Is there an easy way to tell if my revolvers are original or reproductions?
1851 Colt Navy has ships engraved on the cylinder and a serial number of 13 on the brass frame... no other marks except an name carved on the handle.
The Griswold and Gunnison has no marks except for an unclear serial number on the bottom of the frame near the brass.
Thanks in advance.
The give-away that you have a reproduction M1851 Colt Navy is the brass frame. Original Colt Navies had iron frames (as do the better reproductions). The serial number on Colts is stamped in multiple places: on the barrel where it joins the frame, on the frame, on the front of the trigger guard as well as on the cylinder. The Griswold & Gunnison is also a likely reproduction given the rarity of such revolvers and the fact that the serial number on these brass framed revolvers was normally stamped on the side of the frame, not the bottom. Hope you didn't pay much for them.
- Jim Burgess, 15th CVI
Thanks for the info. I got them both for a good price even if they are repro's. I had a feeling the 1851 was a repro due to its condition, but the Griswold does look very old and was wondering if there were some more details about the original or reproductions that could help me determine the manufacturer.
Italian repros to the Griswold & Gunnison revolvers have METRIC threads. So get a thread gauge and IF it has metric threads, you know that it is a repo.
Side note: my daughter's Father-in-Law is a Dean at Mercer University, located in Macon, GA. A year or so back we were attending a party in his home (with a lot of Mercer faculity attending) when I had the pleasure of meeting Griswold's G-Grandson.
He is a very distinguished gentleman, lives in Macon and is aware of his heritage-but he is not a shooter and has very little interest in the Civil War. I did enjoy talking with him.
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