The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I picked up an unusual piece, for me, since I usually go for shooters. This one intrigued me so much that after a couple of weeks drooling over it, I had to buy it. Spent a ton though. It's a Colt Model 1858 Navy. Certainly Civil War era. What makes this unusual is that its a Colt frame with Metropolitan Arms of New York barrel and lock works. I had some fun discussions with my gun shop buddy about it. We speculated that it may be a Confederate battlefield find that had been damaged. Since the Union would have simply sent the pistol back to Colt for repair, we were thinking that the Rebs picked it up. Not being able to send it to Colt, they may have cobbled parts from another pistol and repaired this one.

Following the 1864 fire at the Colt factory, Metropolitan Arms made an exact copy of the Colt Navy to support the war effort. This could support the Confederate theory or perhaps Union Army sent the pistol to Metro for repairs and they used their parts. To me this is the more likely story.

Another possible scenario, is that the repair was done post war. Any Comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Even without documentation, it makes great conversation over the coffe table.

Neat cobbled-up Colt, no matter which side did it!

Hard to say who did it now, could have been a post war owner as well, still very cool

Love the history and mystery that your Colt brings to the (coffee)table! I need to find a Colt to go with my Remington, but Original Colt prices are outta my league.

Wow very neat!

You can never be too sure with these sorts of builds, for awhile there in the late 40's-early 60's all the western movies were making BP revolvers popular again, and the Italian company's had yet to start reproducing them. Gunsmiths started building up revolvers out of whatever spare parts they could find , and bringing old guns back to life.

Very nice.

Thanks for all the comments. This is my first piece that doesn't have a date with the range in its future. One will never know the true history but if it was cobbled together during the western movie era, they sure didnt leave any tool marks on it. We've looked under magnification and can't find a single mark on the barrel or frame. Of course it could be masked by the "patina". That could lend a little credence to either a Confederate repair or a post factory fire build/ repair. like our old Mosins, I wish these things could talk.
Re the cost, I've spent a similar amount on a modern pistol,with no collector value. If I were to put both my XD and the Colt on the table, I'll bet I know which one will,get the most "wow's"

You should preserve it, but it looks solid enough to fire if you wanted to.

It does but I probably will stay on the safe side. No pun intended