This is a fake 3rd Model Dragoon, right?

[1KPerDay]

https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...dragoon-martially-marked.cfm?gun_id=101116474

Any real dragoons have the folding leaf sight? Or were all dragoons that were cut for shoulder stocks equipped with the leaf sights? Any real dragoons have the horizontal/spring loading lever latch? I honestly don't know so please LMK if you have info on that. I've seen 3rd model dragoons with both the horizontal and the vertical loading lever latch. Not sure if both are correct....

 

[ShotgunDave]

I'm thinking that's an original. I don't know if all the 3rd Models with shoulder stock cutouts, had the 3 leaf rear sight or not. But some of them certainly did. You will also find the 3rd Model with both types of loading lever latch. Remember, Colt never wasted anything. If he had the earlier type latches laying around, he used them up.

 

[1KPerDay]

Thank you.

 

[expat_alaska]

The barrel is too short for an original and a new non-original type blade front sight has been added. Most 3rd Dragoons had the Colt horizontal load lever latch. SD is correct about Colt substituting leftover parts in stock, which is not the case here.

The RH 4th-screw escutcheon looks like a replacement. The serial number on the cylinder shows little wear compared to the rollmark engraving. The other serial numbers show quite a difference in wear, individually, to include the wedge SN, which is too sharp in relation to wear on the wedge, which is the first item to be removed when disassembling the revolver. Compared to the badly mangled screw slots (bolt, trigger, hammer screws), I am gonna go out on a limb and say this is a 1930's era home gunsmith parts gun.

Push back.

Jim

 

[Sim Carstairs]

I checked out the link and it says the revolver has been sold for $15,000.

 

[expat_alaska]

I feel sorry for the buyer when he sobers up in the morning...

 

[4v50 Gary]

that brass is suspicious compared to the rest of it. I dunno. That's why I don't buy antiques.

 

[Ephraim Kibbey]

It is not a redone Colt marked ASM as they incorrectly have the Colt barrel address on the round part of the barrel. This one has the Colt barrel address correctly on the flat and extending under the leaf sight. If its a fake, it is a good one. https://www.morphyauctions.com/jame...believed-to-be-one-of-only-three-known-46450/

 

[Arkansas Paul]

to include the wedge SN, which is too sharp in relation to wear on the wedge

I should have noticed that.
I'm sure the serial number on the wedge wears off pretty quickly compared to the rest of the gun, even if one is lax with cleaning.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I wouldn't touch it, but I'm not a Colt collector, and can't afford $15,000.
The reason why I wouldn't touch it is that it's an excellent "fake" if it's a fake, but I don't like the stamp, which is below on the left, and an actual original is on right. It looks to me as though there is a tad too much space between the T and the S in the word COLTS, AND more pointedly, the cross bar on the A in PATENT is too low on the one in question vs. the original stamp. Now an expert may chime in and point out that the stamping changed over time, but for right now, I don't think so...



LD

 

[Ephraim Kibbey]

but I don't like the stamp

I see what you mean about the "A!" It is different but the spacing difference you correctly point out may be from the fact that the photo on the left was taken closer (so the letters are larger) than the one on the right. The one on the right is also at an angle which would fore-shorten its width.