Is my brass frame Pietta 1858 Remingto a "fantasy gun"?

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Tallbald

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I'm like so many others I guess. I acquire a new gun and I continue reading and researching about it. I hold it and admire it for weeks. I enjoy learning. But about my Pietta brass frame "Remington":
Is it a "fantasy gun" that's not historically accurate?
I've read that Griswald and Gunnison made a brass framed "Remington" during the war because of material shortages. But is my "Remington" brass frame Pietta historically accurate?
Thanks as always. Don.
 
Ah.... Well yes it is.

All of the Remington-made New Model Army revolvers had iron frames. In the South some approximate copies with brass frames were made because they lacked the manufacturing facilities to make iron ones. These copies came closer to revolvers made by Whitney then the Remington.

None of this impressed the Italian makers who were more interested in Yankee dollars then arcane history. When it comes to modern brass frame revolvers the Remington pattern is better for a shooter then the Colt for a number of reasons, history not withstanding.
 
I'm like so many others I guess. I acquire a new gun and I continue reading and researching about it. I hold it and admire it for weeks. I enjoy learning. But about my Pietta brass frame "Remington":
Is it a "fantasy gun" that's not historically accurate?
I've read that Griswald and Gunnison made a brass framed "Remington" during the war because of material shortages. But is my "Remington" brass frame Pietta historically accurate?
Thanks as always. Don.
The G&G was a semi copy of a Colt not a Remington.
 
The Spiller and Burr .36 belt pistol was actually made of brass and appears similar to the Remingtons.

As to actual Remys being made in brass... I doubt it.
 
The Spiller and Burr .36 belt pistol was actually made of brass and appears similar to the Remingtons.

As to actual Remys being made in brass... I doubt it.

While the larger .36 and .44 Remington never had brass frames, the smaller .31 caliber 1863 pocket pistol type actually did. There were four recognized variations of this small gun and two of those did have brass frames. Of the two with iron frames, one had a brass spur trigger sheath.
But it is correct that the larger versions were iron.
The Confederate Spiller and Burr was a pretty close copy of the North's Eli Whitney revolver, but used a beefier frame in the front of the cylinder.
 
So, if the Confederates made copies from brass (what you're calling "brassers"?), wouldn't those be historically accurate in that context?
 
So, if the Confederates made copies from brass (what you're calling "brassers"?), wouldn't those be historically accurate in that context?

The only "brassers" made by the Confederates were the Griswold and Gunnison, which had a part round, part octagonal barrel, and the Schneider and Glassick with an octagonal barrel, of which only 2 in brass frame are known. Both were fair (but not accurate) copies of the Colt 1851 Navy .36 caliber.

Not so with the so-called 1858 Remington replicas, which are of pistols not produced until 1863, and the originals were never produced by Remington with a brass frame, and there is no record of any Confederate gunmakers having produced any copies of Remington 1863 pistols at all.

There are several books extant (some out of print but available online at some bookstores) that address Confederate firearms (most notably authors William Albaugh and others). They aren't cheap. I have 4 addressing this aspect of genuine Civil War Era pistols, and most articles pertain to 1851 Navies and the copies.

Have fun!

Jim
 
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