary, Ubertis first replica was the 1851 Colt Navy revolver, followed by other Colt civil-war-era models, later, he moved on to Remington and Winchester designs. It was during this era that Colt ceased production of their famous Single Action Army or Peacemaker revolvers, in the year 2000, Uberti was acquired by Beretta, thanks to whose substantial financing it upgraded the factory to a brand-new facility, thereby greatly expanding production capacity. Uberti firearms have been featured in numerous Western movies thanks to their authentic looks, other movie credits include Ubertis Colt Walker featured in John Waynes 1969 True Grit, as well as the same model in Clint Eastwoods The Outlaw Josey Wales. It is for this reason that Uberti has been called The King of Replicas by U. S. shooters and collectors. Furthermore, Ubertis faithfulness to the originals is such that internal parts of their current Colt replica may be interchanged with those of an original first-generation Single Action Army. S. Customer, with unfounded rumors about quality differences between the lines offered through various importers, the reason is that the product has been often marketed under the importers name rather than the manufacturers, with each importer naturally positioning their product as being the best. Currently, Uberti firearms come into the United States through three main importers, the first and largest is Stoeger, a member of the same parent company. The second is Taylors, a Virginia-based company that caters in particular to cowboy-action shooters, reenactors and collectors, the third is Cimarron Arms, a Texas-based company also specializing in the Cowboy-action market. The Beretta Holding Company acquired Uberti with the goal of dominating the market niche of replica firearms—a niche that up to that point Beretta had not entered. Through this acquisition, Berettas intention was to become the dominant force in this interesting market segment
19.
.45 Colt
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The.45 Colt or.45 Long Colt cartridge is a handgun cartridge dating to 1872. It is a black-powder revolver round developed for the Colt Single Action Army revolver and this cartridge was adopted by the U. S. Army in 1873 and served as an official US military handgun cartridge for 14 years. Colt began work on the revolver in 1871, and submitted a sample to the U. S. Army in late 1872, the revolver was accepted for purchase in 1873. The cartridge is an inside lubricated type, the rebated heel type bullet design of its predecessor, the.44 Colt, was eliminated, since it was an outside lubricated type, which would pick up dirt and grit during handling. The.45 Colt replaced the.50 caliber Model 1871 Remington single shot pistol, while the Colt remained popular, the Smith & Wesson M1875 Army Schofield Revolver was approved as an alternate which created a logistic problem for the Army. Adoption of the.45 M1887 Military Ball Cartridge resolved the Armys ammunition logistic problems, the M1887 Govt round was replaced by the.38 Long Colt in 1892. In 1909, the.45 M1909 round was issued along with the.45 Colt New Service revolver and this round was never loaded commercially, and is almost identical to the original.45 Colt round, except having a larger diameter rim. The rim is large enough that it cannot be loaded in adjacent chambers in the rod-ejector Colt model, the.45 Colt remains popular with renewed interest in Cowboy Action Shooting. The modern.45 Colt bullet has changed as well, and it is now.451 inches in diameter for jacketed bullets, the.45 Colt became the basis for other rounds, such as the.454 Casull. The.45 Colt originally was a cartridge, but modern loadings use smokeless powder. The original black-powder loads called for 28 to 40 grains of powder behind a 230-to-255-grain lead bullet. These loads developed muzzle velocities of up to 1,050 ft/s, because of this power and its excellent accuracy, the.45 Colt was the most-used cartridge at the time of its introduction, succeeding the.44 WCF. The.45 Colt at that time did not enjoy the. 44-40s advantage of a Winchester rifle chambered for it, the rumor was that early.45 Colt cartridges had a very minimal rim, and would not eject reliably. Currently manufactured brass has a rim of adequate diameter for such uses, modern Winchesters, Marlins and replicas have remedied this omission almost 100 years after the fact, and the.45 Colt is now available in modern lever-action rifles. While this has one of numerous arguments to explain the lack of a rifle chambered in.45 Colt, in fact. It required the expiration of those original patents for the.45 Colt to become available in a rifle, todays standard factory loads develop around 400 ft·lbf of muzzle energy at about 860 ft/s, making it roughly equivalent to modern.45 ACP loads. There are Cowboy Action Shooting loads which develop muzzle velocities of around 750 ft/s, cartridges of the World states that.45 Colt should never be loaded to more than 800 fps. Some handloads and factory manufactured cartridges put this round in the class as the.44 Magnum using special revolvers
20.
Colt Lightning Carbine
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The Colt Lightning Carbine or Colt Lightning Rifle was a slide-action rifle manufactured by Colt from 1884 to 1904 and was originally chambered in. 44-40 caliber. Colt eventually made the Lightning Rifle in three different frame sizes, to accommodate a range of cartridges, from.22 Short caliber. Its profile somewhat resembles the pump-action rimfire rifles made by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, the medium-frame Colt Lightning Magazine Rifle was manufactured between 1884 and 1904. It was the first slide-action rifle offered by Colt, Colt records indicate 89,777 were produced, in calibers 32CLMR, 38CLMR and 44CLMR as a companion arm to the Colt Single Action Army revolver. Two versions were offered, a rifle, with a 26 in barrel and 15-rounds magazine, the San Francisco Police Department acquired 401 rifles. All had 26 in round. 44-40 barrels and bore S. F. P1 through S. F. P401 stampings on the lower tang. The small-frame Lightning was the first rimfire rifle made by Colt and was manufactured between 1887 and 1904 as a plinking and gallery gun, Colt records indicate 89,912 were made, in.22 Short and.22 Long. Barrel length was 24 in and the rifles had a finish, case-hardened hammer. The large-frame Lightning was manufactured between 1887 and 1894, Colt records indicate 6,496 were made in different big game calibers such as. 38-55 Winchester and. 50-95 Express. Barrel length was 22 or 28 in.38 Special/.357 Magnum. 44-40, of these calibers, only the. 44-40 was offered in the Lightning when it was originally produced by Colt
21.
International Standard Serial Number
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An International Standard Serial Number is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title, ISSN are used in ordering, cataloging, interlibrary loans, and other practices in connection with serial literature. The ISSN system was first drafted as an International Organization for Standardization international standard in 1971, ISO subcommittee TC 46/SC9 is responsible for maintaining the standard. When a serial with the content is published in more than one media type. For example, many serials are published both in print and electronic media, the ISSN system refers to these types as print ISSN and electronic ISSN, respectively. The format of the ISSN is an eight digit code, divided by a hyphen into two four-digit numbers, as an integer number, it can be represented by the first seven digits. The last code digit, which may be 0-9 or an X, is a check digit. Formally, the form of the ISSN code can be expressed as follows, NNNN-NNNC where N is in the set, a digit character. The ISSN of the journal Hearing Research, for example, is 0378-5955, where the final 5 is the check digit, for calculations, an upper case X in the check digit position indicates a check digit of 10. To confirm the check digit, calculate the sum of all eight digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, the modulus 11 of the sum must be 0. There is an online ISSN checker that can validate an ISSN, ISSN codes are assigned by a network of ISSN National Centres, usually located at national libraries and coordinated by the ISSN International Centre based in Paris. The International Centre is an organization created in 1974 through an agreement between UNESCO and the French government. The International Centre maintains a database of all ISSNs assigned worldwide, at the end of 2016, the ISSN Register contained records for 1,943,572 items. ISSN and ISBN codes are similar in concept, where ISBNs are assigned to individual books, an ISBN might be assigned for particular issues of a serial, in addition to the ISSN code for the serial as a whole. An ISSN, unlike the ISBN code, is an identifier associated with a serial title. For this reason a new ISSN is assigned to a serial each time it undergoes a major title change, separate ISSNs are needed for serials in different media. Thus, the print and electronic versions of a serial need separate ISSNs. Also, a CD-ROM version and a web version of a serial require different ISSNs since two different media are involved, however, the same ISSN can be used for different file formats of the same online serial
22.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
23.
American Rifleman
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American Rifleman is a United States-based monthly shooting and firearms interest publication, owned by the National Rifle Association. It is the 33rd most-widely distributed consumer magazine and the NRAs primary magazine, the magazine has its headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. Arthur Corbin Gould, a shooter and member of the Massachusetts Rifle Association. The Rifle later changed its title to Shooting & Fishing in 1888 and this call eventually led to the revitalization of the National Rifle Association and established a Board of Directors to help manage the nationwide organization. Following Goulds death in 1903, Shooting and Fishing deteriorated, in 1906, James A. Drain, then Secretary of the NRA, purchased the magazine and renamed it Arms and the Man, becoming its editor and publisher. Though there was no explicit tie between the magazine and the NRA, their relationship was extremely close. In 1916, seven years after the end of his NRA presidency, Drain decided to part with the magazine in order to fully devote himself to his law practice, though Arms and the Man had become the top magazine of its kind. On July 1,1916, James A, Drain sold Arms and the Man to the NRA for $1. Fred H. Hatcher, Charles Askins, Townsend Whelen and C. B. Lister, also during this time, Hatcher began his column The Dope Bag, a write-in question and answer column, which still continues today. By 1928, The Dope Bag had grown to 3 staff members, during World War II, The American Rifleman Editor Bill Shadel received press credentials from CBS and shipped overseas to cover the European Theater. His duties were taken over by his editors, and The American Rifleman carried articles. Also during World War II, the size of the magazine had to be cut in half due to wartime paper shortages. Due to the quality of paper that was used, The American Rifleman began to rely on artwork more heavily than photography. Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist James T. Berryman was brought in as art director, following the war, C. B. Lister retained editorship of the magazine. The American Rifleman continued to develop in scope following World War II, lee Harvey Oswald killed US President John F. Kennedy with a rifle purchased from a Kleins Sporting Goods ad in the February 1963 issue of American Rifleman. This prompted what the magazine called a wave of anti-firearm feeling, in 1966, Ashley Halsey Jr. Halsey Jr. was a former writer at the Saturday Evening Post for 18 years, and became known for his prominent editorials and investigative articles. In 1971, The American Rifleman published a special issue that was 168 pages long. The centennial edition also included the first full-sized, full-color photographs of firearms ever printed in the magazine
24.
National Rifle Association
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The National Rifle Association of America is an American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun rights. Founded in 1871, the group has informed its members about firearm-related bills since 1934 and it is also the oldest continuously operating civil rights organization in the United States. Founded to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA continues to teach firearm competency and it instructs civilians and law enforcement, youths and adults, in various programs. The organization also publishes several magazines and sponsors competitive marksmanship events, membership surpassed 5 million in May 2013. Observers and lawmakers see the NRA as one of the top three most influential lobbying groups in Washington, over its history the organization has influenced legislation, participated in or initiated lawsuits, and endorsed or opposed various candidates. The NRA has several subsidiaries, the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund, the NRA Foundation Inc. the NRA Special Contribution Fund. The NRA Institute for Legislative Action is its lobbying arm, which manages its political action committee, the National Rifle Association was first chartered in the state of New York on November 16,1871 by Army and Navy Journal editor William Conant Church and Captain George Wood Wingate. On November 25,1871, the group voted to elect its first corporate officers, union Army Civil War General Ambrose Burnside, who had worked as a Rhode Island gunsmith, was elected president. Church was elected president, Captain Wingate was elected secretary, Fred M. Peck was elected recording secretary. When Burnside resigned on August 1,1872, Church succeeded him as president, the generals attributed this to the use of volley tactics, devised for earlier, less accurate smoothbore muskets. Recognizing a need for training, Wingate sent emissaries to Canada, Britain and Germany to observe militia. With plans provided by Wingate, the New York Legislature funded the construction of a range at Creedmoor, Long Island. The range officially opened on June 21,1873, Wingate then wrote a marksmanship manual. The NRA organized a team through a subsidiary amateur rifle club, remington Arms and Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company produced breech-loading weapons for the team. Although muzzle-loading rifles had long been considered more accurate, eight American riflemen won the match firing breech-loading rifles, publicity of the event generated by the New York Herald helped to establish breech-loading firearms as suitable for military marksmanship training, and promoted the NRA to national prominence. The NRA organized rifle clubs in other states, and many state National Guard organizations sought NRA advice to improve members marksmanship, wingates markmanship manual evolved into the United States Army marksmanship instruction program. Former President Ulysses S. Grant served as the NRAs eighth President, the U. S. Congress created the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice in 1901 to include representatives from the NRA, National Guard, and United States military services. A program of annual rifle and pistol competitions was authorized, and included a national match open to military, NRA headquarters moved to Washington, D. C. to facilitate the organizations advocacy efforts
25.
Colt Army Model 1860
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The Colt Army Model 1860 is a muzzle-loaded cap & ball. 44-caliber single-action revolver used during the American Civil War made by Colts Manufacturing Company. It was used as an arm by cavalry, infantry, artillery troops. The Colt 1860 Army uses the same frame as the.36 caliber 1851 Navy revolver. The frame is relieved to allow the use of a cylinder that enables the Army to be chambered in.44 caliber. The barrel on the 1860 Army has a cone that is visibly shorter than that of the 1851 Navy. Another distinguishing feature of the Colt 1860 Army, first introduced on the Colt 1855 Sidehammer Revolver, is the loading lever. More than 200,000 were manufactured from 1860 through 1873, Colts biggest customer was the US Government with no less than 129,730 units being purchased and issued to the troops. The weapon was a single-action, six-shot weapon accurate up to 75 to 100 yards, the rear sight was a notch in the hammer, only usable when the revolver was fully cocked. The Colt. 44-caliber “Army Model was the most widely used revolver of the Civil War and it had a six-shot, rotating cylinder, and fired a 0. The percussion cap, when struck by the hammer, ignited the powder charge, when fired, balls had a muzzle velocity of about 900 feet per second, although this depended on how much powder it was loaded with. The unfluted cylinder was rebated, meaning that the rear of the cylinder was turned to a smaller diameter than the front, the barrel was rounded and smoothed into the frame, as was the Navy Model. The frame, hammer, and rammer lever were case-hardened, the remainder blued, grips were of one-piece walnut, a distinguishing feature of the Model 1860 was that its frame had no top strap, or no component running above the cylinder. Instead, its strength came from the frame and the massive fixed cylinder pin. This made the gun slimmer and lighter than its competitor, the Remington Model 1858. The fixed cylinder pin also meant that the barrel had to be removed to remove the cylinder, unlike the Model 1858, according to importer Cimarron Arms Company, this was called the Texas Model because a number of them came into Texas shortly after secession. The goal was to use of silver spring steel of controlled carbon content and greater strength. Fluted cylinders had the patent date of Sept.10,1850 stamped in one of the flutes. Rebated cylinders above serial number 8000 were roller indented with a Texas Navy and Mexican battle scene, military 1860s had elongated screw lugs on the side of the frame to mount a detachable shoulder stock
26.
Colt 1851 Navy Revolver
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The Colt Revolving Belt Pistol of Naval Caliber, later known as the Colt 1851 Navy or Navy Revolver, is a cap and ball revolver that was designed by Samuel Colt between 1847 and 1850. Colt first called this Revolver Ranger model, but the designation Navy quickly took over, after the Civil War revolvers using fixed metallic cartridges came into widespread use. The Colt Navy remained in production until 1873, being replaced in the Colt line with what would become the manufacturers most famous handgun, as the factory designation implied, the Navy revolver was suitably sized for carrying in a belt holster. It became very popular in North America at the time of Western expansion, Colts aggressive promotions distributed the Navy and his other revolvers across Europe, Asia, and Africa. The cylinder of this revolver is engraved with a scene of the victory of the Second Texas Navy at the Battle of Campeche on May 16,1843, the engraving was provided by Waterman Ormsby. Despite the Navy designation, the revolver was purchased by civilians. The.36 caliber round ball weighs 80 grains and. A very small number of Navy revolvers were produced in.34 caliber, another rarity in the 1851 Navy production is the.40 caliber model, probably 5 were made 1858 for testing by the U. S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance. Sighting consists of a brass cone front sight pressed into the muzzle end of the top barrel flat with a notch in the top of the hammer. In spite of the crudity of the sighting arrangement, these revolvers. A small number of Model 1851 Navy revolvers was converted, using front-loaded, famous Navy users included Wild Bill Hickok, John Henry Doc Holliday, Richard Francis Burton, Ned Kelly, Bully Hayes, Richard H. Barter, Robert E. Lee, Nathan B. Use continued long after more modern cartridge revolvers were introduced, canadian issue 1851 Colts are stamped in the wooden grip upside down with letters U_C or L_C, a letter code for the unit, and the number of the weapon in that unit. E. g. U_C D21 This decodes as Upper Canada, D = Toronto Cavalry Troop, percussion Pistols and Revolvers, History, Performance and Practical Use. Famous Firearms of the Old West, From Wild Bill Hickoks Colt Revolvers to Geronimos Winchester, hounshell, David A. Sixguns, The Standard Reference Work. Roberts, Gary L. Doc Holliday, The Life and Legend, wilson, R. L. Colt, An American Legend. New York, London, Atabras, A Division of Abbeville Publishing Group
27.
Colt Dragoon Revolver
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The Colt Model 1848 Percussion Army Revolver is a.44 caliber revolver designed by Samuel Colt for the U. S. Armys Regiment of Mounted Rifles. The revolver was issued to the Armys Dragoon Regiments. This revolver was designed as a solution to problems encountered with the Walker Colt. Although it was introduced after the Mexican-American War, it became popular among civilians during the 1850s and 1860s, the Colt Dragoon Revolver was produced with several variations between 1848 and 1860, when the Colt Model 1860 revolver replaced it. All the improvements in design of Colt revolvers were applied to the Dragoons as well to the models of Colt revolvers. Total production of Colt Dragoons including the 1,100 Walkers, from 1847 to 1860,19,800, for collectors, there are three different types. Between the Walker and the First model Dragoon, around 240 improved models were produced, barrel length 7 1/2 inch and their general appearance was to that of the production Dragoon models. These were produced late in 1847 and 1848, serial number range approximately 1100 through about 1340. Another distinctive detail were the very slender Slim Jim grips, Colt produced about 7,000 first models between 1848 and 1850. The Second Model has rectangular cylinder notches, until the no.10,000 the V-shaped mainspring was standard and then replaced with a flat leaf mainspring and a wheel on the hammer at its bearing on the mainspring. All the Second Model Dragoons have the squareback trigger guard, the company made about 2,550 Second Models in 1850 and 51. The Third Model Dragoon numbers stand at ten-thousand from 1851 through 1860 and this design had more variations as compared to its earlier counterparts. Some of the third model Colt Dragoon Revolvers had frame cuts for detachable shoulder stocks, horizontal loading lever latches, Third Colt Dragoon Revolvers had a round trigger guard. Government records showed an order for 8,390 Dragoons, other variants included the Colt 1848 Pocket Pistol now known as the Baby Dragoon, marketed in California with success during the Gold Rush days. With the addition of a loading lever this evolved into the 1849 pocket revolver, the Colt Dragoon Revolver had a comparatively shorter cylinder and held up to 50 grains of powder, whereas the Walker had used up to 60 grains of powder. The Dragoon Revolver had a barrel at 7.5 inches as compared to the 9 inches barrel on the Walker. A loading lever latch in front of the replaced the spring to keep the lever from dropping during recoil. These variations made the Colt Dragoon Revolver 4 pounds two ounces and these changes also reduced the risks of the Colt Dragoon Revolver from exploding when fired, unlike the risk that had been demonstrated with the Walker revolvers
28.
Colt Model 1855 Sidehammer Pocket Revolver
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In the revolver configuration of the patented revolving mechanism, only one model of revolver was produced. The only two available calibers for the revolver were.28 and.31, the production of the revolver started in 1855 and lasted until 1870. In spite of the complexity and ambition of its patented design, production began in 1855 with the Model 1 followed by the Model 1A and then the Model 2 beginning with serial number 1 and ending in 1860 at about 25,000. These models had a roller-die engraved scene referred to as the Cabin, production continued with the Model 3 which has a fluted cylinder The standard barrel length was 3 1/2 inch. The cylinder scene engraved on the first 25,000 pistols was created by banknote engraver Waterman Ormsby, the image was his fourth and last to be featured on Colt revolvers. The overall scene is 1 1/16 inch wide by 3 1/4 inch long, at one end of the scene is the text, COLTS PATENT No.14705. The image contains a pioneer defending himself against an attack by six Indians in Seminole-style attire using a pair of revolver pistols while his wife, along the top of the scene is a finely detailed wavy line and dot border. The Model 3,4 and 5 had a fluted cylinder, the Model 6 and 7 had a round cylinder, with the rolled on Stagecoach Holdup scene by W. L. Ormsby. In 1855 the Sidehammer was the first Colts revolver to use the creeping loading lever and this loading mechanism was used again in 1860 in the design of the Colt Army Model 1860, the Colt Navy Model 1861 and the Colt Police Model 1862. In 1855 the Sidehammer was the first Colts solid-frame spur-trigger gun and this anatomical characteristic was taken again when the three models of the Colt Derringer started production in 1870. For the two first models production lasted in 1890, and the model ended in 1912. But in the Colt Deringers the solid-frame spur-triger design was present in the patent when Colts purchased the National Arms Company in 1870. Actual original Colt models subsequent to the Sidehammer and inheriting a solid frame and a spur trigger were the Colt House and the Colt New Line
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Colt M1861 Navy
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The Colt Model 1861 Navy cap & ball. 36-caliber revolver was a six-shot, single-action percussion weapon produced by Colts Manufacturing Company from 1861 until 1873. It incorporated the creeping or ratchet loading lever and round barrel of the. 44-caliber Army Model of 1860 but had a one half inch shorter. Like its forerunner, the Colt 1851 Navy Revolver, it saw use in the American Civil War and on the American Western frontier. It has the same specification as the earlier model, but with a rounded barrel. While similar in design to the Colt Army Model 1860, the recoil of the 1861 Navys.36 caliber was preferred by some cavalry soldiers. During the Civil War its main competitor in England was the Adams self-cocking revolver, the Adams fired a.49 caliber bullet and did not require the shooter to pull the hammer back. Colts revolver was popular because Colt mass-produced his weapons while Adams products were handmade by skilled artisans. In the United States, Colts main rival was the Remington Model 1858 revolver, there were few variations of the Model 1861 Navy Colt. Approximately 100 of the first guns made had fluted cylinders with no cylinder scene, with the exception of the first fifty or so of this model, all guns had a capping groove. A brass trigger guard and back strap, silver-plated, were standard, the cylinders of the Navy 1851 and 1861 Navy Colt revolvers are engraved with a scene of the victory of the Second Texas Navy at the Battle of Campeche on May 16,1843. The engraving was provided by Waterman Ormsby, the nitrated paper of the cartridge was completely consumed upon use, and the use of paper cartridges enabled faster re-loading. Alternatively, it was possible to load with measured powder charges
30.
Colt Paterson
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The Colt Paterson is a revolver. It was the first commercial repeating firearm employing a revolving cylinder with multiple chambers aligned with a single, stationary barrel. Its design was patented by Samuel Colt on February 25,1836, in the United States, France, and England, initially this 5-shot revolver was produced in.28 caliber, with a.36 caliber model following a year later. As originally designed and produced, no loading lever was included with the revolver, starting in 1839, however, a reloading lever and a capping window were incorporated into the design, allowing reloading without requiring partial disassembly of the revolver. This loading lever and capping window design change was incorporated after the fact into most Colt Paterson revolvers that had been produced from 1836 until 1839. Unlike later revolvers, a trigger was incorporated into the Colt Paterson. The trigger only became visible upon cocking the hammer, a subsequent patent renewal in 1849, and aggressive litigation against infringements, gave Colt a domestic monopoly on revolver development until the middle 1850s. Early Colt literature and later publications insist that Colt was inspired to design the revolver in 1830 by viewing the steering mechanisms aboard the brig Corvo while bound from Boston to Calcutta. However, some believe he saw examples of the Collier Flintlock Revolver while touring the Tower after the Corvo docked on the River Thames, in any event, sometime while aboard the Corvo he produced a wooden model and further developed the concept during the early 1830s. A creditor and business associate, John Ehlers, continued manufacture, revolving pistols held five shots and varied from pocket to belt and holster designations based upon size and intended mode of carry. Calibers ranged from 28/100s through 36/100s-inch, the model most identified with the Paterson Colt designation is the Number 5 Holster or Texas Paterson, which was manufactured in.36 caliber. The early Colt revolvers were of single-action design, meaning that the trigger functioned only to discharge the weapon and it was necessary to manually cock the hammer prior to firing. The first Paterson Models required partial disassembly for loading and had no provision for safely carrying the revolver with all chambers loaded. Replace the cylinder, barrel, and wedge and with the hammer at half cock, the revolvers came with spare cylinders, and the practice of the day was to carry spare cylinders loaded and capped for fast reloading. Period users had few qualms about this even though it presented a real hazard of accidental discharge if the caps were struck or the cylinder dropped. The first two options were extremely dangerous, in 1839, a hinged loading lever and capping window became standard for new revolvers and was retrofitted to the older designs. So modified, the revolvers could be loaded without disassembly, when the Paterson revolvers with loading levers finally reached Texas in 1842, Texas Ranger Captain John Coffee Hays was very pleased that his ranging companies could now reload from horseback. To fire the Paterson, the shooter thumbed the hammer back and this also caused the folding trigger to drop down from the frame into firing position
31.
Colt Pocket Percussion Revolvers
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The family of Colt Pocket Percussion Revolvers evolved from the earlier commercial revolvers marketed by the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company of Paterson, NJ. The.31 caliber carried over into Samuel Colts second venture in the trade in the form of the Baby Dragoon-a small revolver developed in 1847–48. The Baby Dragoon was in development with Colts other revolvers and, by 1850. It is a brother of the more famous Colts Revolving Belt Pistol of Naval Caliber introduced the same year. In 1855 Colt introduced another pocket percussion revolver, the Colt 1855 Sidehammer, 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. The most obvious difference is that the Pocket Police had a fluted 5-shot cylinder, while most Army Models were unfluted, 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 project, the.31 caliber of the 1849 Model was similarly increased to.36, using the same method, creating the Pocket Police. Those without loading levers are called the Wells Fargo Model although Wells Fargo records show no.31 caliber revolvers ever purchased by that company. Previously, it wasnt thought that the frame could handle the power of the.44 round. The stronger steels made this sacrifice unnecessary, 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, 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. Richard Francis Burton was a devotee of Colt Revolvers and carried a selection of them on his mid-eastern journeys including the trip to Somalia and Ethiopia in 1855. A Pocket model receives prominent mention, Other anecdotal accounts indicate that Bloody Bill Anderson, the Pocket Revolvers, both original and Replica are somewhat more challenging to shoot at moderate range than the larger Colt-type revolvers. The small size makes for a small and slender grip, the thinness and round cross-section of the grip make it easy for the gun to shift in the shooters grasp, and the sights are very small and difficult to see, compared to modern weapons. Point of impact is generally a foot or more above point of aim at 25 yards, in the guns intended purpose this creates little problem. A shooter need only point the weapon at the center of the torso, and fire, and the ball will hit somewhere in the chest region, all in all, for a weapon designed mostly as a relatively close-range defensive weapon, it was quite suitable for its era. HTML formatting by Steve Thomas,2003 Shumaker, P. L, variations of the Old Model Pocket Pistol 1849 to 1872 Alhambra California, Borden Publishing Company,1966 Wilson, R. L
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Colt Walker
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The Colt Walker, sometimes known as the Walker Colt, was a single-action revolver with a revolving cylinder holding six charges of black powder behind six bullets. It was designed in 1846 as a collaboration between Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker and American firearms inventor Samuel Colt, the 1847 Colt Walker was the largest and most powerful black powder repeating handgun ever made. It was created in the mid-1840s in a collaboration between Texas Ranger Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker and American firearms inventor Samuel Colt, building upon the earlier Colt Paterson design, Walker wanted a handgun that was extremely powerful at close range. Samuel Walker carried two of his revolvers in the Mexican–American War. He was killed in battle the same year his famous handgun was invented,1847, on October 9,2008, one specimen that had been handed down from a Mexican War veteran was sold at auction for US$920,000. The Republic of Texas had been the purchaser of the early Paterson Holster Pistol, a five shot cal.36 revolver. In 1847, Walker was engaged in the Mexican-American War as a captain in the United States Mounted Rifles and he approached Colt, requesting a large revolver to replace the single-shot Aston Johnson holster pistols then in use. The desired. 44-.45 caliber revolver would be carried in saddle mounted holsters, the Colt Walker was used in the Mexican-American War and on the Texas frontier. Medical officer John Rip Ford took a special interest in the Walkers when they arrived at Veracruz and he obtained two examples for himself and is the primary source for information about their performance during the war and afterward. The Walker, unlike most succeeding martial pistols and revolvers, was a weapon out to about 100 yards. The Colt Walker holds a charge of 60 grains in each chamber. It weighs 4 1⁄2 pounds unloaded, has a 9-inch barrel, the initial contract called for 1,000 of the revolvers and accoutrements. Colt commissioned Eli Whitney Junior to fill the contract and produced an extra 100 revolvers for private sales, notable recipients include John Coffee Hays. Colt commissioned New York engraver Waterman Ormsby to etch a scene on the cylinder that was based on Walkers description of the 1844 battle, in addition to its large size and weight, problems with the Walker included ruptured cylinders after firing. This has been attributed to primitive metallurgy, soldiers allowing powder to spill across the mouths of the chambers, under 300 of the original 1,000 were returned for repair due to a ruptured cylinder. The Walker had a loading lever catch that often allowed the loading lever to drop during recoil. Period-correct fixes for this often included placing a loop around both the barrel and loading lever, to prevent the loading lever from dropping under recoil. The Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon is known as the first transitional model from the Walker to the Dragoon series, the Colt Walker has long maintained a unique position and mystique among handgun users, and its name is often used as a common expression of any overly large generic handgun example
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Colt Model 1871-72 Open Top
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The Colt Model 1871-72 Open Top is a metallic cartridge rear-loading. 44-caliber revolver introduced in 1872 by the Colts Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company. This handgun was developed following two patents, the first one in 1871 and the one in 1872, it is estimated that the production span lies primarily between February 1872 and June 1873. There is therefore still some confusion when naming it and it is sometimes named Colt Model 1871 or Colt Model 1872 but at this time the most common accepted names are Colt Model 1871-72 Open Top, Colt Model 1871-72 or simply Colt Open Top. Up until then, it had been practicing the so-called Richards-Mason conversions. The trigger and revolving mechanism were based on the design as previous Colt revolvers. Chambered in.44 caliber, the gun was submitted to the US Army for testing in 1872, the Army rejected the pistol and asked for a more powerful caliber with a stronger frame. Mason redesigned the frame to incorporate a topstrap, similar to the Remington revolvers, the first prototype of the new gun was still chambered in.44 rimfire, but this new gun was chambered for the newest caliber known as the.45 Colt. This new design started production in 1873, giving birth to a new model, the Colt Single Action Army, the Two July patents were also found on very early Colt Single Action Army revolvers. Cimarron Firearms of Fredericksburg, Texas, imports a replica of the Open-Top revolver that is based on an antique Open Top that the company sent to Uberti to reverse-engineer, the replica revolver differs in one aspect, a safety has been placed on the hammer. Colt House Revolver Colt Single Action Army
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Colt Open Top Pocket Model Revolver
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The Colt Open Top Pocket Model Revolver was a single action pocket revolver introduced by the Colts Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company in 1871. It also was one of the first pocket metallic cartridge revolvers made by the company, when the Rollin White patent for metallic cartridges firearms manufacture expired the Colts Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company started working on its own metallic cartridge revolvers. Thus, Colt introduced its first rear-loaders in 1871, the Colt House/Cloverleaf, in the 1870s the firearms market was awash with cheaply made knockoffs of the.22 caliber Smith & Wesson Model One which sold for about $2. Colts president Richard Jarvis decided it would not compete directly with the knockoffs, the Open Top Pocket was priced at $8. The frame was brass and sometimes silver or nickel plated, the barrel and cylinder were either blue or nickel plated. Rosewood or walnut grips on a birds head style frame made for a pistol to shoot. Loading was accomplished via a groove in the rearward of the cylinder. After that, a shooter would need to remove the cylinder to empty the brass casings, cheap copies imported from Spain and Belgium drove down the demand for these revolvers and Colt stopped manufacturing them by 1877. The Open Top Pocket Model was chambered in.22 Short and.22 Long and it was equipped with a 7-shot non-fluted cylinder and two different barrel lengths, 2-3/8″ and 2-7/8″. NOTE, It is highly questionable that modern.22 ammunition would be safe to use in antique firearms, Colt New Line Colt Model 1855 Sidehammer Pocket Revolver Colt Pocket Percussion Revolvers Colt Open Top Pocket Model revolver as described in the National Firearms Museum
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Colt House Revolver
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The Colt House Revolver was one of the first metallic cartridge rear-loading revolvers to be produced by the Colts Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, back in 1871. The Colt House Revolver was manufactured from 1871 to 1876 in two different models, the Colt House Model itself and the Colt Cloverleaf Model, the latter being the most produced of both. The House Model is also known among collectors as the Jim Fisk model or the Jim Fisk pistol, both models, House and Cloverleaf, were built around a solid hidden spur-trigger frame, a weapon architecture also used by another Colt gun, the Colt Sidehammer. The Sidehammer had a grip, while the House and Cloverleaf models had all of them a recognizable birds-head grip. These features were common on many small pistols and revolvers during that era, finally, both models, House and Cloverleaf, were chambered with.41 caliber rimfire cartridges, available in both long and short sizes. The main differences between the two models were the following, The House Model, also called the Jim Fisk Model, had a five rounds straight non-fluted cylinder, the Cloverleaf Model had a four rounds fluted cylinder. When viewed from front or rear the cylinder seemed to resemble a four-leaf clover, the House Model was less produced of the two and had no variant development. It was produced in a single item product with a 2-5/8 barrel, the Cloverleaf Model was more produced by far, and had two different variants, depending on the barrel length, 1-1/2 and 3. The 1-1/2 barrel length variant had an ejector rod contained within the center pin of the cylinder, allowing to reload while keeping the cylinder in the gun. The 3 barrel length variant of the Cloverleaf had the ejector in the axis of the cylinder center pin and, thus. The Colt New Line inherited the general shape of the Colt House, a birds head grip, Colt Model 1855 Sidehammer Pocket Revolver
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Colt New Line
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The Colt New Line was a single action pocket revolver introduced by the Colts Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company in 1873. It was, alongside the Colt Open Top Pocket Model Revolver, when the Rollin White patent for metallic cartridges firearms manufacture expired the Colts Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company started working on its own metallic cartridge revolvers. Thus, after having introduced its first rear-loaders in 1871 and 1872, in 1873 Colt launched the Colt Peacemaker along with a new line of pocket revolvers, since it was an entirely new line of revolvers this model was called the Colt New Line. Circa 1884-1886, submerged by the competitors cheaper imitations and refusing to introduce a lower quality among its own firearms, the Colt New Line was chambered and produced as follows. All other four versions of the gun had 5-round cylinders
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Colt Buntline
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The Colt Buntline Special is a long-barreled variant of the Colt Single Action Army revolver, which Stuart N. Lake described in his best-selling but largely fictionalized 1931 biography, Wyatt Earp, according to Lake, the dime novelist Ned Buntline commissioned the production of five Buntline Specials. After its publication, various Colt revolvers with long barrels were referred to as Colt Buntlines or Buntline Specials, Colt manufactured the pistol among its second-generation revolvers produced after 1956. A number of manufacturers, such as Uberti, Navy Arms. The revolver was first described by Stuart Lake in his highly fictionalized 1931 biography Wyatt Earp, the extremely popular book turned Wyatt Earp into a Western superman. Lakes creative biography and later Hollywood portrayals exaggerated Wyatts profile as a western lawman, Lake wrote that dime novelist Edward Zane Carroll Judson, Sr. writing under the pseudonym of Ned Buntline, commissioned the guns in repayment for material for hundreds of frontier yarns. Yet Buntline, in fact, only four western yarns, all about Buffalo Bill. According to descendants of Wyatt Earps cousins, he owned a Colt. 45-caliber, Earp had received the revolver as a gift from Tombstone mayor and Tombstone Epitaph newspaper editor John Clum. Lake later admitted that he had put words into Wyatts mouth because of the inarticulateness, Lake conceived the idea of a revolver that would be more precise and could be easily modified to work similarly to a rifle. According to Lake, the Colt Buntline was a revolver chambered for.45 Long Colt cartridge. However, it had a 12-inch-long barrel, in comparison to the Colt Peacemakers 7. 5-inch barrel, a 16-inch barrel was available, as well. According to Lake, it had a stock that could be easily affixed through a combination of screws. This accessory gave the revolver better precision and range, Lake claimed, the Colt Buntline was further popularized by The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp television series. However, neither Tilghman nor Brown were lawmen at that time, according to Lake, Earp kept his pistol at the original 12-inch length, but the four other recipients of the Specials cut their barrels down to the standard 7 1⁄2 inches or shorter. Lake spent much effort trying to track down the Buntline Special through the Colt company, Masterson, Lake described it as a Colt Single Action Army model with a long,12 inches barrel, standard sights, and wooden grips into which the name “Ned” was ornately carved. Researchers have never found any record of a received by the Colt company. The revolver could have been ordered from the Colt factory in Hartford, Connecticut. Several such revolvers with 16-inch barrels and detachable stocks were displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, there are no company records for the Buntline Special, nor a record of any orders from or sent to Ned Buntline
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Colt M1877
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The Colt M1877 was a double-action revolver manufactured by Colts Patent Fire Arms from January 1877 to 1909 for a total of 166,849 revolvers. The Model 1877 was offered in three calibers, which lent them three unofficial names, the Lightning, the Thunderer, and the Rainmaker. The principal difference between the models was the cartridge in which they were chambered, the Lightning being chambered in.38 Long Colt, both models had a six-round ammunition capacity. An earlier model in.32 Colt known as the Rainmaker was offered in 1877, the M1877 was designed by one of the inventors of the M1873 Colt Single Action Army, William Mason, as Colts first attempt at manufacturing a double-action revolver. The M1877 was the first successful US-made double-action cartridge revolver, the M1877 was offered from the factory in two basic finishes, nickel-plated or a case-hardened frame with a blue barrel and cylinder. The revolver was available in lengths from 2.5 to 7.5 and was available with or without the ejector rod. The shorter barreled versions without the ejector rod were marketed as shopkeepers specials, neither Lightning nor Thunderer were Colt designations, nor used by the factory in any reference materials. Both terms were coined by Benjamin Kittredge, one of Colts major distributors, Kittredge was responsible for the terms Peacemaker for the Single Action Army, Omnipotent for the Colt M1878 double-action, and nicknames for the various chamberings of the New Line models. The M1877s early double-action mechanism proved to be intricate and delicate, and thus prone to breakage. The design had a reputation for failure and earned the nickname the gunsmiths favorite, because of the intricate design and difficulty of repair, gunsmiths to this day dislike working on them. Gun Digest referred to it as the worst double-action trigger mechanism ever made, typically, the trigger spring would fail and this would reduce the revolver to single-action fire only. Outwardly, the Model 1877 shows a resemblance to the Colt Single Action Army revolver, however it is scaled down slightly. The standard finishes were blued, with a frame or nickel plating. The birds head grips were of checkered rosewood on the early guns, the Lightning was the favored personal weapon of famous Manchester Victorian detective and then head of CID, Jerome Caminada. Old West outlaw John Wesley Hardin frequently used both Lightning and Thunderer versions of the Colt 1877 revolver, likewise the 1877 Thunderer in.41 caliber was the preferred weapon of Billy the Kid and was his weapon of choice when he was killed by Pat Garrett in 1881. The Colt Revolver in the American West—Model 1877 Lightning
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Colt M1878
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The Colt M1878 is a double-action revolver that was manufactured by Colts Manufacturing Company from 1878 to 1907. It is often referred to as the Frontier or the Double Action Army revolver, a total of 51,210 Model 1878 revolvers were manufactured from 1878 to 1907, including 4,600 for the US Ordnance Department. These are known as the Philippine or Alaskan models, samuel Colt experimented with double-action revolver systems, but he considered them to be unreliable. The M1878 was designed by William Mason, Colts factory manager and Charles Brinckerhoff Richards and it was similar in design to the Colt Model 1877. The Model 1878 was considered a more robust and reliable design than the Model 1877, the design of the Model 1878 was based on the Model 1877, which in turn was based heavily on the design of the earlier Colt Single Action Army revolver. The double-action revolver is not dramatically different in design than the single-action revolver, a strut is added to connect the trigger movement to the hammer. The top of the trigger slips beyond the strut so that the hammer will stay in full if it is pulled back manually. At one time, the factory modified Model 1878 cylinders for use in single-action revolvers in an attempt to use up spare parts. The Model 1878 was available in.45 Colt. 32-20.38 Colt. 38-40.41 Colt. 44-40.455 Webley, the most popular calibers were.45 and. 44-40. Standard grips were black checkered hard rubber but some early revolvers were produced with checkered walnut grips, barrel lengths available were 3, 3-1/2,4, 4-3/4, 5-1/2, and 7-1/2 inches. Revolvers with 4-inch and shorter barrels did not have an ejector, in 1902,4,600 Model 1878 revolvers were produced for a U. S. Army contract. They were intended to equip the Philippine Constabulary under Brigadier General Henry T. Allen in the Philippine Insurrection and these revolvers had a 6-inch barrel, a hard rubber grip, and were chambered for the.45 Colt round. They had a main spring and a longer trigger to give the user more leverage. The strengthened main spring was necessary to fire the.45 Government rounds with a less sensitive compared to the civil.45 LC ammunition. Many people have assumed that this was to allow the revolver to be operated while wearing gloves. The Colt Revolver in the American West—Double Action Frontier
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Colt M1889
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The Colt Model 1889 was a revolver produced by the Colt Manufacturing Company in the late 19th century. In the mid 19th century, Colt manufactured revolvers for the Army and Navy that were based on a design by William Mason and Carl J. Ehbets. William Mason left Colt in 1882 to work for Winchester, but Ehbets remained at Colt and these refinements led to the Model 1889. Colt was the first manufacturer to produce a revolver with a swing-out cylinder, smith & Wesson followed 7 years later with the Hand Ejector, Model 1896 in.32 S&W Long caliber. This was an improvement over the Colt 1889 design since it used a combined center-pin, the 1889 did not use a center pin and the cylinder was prone to move out of alignment. The Colt Model 1889 was the first double-action revolver with a swing-out cylinder and this design had two advantages over previous designs, since it enabled fast loading but also maintained the strength of a solid frame. The Model 1889 was chambered for the.41 Long Colt.38 Long Colt, the Navy version was blued, and had a six inch barrel. It was manufactured with hard rubber grips, civilian versions had either a blue or nickel finish, and had walnut grips. Sometimes it can have ivory grips, the Model 1889 differed from earlier Colt revolvers since its cylinder rotated counterclockwise instead of clockwise. This seems to have originated with U. S. Navy requirements and this weakness allowed the cylinder to rotate while holstered or even while the shooter was pulling the trigger. The Model 1889 and variants were adopted by the United States Military, the Model 1889 was also sold commercially as the Colt New Army and Navy. Approximately 5,000 Colt Model 1889 revolvers were produced, Colt M1892 Colt M1905 New Marine Colt New Service Colt Official Police
41.
Colt M1892
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The M1892 Colt Army & Navy was the first general issue double-action with a swing-out cylinder revolver used by the U. S. military. In 1892 the gun was adopted by the Army in.38 Long Colt caliber, initial experience with the gun caused officials to request some improvements. This would be a condition, resulting in Models 1892,1894,1895,1896,1901 and 1903. It was easily manipulated by the thumb of the right hand, empty cases were removed by simply pushing back on an ejector rod to activate a star extractor. The six-shooter could then be reloaded and the cylinder clicked back into place. Sights were the rounded front blade and topstrap notch. The finish on all military revolvers was blue, though civilian guns could be had nickeled or with special finishes. In 1908, Colt improved and strengthened the lockwork, and changed the cylinder rotation to a clockwise movement, a Model 1892 revolver was recovered from the USS Maine after it exploded in Havana Harbor in 1898. It was presented to then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, Roosevelt brandished this pistol to rally his Rough Riders during the famed charge up San Juan Hill on July 1,1898. This revolver was on display at Sagamore Hill and was stolen there in 1963, recovered. It was recovered in 2006 and returned to Sagamore Hill on June 14,2006 and this revolver was thought of as a decent handgun for its time, but complaints arose from the military concerning the revolvers cartridge chambering. Beginning in 1899, combat reports arose from the Philippines campaign regarding the performance of the M1892s. 38-caliber ammunition. Specifically, users complained that the.38 bullet repeatedly failed to stop charging enemy tribesmen at close ranges, both.38 Special and.357 Magnum will chamber in Colt New Army revolvers, due to the straight walled chambers in later models, built primarily after 1903. Colt removed the shoulders that previously prevented.38 Special from being loaded into the cylinder, guns bearing serial numbers 225, xxx and higher were equipped with a smaller diameter bore and could chamber.38 Special and fire it safely. High pressure loads in.38 Special, such as +P or +P+ loads, caution must be exercised in the use of these older guns as higher operating pressures will cause damage to the gun and could injure the shooter. The only rounds that may be used in guns manufactured before 1903, are.38 Short. The Colt Revolver in the American West—Model 1903 New Army and Navy
42.
Colt Model 1905 Marine Corps
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The Colt Model 1905 Marine Corps was a.38 revolver issued by the United States Marine Corps during the period from 1905 to 1909. It is a variation of the Colt M1892 with a grip frame. A small number are known to have been issued under military contract and these revolvers are marked on the butt with the appropriate USMC markings and are serial numbered 001 through at least 812. A further 926 copies were made between 1905 and 1909 for the market, and these revolvers are serial numbered on the butt from 10001 through 10926. A Study of Colts New Army and Navy Pattern Double Action Revolvers,1889 to 1908, list of individual weapons of the U. S
43.
Colt New Police Revolver
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The Colt New Police is a double-action, six-shot revolver. This gun was chambered in the.32 New Police, which is identical to a flat-nose version of the.32 S&W Long. In addition to the.32 New Police cartridge, the revolver was available in 32 Colt, the diameters of the two cartridges are not the same, with the 32 Colt being approximately 0.020 inches smaller in diameter than the New Police. Although the 32 Colt can be loaded and fired in the New Police chamber and it is impossible to load the.32 New Police in a 32 Colt chamber. The later.32 New Police chambering was more popular than the 32 Colt chambering, the Colt New Police was manufactured from 1896 to 1907 by Colts Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut. The sights on the revolver were fixed with a blade in front. The revolver was available with a 2 1⁄2-inch, four-inch, or six-inch barrel in a blued or nickel finish, the Colt New Police was selected by New York City Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt in 1896 to be the first standard-issue revolver for NYPD officers. A target version was made until 1905 with a 6-inch barrel, the New Police Revolver was replaced in the Colt catalog in 1907 by the improved Colt Police Positive, which featured an internal hammer block safety and better lock work
44.
Colt New Service
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The Colt New Service is a double-action revolver made by Colt from 1898 until 1941. It was adopted by the U. S. Armed Forces in caliber 45 Revolver Model of 1909 as the Model 1909 U. S. Army, Marine Corps Model 1909, Model 1909 U. S. Navy, the Model 1917 was created to supplement insufficient stocks of M1911 pistols during World War I. The Colt New Service was the largest revolver ever manufactured by Colt, there are several generational variants including the Old Model, Transitional Model, Improved Model and Late Model. A Target Model, Shooting Master and Deluxe Target Model were offered as well, the Colt M1917 Revolver was a New Service with a cylinder bored to take the.45 ACP cartridge and the half-moon clips to hold the rimless cartridges in position. Later production Colt M1917 revolvers had headspacing machined into the cylinder chambers, during its lifetime, the Colt New Service was the most popular revolver made by Colt, surpassing 150,000 units. After World War I, the revolver gained a following among civilian shooters. John Henry Fitzgerald was an employee of Colt prior to World War II and was known to carry of a pair of New Service Fitz Specials in his front pockets. These revolvers had bobbed hammers,2 barrels, shortened and rounded grip frames, although less than 30 left the factory, it became an after-market conversion for many gunsmiths. Colonels Rex Applegate and Charles Askins were proponents of this model, in 1899 Canada acquired a number of New Service revolvers for Boer War service, to supplement its existing Model 1878 Colt Double Action revolvers in the same caliber. In 1904/5 the North-West Mounted Police in Canada also adopted the Colt New Service to replace the less-than satisfactory Enfield Mk II revolver in service since 1882, New Service revolvers, designated as Pistol, Colt. 455-inch 5. 5-inch barrel Mk. I, chambered for the.455 Webley cartridge were acquired for issue as substitute standard by the British War Department during World War I. British Empire Colt New Service Revolvers were stamped NEW SERVICE.455 ELEY on the barrel, British Empire and Canadian forces received 60,000 Colt New Service revolvers during World War I and they continued to see official service with US until the end of World War II. Antique Guns Chamberlain & Taylerson, W. H. J, Revolvers of the British Services, 1854-1954. Bloomfield, ON and Alexandria Bay, NY, Museum Restoration Service, bloomfield, ON and Alexandria Bay, NY, Museum Restoration Service. Maze, Robert J. Howdah to High Power, A Century of Breechloading Service Pistols, aledo, Illinois, World-Wide Gun Report, Inc. Phillips & Klancher, Roger F. & Donald J. Arms & Accoutrements of the Mounted Police, 1873-1973. Bloomfield, ON and Alexandria Bay, NY, Museum Restoration Service, the Colt Revolver in the American West—New Service Guns and Ammo Magazine article on Colt New Service Revolver Colt New Service Revolver
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Colt Official Police
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The Official Police was also used by various U. S. and allied military forces during World War II. As the 20th Century began, the older.32 caliber revolvers which had been standard-issue for the majority of American police departments began to be phased out in favor of the larger-bore.38 caliber. In 1908 Colt introduced a sleek and modernized revolver they dubbed the Army Special, during the same period, revolvers began to fall out of favor with the U. S. Military, especially after the adoption on the U. S. Model of 1911 semi-automatic pistol. By 1927 the overwhelming sales of two models, the Army Special and Colt Police Positive, had assured Colt’s dominance of the law enforcement firearms market. Colt’s marketing strategy was further fine-tuned by making a few alterations to the Army Special revolver. The changes included adding checkering to the trigger, matting the topstrap of the frame, Colt also upgraded the quality of the gun’s finish from a dull blued finish to a highly polished blued surface. By 1933 the Colt sales catalog listed many law enforcement agencies as having adopted the OP as a sidearm, including the New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, in addition many state police organizations and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation chose the OP as their issue revolver. Many Official Police revolvers were also bought by the forces and militaries of various South American countries. These revolvers bore British military acceptance markings and had a 5 barrel, most of these OP revolvers were assembled from commercial-grade parts made before 1942. Commencing in 1941, small quantities of the.38 Colt Official Police were procured directly from the Defense Supplies Corporation, when government purchasing officials objected to production delays of the OP, as well as the unit cost, Colt responded by simplifying the gun. Instead of the bluing, the revolver was given a dull parkerized finish. In mid-1942 the Springfield Ordnance District was given control over procurement and distribution of the Commando, a few Commandos were shipped to the U. S. Maritime Commission and used as small arms equipment on U. S. merchant ships and ships provided to the Allies under Lend-Lease. Most Commando wartime production went to the Defense Supplies Corporation, for use by security and police forces, while approximately 1,800 Commandos were used by the U. S. Navy, with another 12,800 revolvers distributed to various military intelligence agencies. During the postwar period, Colt fell on difficult financial times, at Smith & Wesson, both output and new model civilian and police sales improved, and the sales margin gap between the two corporations progressively tightened. Finally in the 1960s S&W took over the lead, Colt announced the discontinuation of the Official Police in 1969, stating that competitive production of the design was no longer economically feasible. With a total production of over 400,000 pistols, the Official Police ranks as one of the most successful ever made. The Official Police was machined of fine carbon steel, with bright royal Colt blued as well as nickel-plated finishes, and was offered in 4,5 and 6 inches barrels. Built on Colt’s.41 or “I” frame, it was manufactured in a variety of chamberings including.22 LR. 32-20.41 Long Colt, and the most common and popular, the.38 Special
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Colt Police Positive
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The Colt Police Positive is a small-frame, double-action revolver featuring a six-round cylinder, chambered for either.32 or.38 caliber cartridges. Designed primarily for sale to federal, state, or local law enforcement agencies, the Colt Police Positive was an improvement of Colt’s earlier “New Police” revolver, upgraded with an internal hammer block safety. Colt named this new security device the “Positive Lock”, and its ended up being incorporated as a partial namesake for the new revolver. The cylinder of the Police Positive rotated in the clockwise direction, ever a canny competitor in the firearms milieu, Colt missed no opportunity to score a coup déclat over its arch rival, and began a marketing campaign which accentuated this detail. The Police Positive was very successful, along with the Colt Official Police it dominated the law enforcement firearms market in the early 1900s, the Positive was itself incrementally modified in 1908, forming the basis for Colt’s Police Positive Special model. A nickel Police Positive with pearl grips &.32 calibre was used by Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey in Death Wish. The notorious American gangster Al Capone also used a Police Positive, a nickel.38 Police Positive with walnut grips, in June 2011 a private collector sold it at Christies for the sum of £67, 250/$109, 080/€75,656. The Police Positive was made of steel, and was finished with either a polished blued finish or nickel-plated. The First issue of the Police Positive ran from the introduction in 1907 until 1927. Sporting Colt’s standard hard rubber grips, it was offered with barrel lengths of 2.5,4,5, and 6 inches, and was chambered for the.32 Long Colt.32 Colt New Police, checkered Walnut grips became standard after 1923. The Second issue began in 1928 and ran until 1947, adding a heavier frame as well as a serrated topstrap to reduce sight glare. The revolver’s sights consisted of a blade front with a fixed iron open rear sight. Weighing 22 ounces and available with a finish and black hard rubber grips in.22 Long Rifle.22 WRF.32 Long Colt. A Second issue was sold from 1926 to 1941 and differed from the First in that it had a slightly heftier frame which upped the weight to 26 ounces, also Colt’s nickel finish was offered as an option. In todays collectable market, the.32 New Police version appears to be the most sought after and valuable. 32-20 Winchester and.38 Special cartridges
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Colt Police Positive Special
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In the early 20th century the Colt Positive and Positive Special teamed with Colts other admired model, the Official Police, to capture the lions share of the law enforcement firearms market. Very popular with law enforcement officers due to its light weight, the first issue ran from introduction to 1927 and had the early 1900-era distinctive Colt black hard rubber grips. The second issue introduced wooden grips which were smooth in the years, later giving way to a checkered style. The Third issue began in 1947, and the Fourth issue in 1977 introduced a Colt Python-style shrouded ejector-rod housing, production of the Police Positive Special ended in 1995. Built on Colt’s “D” frame, it was offered in four, five, the Positive Special also incorporated Colt’s “Positive Lock” safety which preventing the firing pin from hitting the primer unless the trigger was deliberately pulled. The pistol’s sights consisted of a front with a fixed iron open rear sight
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Colt Anaconda
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Chambered for the powerful.44 Magnum and.45 Colt centerfire ammunition cartridges, the Anaconda marked the Hartford, Connecticut firm’s first foray into the popular large-bore Magnum pistol market. Built on a new and heavier frame, the Anaconda was brought out to compete with.44 Magnum contemporaries such as the Smith & Wesson Model 29. Redhawk and Blackhawk, and the Dan Wesson Firearms Model 44, considering that many of these models had been marketed and sold for fully 35 years upon its introduction, the Anaconda was a very late entry into the large-bore handgun market. Originally chambered for the.44 Magnum cartridge, in 1993 the Anaconda began to be offered in.45 Colt cartridge as well and its fit and finish resembled an upsized King Cobra married to a ventilated-rib barrel reminiscent of the Pythons. Initially marketed with a brushed stainless finish, a highly polished mirror-like option known as Ultimate Stainless was cataloged for a time through the Colt Custom Shop. Some models were factory drilled and tapped for telescopic sight mounting, there were 2000 Kodiaks made as a special run of Anacondas, breaking away from their long history of naming revolvers after snakes. A special run of 1000 King Cobras was made about the time, having the same Magna-Ported barrel. There was an uncataloged 5 barrel version of the Anaconda, with less than 150 made. These 5 versions command very high prices when they are encountered, additionally, Colt made an extremely low number of 4 barrel Anacondas chambered in.45 Colt. This ultra-rare variation commands a premium price when encountered as well, Colt Diamondback Colt Python Safety and instruction manual Video of operation on YouTube
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Colt Cobra
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The Colt Cobra is a lightweight, aluminum-framed, double-action short-barrelled revolver, not to be confused with the Colt King Cobra. The Cobra was chambered in.38 Special.32 Colt New Police and it holds six shots of ammunition and was sold by Colt from 1950 until 1981. In December 2016, it was announced that Colt would be producing a new run of the Colt Cobra with a steel frame and this model was released in early 2017. In the mid-1960s, the Detective Specials and Cobras grip frame was shortened to the size as that of the Agent. The Cobra was produced in calibers.38 Special,32 Colt New Police.22 LR, and a few in.38 S&W. The.38 Special Cobra was available in 2,3,4. The.32 caliber version was available in 2- and 3-inch barrel lengths, the.22 LR Cobra was available only with the 3-inch barrel. Standard Cobras were blued with round-butt grip frames, the.38 Special Cobra with a 2-inch barrel was available with a nickel finish at additional cost. Early models also had a square-butt option and it was announced in 2016 that Colt would re-release the Colt Cobra in 2017. The Third Model is offered only as a 6 shot DA/SA revolver in.38 Special with a 2 barrel and this model will be offered with a Matte Stainless Steel finish and has an unloaded weight of 25 ounces. The Aircrewman was a version of the Detective Special constructed of aluminum alloy. They are distinguished by the gold-metal Air Force medallion in the place of the silver-metal Colt medallion on the wooden grips. However, the cylinder fractures continued, and the weapons were withdrawn from service. The Courier was produced in.22 Long Rifle,32 Colt NP,32 S&W long, frame and cylinder are constructed of lightweight aluminum alloy. Approximately 3000 were produced in the two years, the Colt Agent was a lower-price version of the Cobra, featuring a less highly polished blue finish and smaller, simplified grips. The bottom of the Agent gripstock was slightly shorter than that of the Cobra, the original Agent weighed 14 ounces and was available only in.38 Special caliber, with a 2-inch barrel and blued finish. A slightly revised version of the Agent was released in 1973 with a barrel with a weight of 16 ounces. In 1984, the Agent was briefly revived by Colt, this time with a parkerized finish, the Viper was essentially a 4 barrel version of the alloy-framed Colt Cobra in.38 Special. Introduced in 1977 and only produced that year, the Viper did not sell as well as Colt expected and was discontinued, in recent years, owing to its limited production run, the Viper has become quite collectable
