Fine example of a Colt's Navy with the barrel wedge properly placed.
My first handgun, back in 1984, was a well-used Uberti 1858 Remington repro, shot the heck out of it, eventually I gave it to a friend's son in New Mexico who cowboyed with it for years, far as I know its still going strong.
Never did mess with them wedge designs until recently. Bought the '51 some years back. After all, if you're talking Texas handguns, especially cap and ball, the '51 Colt was THE handgun in Texas.
Speaking of wedge designs....
http://collectorebooks.com/gregg01/coltrevolver/Lot-462.htm![[Linked Image]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Sharpshin/frontierfolk/coltrifle.jpg)
There's a few of these things still around, at least one probably unfired (NIB??), if ya got a cool $30-$70,000 to blow prob'ly just the thing to impress folks at a Campfire gathering...
Anyways... William Selby Harney....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._HarneyCalled by the Lakotas "
Mad Bear" in "
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" (also, apparently, "Woman Killer"). Harney is also the guy described in the recently discussed "
Eagles and Empire" as the guy who brutally executed by strangulation at one go (actually hanging, but done so as not to break the neck) 30 Irish deserters of the San Patricio Brigade in the Mexican War, including a guy that had just had his legs amputated..
Brutal as he was, and however he felt about Irish and Catholics, he WAS an effective Officer in the field.
He's pertinent here on account of if ya wanna talk Colt Patersons in combat, he's your guy.
Turns out that in 1838, in response to a request by Harney, Sam Colt sailed to the Florida Territory and personally sold him and General Jessup fifty revolving rifles and the same number of handguns.
The Seminole War has been called "our first Vietnam", and was indeed a protracted and expensive guerilla conflict involving an elusive enemy setting ambush in densely vegetated Tropical terain. Harney too (easy to calculate his age, he was born in 1800) was no shrinking violet when it came to combat, personally leading 50 hand-picked men of his 2nd US Dragoons into the field on "Spec Ops" type endeavors, all armed with these new rifles.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1998-08-16/news/9808140824_1_colt-seminoles-harney``I honestly believe that but for these arms the Indians would now be luxuriating in the Everglades of Florida,'' Harney said of Colt's guns.
Crap, a whole new line of inquiry, prior to googling that quote up I had read of the Paterson Colts in Florida in mostly dismissive terms.
Paterson Colts did fail military trials at West Point in '37 and again in '40, but surely Harney's continuing enthusiatic endorsements must have played some role in the purchase of those 1,000 Walker Colts in '47, launching a whole new era.
Be interesting to read the specifics of Harney's Florida scrapes with these weapons. We know in combat, especially in ambush situations, that people have a tendency to fire off all their rounds pretty quick. Do that with a Paterson and reloading is gonna take considerable time (unless ya got extra loaded cylinders on hand like Jack Hays' crew).
That and the complexity and fragility of the arm, plus the fact that, until the '51 Navy thirteen years and a different factory later, parts for these things were NOT drop-in interchangeable between weapons.
I'm wondering if they wouldn't have been better served with the much maligned but actually quite functional Hall's carbines (the one with the chamber that tipped up from the front to load), already in service, simple to fix, and available in both flint and percussion versions.
Birdwatcher
