FINALLY ANOTHER PISTOL! AND A REALLY GOOD ONE!

[NOLA_Ken]

I haven't really found much to talk about in a while, but this one is a winner. I went and hit a recent house demo site with pretty low expectations but I've got the day off so I figured I'd give it a shot. I went just after sunrise to try and beat the heat and spent a couple hours at it finding the usual junk and some modern coins and I almost didn't dig this thinking it was just going to be a chunk of an old sink or pipe, but for whatever reason I did and I'm really glad I did. I can't even explain how surprised I was to see the outline of a pistol instead of a chunk of drain pipe. So here it is fresh from a light scrub down. It's a Colt '51 Navy with an octagonal barrel! It looks like it took a pretty hard hit from something, but definitely not recently, and I looked all around it for the rest of the grip frame, but no luck.

Now I just need to figure out if it's a repro, a copy or an original. I don't much care either way and it'll look great on the wall some day....

 

[4dcr]

Great find, congrats

Happy Hunting,
4dcr

 

[Deft Tones]

I've only ever found toy guns. That's a really cool gun for you to find! Nice going following your gut instinct for the dig.

 

[Blak bart]

Now that is cool. Wow I would be excited too. Doesn't matter if its a repro or what the value is, the cool factor is over the top !! Definitely a man cave trophy in my book. I have a working repro of that piece and it's very fun to shoot. Congratulations, nice work finding that one.

 

[Scrappy]

Totally RAD!! Congrats

 

[trapperart]

Repro or real, it's way cool congrats

 

[IAMZIM]

Awesome find, repo or not.....that looks like it could be in good enough shape to restore if one were so inclined.....

 

[relic nut]

Wow! That's a great find. Can you tell if the cylinder is loaded or not?

HH, RN

 

[nhbenz]

Boy, those had really small hand grips
Nice find!

 

[dirtlooter]

yep, very high cool factor! congrats on the awesome find

 

[BIENER]

Wow, congrats

 

[Southern loyalist]

Can you post pics of the brass trigger guard looking at it from the "bottom" of the revolver? There should be a serial number stamped into the brass near the front frame screw (in front of the trigger guard itself). That will be the first possible indication of it's originality. The missing back strap would also have a matching serial number stamped into it as would the steel frame, cylinder and the wedge. Some of those markings as well as the Colt address stamped on the top of the barrel may be legible after electrolysis depending on the originality of the revolver as well as the condition of the steel and how quickly you can get it into a electrolysis tank now that it's out of the ground. There also might be an inspector number stamped on the brass as well. ".36 cal" might also be visible if original. As noted by another poster check for rounds in the cylinder and carefully clean around the nipples - there may be caps on them if they're loaded. Regardless of originality, this is cool find!

 

[beerguy]

Great find, I would be stoked!

 

[pepperj]

Very cool piece, congrats on the find.

 

[Digging_Kentucky]

That's a very cool find! Congrats!

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Thanks all! It's not loaded, and I'm thinking it's repro because there is no serial number on the trigger guard. Still holding out hope for it to be some rare Confederate made pistol, but I know the odds of that are pretty slim . It's too rusted to find any other markings on it but I'm thinking if it's a repro it may be one of the older Spanish made ones, but I may never know for certain.

I'm definitely going to hit that lot again just to make sure none of the big signals I didn't dig weren't actually broken drain pipes, Who knows? Maybe there's another one there....

 

[Old River]

Great find.