more pics of the late 1800s Colt pistol - GOT THE WORD BACK FROM COLLECTOR

[funkman]

more pics of the late 1800's Colt pistol - GOT THE WORD BACK FROM COLLECTOR

I let the pistol sit in naval jelly for 24 hours and some of the rust did come off. I have it sitting in it again but before I put it back in it's pink bath, I took some pics of it for all interested. Looking at it and comparing with antique gun websites it definately seems to be a Colt New Line 22 caliber pistol that was manufactured anywhere from 1860's to 1870's. I will write to Colt and see if they can positively ID it from the pics I will send and the serial number stamped on the bottom. I hope the naval jelly bath will loosen enough rust to get some more words visible but we'll see.
Anyway take a look at the pics and I will post more when I take it out of jelly that it has been sitting in since Friday afternoon.

HH
Funkman

 

[romeo-1]

Re: more pics of the late 1800's Colt pistol - GOT THE WORD BACK FROM COLLECTOR

That is an awesome find!!!!

 

[funkman]

Re: more pics of the late 1800's Colt pistol - GOT THE WORD BACK FROM COLLECTOR

thanks for the recent replies all. I was not planning on selling it anyway. More of a treasure to me in any condition because it is a piece of history.
I did take it out of it's pink bath and washed the gunk off it. Still has the rust on it so the bath did not do much to it except some of the metal is a little pink in spots but I don;t mind....it still is an 1874 Colt New Line .22 and that will not change.

Thanks again and HH

Funkman

 

[Jeff G]

Re: more pics of the late 1800's Colt pistol - GOT THE WORD BACK FROM COLLECTOR

I case you didn't notice--I does appear to be loaded. Although the chance of one of the rounds firing is close to zero...

 

[blurr]

Re: more pics of the late 1800's Colt pistol - GOT THE WORD BACK FROM COLLECTOR

What were the chances of you getting any of the crud off of it unless you cleaned it? If you couldn't get the crud off then you wouldn't know anything except that it was a gun. At least now you know the specifics about it. Nice history. I don't think you did anything wrong, especially since you weren't planning on selling it. Very nice find!

John

 

[geo4472]

Re: more pics of the late 1800's Colt pistol - GOT THE WORD BACK FROM COLLECTOR

like you said you weren't selling it but lets say you were and hadn't put it through the jelly and the collector you sold it to did and found it personally inscribed bat masterson or some other famous person think how much more he would of made re-selling you cleaned it because you were keeping it never mind what he said although it was good advice

p.s.
nice find

 

[Functional]

Re: more pics of the late 1800's Colt pistol - GOT THE WORD BACK FROM COLLECTOR

thanks for the recent replies all. I was not planning on selling it anyway. More of a treasure to me in any condition because it is a piece of history.
I did take it out of it's pink bath and washed the gunk off it. Still has the rust on it so the bath did not do much to it except some of the metal is a little pink in spots but I don;t mind....it still is an 1874 Colt New Line .22 and that will not change.

Thanks again and HH

Funkman

According to this webpage its an 1875 and one of only 4500 made:
http://proofhouse.com/colt/index.html
(Just click on "New Line .22 Pocket" on the left side.)

Just thought I'd mention that the most effective and least offensive rust cleaner I've found is WD-40. I've never used it on nickel, but I don't think the Nickel plating on the gun would be hurt by it at all, (if theres any left under there). The half of the "rosewood" grip, (I think thats what it is), thats left, would likely need to be replaced if you want to restore the gun and the WD-40 might hurt that. From what I saw online, the ones with the ivory handle grips are worth double. Here's a good site with search results for the Colt New Line .22 :
http://www.gunsamerica.com/Search.aspx?T=colt new line .22

Personally, I'd forget about it being "dug". I'd remove the remaining half of the grip, then clean it up with the WD-40, (spray, or soak for a minute or so, then get out the Q-Tips and break up the corrosion). The rifling in the barrel is one of the main items of concern if you ever want to make th gun functional, (no pun intended). I'd be happy to have an 1875 Colt New Line .22, even if I had to carve new handle grips from walnut and have the gun replated to factory spec's and re-blue as needed.

After removal of all rust, inspect and slowly but careful disassemble, (taking pictures of the process, both for yourself and us). if you can completely disassemble, lubricate and reassemble. If the time comes for a test firing then try to do it with the gun shielded in a mount, so that you can use a string to remotely fire it from a safe location. If at any time your concerned about the gun failing, or some small part that looks cracked, or broken, then see if theres a gunsmith in your area with an old box of parts. I also found places on the web that sell parts if you need them. This is one:
http://www.coltparts.com/parts1.html

F.

 

[packerbacker]

Re: more pics of the late 1800's Colt pistol - GOT THE WORD BACK FROM COLLECTOR

Heck, stick it back in the ground, dig it up again in 2 years and get a different opinion.

 

[Functional]

Re: more pics of the late 1800's Colt pistol - GOT THE WORD BACK FROM COLLECTOR

Heck, stick it back in the ground, dig it up again in 2 years and get a different opinion.

Could clean it all up first, then bury it and then dig it up. Then it would be a "dug" find again.

F.

 

[Kas]

Re: more pics of the late 1800's Colt pistol - GOT THE WORD BACK FROM COLLECTOR

Heck, stick it back in the ground, dig it up again in 2 years and get a different opinion.

LOL!.

 

[cactusjumper]

Re: more pics of the late 1800's Colt pistol - GOT THE WORD BACK FROM COLLECTOR

Funkman,

Very nice find, and worth cleaning up so it looks like more than a blob of rusted metal...IMHO.

My Uncle Chuck was a Dutch Hunter and owned a second generation SAA Colt .45

While riding up the south end of Bluff Spring Mountain, the gun slipped out of his holster....forgot to put the hammer strap on, and he could not find it after retracing his trail.

He was good friends with Al Morrow, and asked him to try and find the gun. Two weeks later Al found it. In the meantime, it rained and the gun was covered with rust. When he got it back, not having a clue about collector value, he removed all of the rust with steel wool....along with all of the Finnish.

When Chuck died, he left me the Colt. While working for a friend in his gun shop, he sent out a first generation Colt to be refinished. It was a wreck. The woman did such a good job, that the gun looked factory new. I sent Chuck's .45 in for her to work her magic on it.

I wanted the gun to look like I remembered it when Chuck would practice his fast draw.....which he did in front of a mirror and for hours at a time. He would try to beat the guy in the mirror. Chuck could "beat the drop", and that's pretty fast.

Like you, I didn't really care about the collector's value. I have heard that jobs of this quality don't effect the value as much as it used to.

Enjoy,and good luck.

Joe Ribaudo