Uberti Colt 1861 Navy

[mec]

The 1861 Colt Navy incorporated the design and production changes of the 1860 Army to the Navy Caliber. Production ran from 1861-73 with about 38,000 being made. About one hundred were made with fluetted cylinders. At a glance, it is hard to tell it from the .44 army model but the cylinder is smaller in diameter and not rebated. Famous recipients of dressed up '61s include Horace Greeley and Phil Sheridan.

This one is a Uberti with BU marking indicating that it was made in 2004. It arrived with a rough action that completely smoothed out after about 50 rounds of fire and a number of dry functions. The trigger is a couple of ounces under 3 pounds and indexing is perfect with the bolt dropping near the beginning of the lead. I opened the hammer notch for greater visibility but no other sighing was necessary as it hit right on at 50 feet. I put a leather pad under the main spring- not necessary but I believe it will help spring life as it reduces the tension.

The locator pins at the bottom front of the frame were prone to fall out so, I staked them in. I also notice that there is no b/c gap and that one chamber mouth is a bit large than the others. It will allow partial thumb seating of a .375 ball but seems to get smaller as the ball is compressed. This made no difference either in accuracy or over the chronograph *

Loads were clocked as follows- 6 rounds each 85 gr ball:
22 Grain spout of pyrodex P 1046 fps extreme spread 36
22 Grains Goex FFFG 966 fps extreme spread 65
* 25 Grains Goex FFFG 915 fps extreme spread 59
* The looser chamber would not grip the ball with a full chamber of 25 gr.FFFG. Velocities were lower across the board than with the 22 Grain Spout. Something about the extra compression made better use of the powder or more firmly gripped the ball even in the correctly sized chambers.

With the shoulder stock mounted, the rig hit about 4" under point of aim. When I figured out the right amount of sight to hold up I did this:

And managed to hit five of six cans from 25 yards. I also hit five of six with the stock removed and shooting two -handed.

This one had more problems ( particularly the odd-sized chamber) than any of the other full-sized Ubertis of recent manufacture that I have shot. Nevertheless, all of the glitches were easily repaired or turned out to be inconsequential to function and accuracy.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Nice writeup, as always.

The 1861 Navy is one of the nicest, if not the nicest, looking handguns of all time, IMO.

 

[mec]

There's a lot of agreement on that. Real Victorian Streamlinge as opposed to Victorian Clunk. I like them all. Sometimes noting looks better than my third model Dragoon and it hangs on target real nice.

On the basis of accuracy and shootability, I found all the recent uberti replicast to be about equal.

 

[RON in PA]

As usual a great report. I have an Uberti 1861 for about 5 or six years, very well made and an accurate shooter that suprisingly does not shoot all that high at "social" ranges as many cap and balls do. Shoot mine with .380 balls. Defineatly one of the best looking handguns of all time along with its big brother the 1860.

 

[mec]

we noticed that a recent uberti 1851 has a lot more beed sticking up than they used to have. It shoots just over point aim at the usual distances. Somebody in the manufacturing process has actually learned something about shooting them.

 

[mec]

FLASH! I screwed up

The Navy does not have a single out of spec chamber. Actually I found that i could wiggle the Hornady .375 balls around and get all of them to drop into the chamber. I shoved them on in and they stopped just below the chamber mouth.

Apparently, the chambers would be happier with a 380 ball but they do catch hold when fully seated and they don't creap forward from recoil.

 

[mec]

Interesting note. I put the .375 balls in a dent on a concrete table and whacked them with the handle of my nipple wrench. Then loaded them over 25 fffg. -flattened tip upward. These got themselves a good grip on the chamber walls and averaged 1000 fps over six rounds with 59 fps spread

 

[mcneill]

mec - great report and pictures.

One question. The '61 has four screws in the frame while the '51 has three. Any idea why the extra screw? What's its purpose, etc.?

I bought an Uberti '51 Navy from Dixie last year and it came with a catalog of "Christmas Specials". They had the '61 on sale for $185 - so had to get one of them also. The sale was supposed to be "while supplies last", but they backordered it and honored the sale price. Nice.

Agree that the Colt C&B guns are all great looking. IMO the "51 Navy is the most handsome pistol ever made. While I like the streamlined look of the '61, I am partial the the octaganol barrel of the '51.

Jim

 

[mec]

That thing about screws lit up a question mark over my head until I remembered the stock lugs. These are long headed screws that stick out on either side of the frame to support the shoulder stocks. I had to kind of get use to these on my army and navy as it is a really good place for cap fragments to hang up on their way to the ground.

I like the 51 too. Has 11 more years of interesting history behind it than the 61s

 

[mcneill]

Thanks for the info; never would have thought of the screws being for the shoulder stock.

Let's see. Now in addition to a '49 Pocket model I'm going to have to put a shoulder stock on my list of things to wish for. It never ends, does it?


Jim

 

[mec]

Lucky to have a friend who likes to make holsters. He fixed up this slim jim to hold the navy, the 1860 army and the 58 remington. It has fake fleece or felt lining and rides nice either strong side or cross-draw on the left.

 

[1858remington]

I bought the pietta 1862 police revolver with the 3inch barrel in 36 cal. It was a bit of a bugger to load, what with having no load lever. SO, I bought a Ported Kirst Konverter and with a little dremel and a reblue its now a fun 38 special HBWC shooter. Kirst makes a Konverter for the 1861 as well, and a converted colt makes a nice conversation piece on the range.

 

[dave1964]

A question as far as dates of manufacture

I noticed in the thread that the frame on this fine piece is marked "BU". Well I have been around b.p. pistols all or most of my life. Is there a secret to telling the dates, is it a numeric letter value? Or some kind of calculation, hopefully not too complex, for me to understand. I have one marked "AN" I know it is old but how old? Thank you in advance for your help, from Dave

 

[mec]

here they are

Year Marking Year Marking
1945 1 1981 AH
1946 2 1982 AI
1947 3 1983 AL
1948 4 1984 AM
1949 5 1985 AN
1950 6 1986 AP
1951 7 1987 AS
1952 8 1988 AT
1953 9 1989 AU
1954 X 1990 AZ
1955 XI 1991 BA
1956 XII 1992 BB
1957 XIII 1993 BC
1958 XIV 1994 BD
1959 XV = BE
1960 XVI 1995 BF
1961 XVII 1996 BH
1962 XVIII 1997 BI
1963 XIX 1998 BL
1964 XX 1999 BM
1965 XXI 2000 BN
1966 XXII 2001 BP
1967 XXIII 2002 BS
1968 XXIV 2003 BT
1969 XXV 2004 BU
1970 XXVI
1971 XX7
1972 XX8
1973 XX9
1974 XXX
1975 AA
1976 AB
1977 AC
1978 AD
1979 AE
1980 AF

 

[mec]

In the last couple of months, I've gotten a supply of Swiss fffg and find it very close to the same volume of pyrodex p and a lot faster than Goex fffg. No surprised there, I guess

22 Grains Goex FFFG 81 Grain .375†ball 966 fps 65 spread (5)
22 Grains Swiss FFFG 81 Grain .375†ball 1070 fps 37
22 Gr/Vol Pyrodex P 81 Grain .375 ball 1046 fps 36

I had to replace a hand/spring assembly - fairly easy to do when the parts are available- as right now they are from Cimarron and VTI GunParts. Got some 380 Balls from Warren/ OzarkMountain Bullets and loaded them over 22 gr/vol. Pyrodex P. My warm up target wasn't bad but this one was a lot better. Luck involvedthumbnail)