Original Old Remington 1858

[MojoQuestions+99]

1858

gun 4.JPG (2.66 MiB) Viewed 1943 times

Ok All, In a barn up in maine my daughter found an 1858 Remington revolver, fairly rusty, but soaked it in oil and got it apart and was able to read ser# 91345 in the three places I found was supposed to be. it needed a new main spring and the other two springs, which I was able to find and replace, still haven't found a front sight for it and am not 100% sure what it should look like other than it is a dovetail type. any info about it I can get would be nice to hear from someone. I plan on shooting it someday so loading info would be nice also. I have shot Black powder before just not this old. thanks in advance gilly

[dieNusse1]

Nice find!

The front sight appeared to be in the original style. It appears to be less rusted than the rest of the gun - have you replaced it?

I don't see any evidence of any inspection cartouche on the left grip so maybe it was not issued to the military but sold on the civilian market.

Enjoy it!!

[MojoQuestions+99]

yes I have replaced the front sight, I found a repo for a prettia ? that was real close, just a tad skinny, so I added a thin layer of silver solder to the rear edge and then filed it to fit snug in the dovetail, still not sure how far to cut the top down as I haven't fired it yet, still working on that, there is a cartouche on the very bottom edge of left grip but hard to make out, I will try to post a picture of it.

P9100004.JPG (4.66 MiB) Viewed 1896 times

P9100004.JPG (4.66 MiB) Viewed 1896 times

[aardq]

If the original sight was dovetailed into the barrel, then it was a German silver cone. The "pinched" sight was threaded, and screwed into a threaded hole in the barrel. Your serial was made in August of 1864.
Daniel

[MojoQuestions+99]

Hi Daniel, I am not so sure that would be correct as there is no threaded hole in the barrel, only a wide slot with chamfered sides about 3/8" wide which the "pinched sight" slid into very nicely, except it was a bit loose, that's why I made it a few thousandths of an inch wider, still haven't found a real good close up picture of this type of sight yet, but still looking....thanks for taking the time to respond

[aardq]

I am 100% sure that The New Model Army used two different sights. The first sight was a German silver cone which was made as a casting with the cone and the base as one piece. The base fit the slot that was dovetailed into the barrel. The second sight used was the Pinched" sight which had threads on the base and the barrel was drilled and threaded so the sight could be screwed into the barrel.

The cone sights were used until they were gone, then the pinched sights were used. It is very possible that for a time, both sights were used. There is no number break where we can say that starting with number 123456 the pinched sight were put into production.

The hole for a pinched sight was not drilled though the barrel only part way into the barrel. From the photo it appears that the slot is wider than the slot for the cone sights, so I suspect that the slot was enlarged to fit the sight that was used. The sight that you have is not a Remington sight. It is a sight made by a third party, probably a gunsmith, and is taller that a Remington sight.

[MojoQuestions+99]

to aardq, you are correct about the sight I have on the gun, as previously mentioned I bought a modern reproduction made one for a pietta , and added a little silver solder to it to make it fit the stock original slot. Only did this to have something there so I could go shoot it, still looking for an Original or reproduction Brass sight for the dovetail slot hard to find Idid find a real good close up picture of an original, still on a gun, so I might just get a piece of brass and try to fashion one. thanks for confirming my original thoughts ... gilly