Remington M1858 New Model Army and Navy; Remington Beals Navy; Remington M1865-67 Rolling Block Pistol; Remington M1871 Rolling Block Pistol; Remington.41 Double Derringer; Remington M1875 Frontier; Remington.36 DA Revolver; Parts For Original Longarms. Remington 1858 New Model,.36 Navy and.44 Army.
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1858 Remington handgun, by Kerry BarlowRemington Model Revolversby: Kerry Barlow1858 Reproduction shown above. Remington had 3 basic models of handgun that were used throughoutthe Civil war. These are today all commonly called Remington 1858, howeverin the civil war era they would be refered to as distinct model types orsimply a Remington. Many companies copied the Remington design almost exactlyor they changed some minor items to avoid patent infringment. The term 1858 Remington comes from the fact that Remingtonpurchased the Patent rights to this weapon from Beals in the year 1858. The Handgun was produced for many years and was still beingproduced in various styles until 1875. The Barrel was octagon and had anattached loading rod.
The cylinders were never engraved as were the Coltmodels. Sighting was done with fixed sights that had very little modificationto them, filing of the groove in the top strap was about all that was possiblein the field. The Remington models were considered some of the finest revolversof the civil war, sought after by troops of both sides. The Remington had three large advantages over the Coltstyle revolvers. It had a solid frame wrapping completely around the cylinder, noticethe 'top strap', as it is called over and above the cylinder.This gave the Remington models a huge advantage, both in strength of thefirearm as well as accuracy over time. A second lesser advantage was the special hammer groove groundinto the cylinder in between each firing chamber on the cylinder.
Not allRemington models had this but the large majority did. To use a Colt stylerevolver a shootist would normally load only 5 chambers of a 6 cylindergun, this is because the hammer must rest upon a firing chamber of theweapon. If the revolver had all 6 cylinders loaded the hammer would restupon a live cylinder, if the gun were dropped or fell upon its hammerthe gun could fire. The Remington models had the extra notch for hammerplacement. This allowed the gun to be fully loaded, all 6 cylinders andstill have the hammer placed in between a firing chamber, by placing thehammer into the safety notch. If the gun were dropped the hammer wouldsimply push deeper into the safety notch causing no problems.
It is hardto say how definite an advantage this was when a war was being fought.With the enemy shooting at you presumably a soldier would load all 6 roundsno matter the safety issue. Around camp, while traveling and on horsebackthe extra safety notch would be a definite advantage. Please note there is a minor exception to the above. Some Colts (1860 3rd, Army, IIRC) did have small pins on the rear of the cylinder that fit into a small hole in the hammer for this same purpose. This was not as effective as the Remington system as the pins could be easily sheared off or the hole in the hammer get filled with crud (technical term meaning crud) and allow the cylinder to turn and bring a capped chamber under the hammer.
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(Thanks to Joseph Lovell for reminding me of this fact) A third major advantage was in loading and firing the Remington. TheRemington and its copies had a very real advantage in battle, because ofthe following reasons. On a Remington style pistol a soldier could carrywith him an extra loaded cylinder with all of its 6 chambers loaded andcapped. When his pistol is empty, he can drop the loading lever, slide outthe cylinder pin, and quickly pop in a freshly loaded spare cylinder. Thenhe would slide back in the cylinder pin and snap shut the loading lever.The soldier is now ready to fire 6 more bullets. This entire process canbe completed by the author within 5 seconds, I am sure a soldier with practisecould certainly do as well or much better! Modern 6 shot revolvers withspeed loaders cannot do much better then this.
One version of the Remingtonhad a modified cylinder pin especially ordered by the U.S. Government makingit difficult to remove. I can only guess that they did not want asoldier dropping the cylinder or gun parts during battle, thereby makingthe gun useless.This cannot be done on the Colt style revolvers, because they have ascrew holding the pistol together, with a wedge that has to be driven outand then the loading lever has to be pulled out of the pistol and finallythe barrel can be removed. In the Colt variations and copies simply reloadingthe cylinder itself would be much faster. It is interesting to note the brass frame on the Remingtonrevolvers.
This was not originally planned for any aesthetic appeal. Itwas done because the confederate troops were short on supplies and wishedto use the available gun metal (steel) for cannons and other weapons. Brasswas chosen because it was more available and still supplied the necessarystrength in the firearm. Union troops did not have such a problem so allof their Remington's were produced in steel. If you ever come across anoriginal Remington revolver in brass you will now know the reason. I have had the opportunity to fire both the Colt model revolversand the Remington style revolver. As far as accuracy the guns are verysimilar and this author is certainly not capable of pushing either weaponto its limits of accuracy. Suffice it to say the handguns were certainlyboth extremely accurate even by todays standards.
I do prefer the Remingtonstyle revolver for its extra strong top strap and can see how Civil wartroops would prefer the handgun for the same reason. I am sure for theshort term of the war, ballistics and weapon accuracy would not changegreatly between the Colt or Remington models, however if the guns weredropped, laid upon, fallen upon etc I can see that the extra strong Remingtonwould have a clear advantage. If the soldier had access to spare cylindersa Remington model would have a very big advantage as far as speed of loading.Beals model pocket revolverFrom 1857 until 1860 7,000 copies of three models were produced in.31caliber, all with 5-shot cylinders, 3 to 4 inch barrels and spur triggers(no trigger guard).Beals model RemingtonProduced from 1860-1862 this revolver came in an army.44 caliberand a navy.36 caliber version.
The Navy had a 7 1/2 inch barrel and thearmy had an 8 inch barrel. Front sight was a german silver cone. The loadinglever was considerd to be a thin web design.
It had a high spur trigger.The most distinguishing aspect was the cylinder which did not have anysafety notchs. This had a single ear cylinder pin that was designed forquick removal.Old Model Remington -OR- model 1861Produced from 1862-1863 this variant came as anarmy model.44 caliber 8 inch barrel and a navy model.36 caliber 7 3/8 inchbarrel.
It had the same front sight as the Beals model. This model hada high spur trigger. Most early serial numbers do not have cylinder safetynotchs,final serial numbers incorporate the new safety notch. Introducedthis model is a quick removable Cylinder pin with 2 ears on the pin. Theloading lever had a cutout designed to reomve the pin and the revolverhad a medium or thicker web design for the larger loading lever.New model army Produced from 1863-1875 the New model army came in.44 caliberand 8 inch barrel.
The version was.36caliber and a 7 3/8 inch barrel. A new front blade sight was added to thearmy version,the navy version kept the older german silver cone front sight.The New Model Army replaced the easy cylinder removing feature at the requestof the Army. Remington now added a low spur trigger. The loading leverwas now a large web design. The cylinder pin had 2 ears as did theprevious Old model army. More than 130,000 pieces of this Model were purchasedfrom 1863 to 1875.Bison/Buffalo revolver As far as I can determine this was NOT an original civilwar era weapon However I include it here because it is an interesting reproductionhandgun.
A unique and deadly variation of the standard Remington revolverthe Buffalo had the addition of a 12 inch barrel in place of the standard8 inch barrel. This added barrel length increased the accuracy of the handgunconsiderably, and it also increased the power of the handgun slightly aswell. I myself have fired the standard Remington and the long barrel Bisonas well and I can readily attest to the fact that the Buffolo model isa much more accurate handgun. Loading and firing was identical with thestandard Remington.
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