Guns International #: 101405816

Category - Civil War Revolvers - Remington Revolvers - Antique

Category
Civil War Revolvers
Remington Revolvers - Antique

Civil War .44 Remington 1863 New Model Army Revolver w/Traces of Blue

Description:
Here is a piece of Civil War history, a Model 1863 Remington New Model Army in .44 Caliber.   It's in the 66,000 serial range with matching numbers.  We found this one at the Allentown show a few months back. The owner told me this old War Horse came out of a barn and it looked every bit of it...the metal wasn't bad at all, just some surface rust with traces of original blue in the form of speckles here and there.  However, it had sat for many years and the action was frozen and the grips were dried out and needed help.  The left grip panel was missing a large piece or section running along the backstrap...but still had the cartouche.   The markings looked pretty good and appeared to be all visible.  We gave this to our gunsmith and asked him to 1. Get it working, 2. Keep cleaning it up to a minimum so as to save the fragile original blue remaining, and 3. Do everything possible to save the original grips.  He really did an amazing job resurrecting it while keeping the original patina.  It still literally smells "OLD"!  The mechanics are now perfect and he was able to save the original grips...splicing in a new piece at the back of the left grip and fixing the chips.  They are solid now and will last another 200 yiears.  There is still a fair bit of original blue on the left and right sides of the frame mixing in with a heavy brown patina...and a bit more in the protected areas...around the hammer,  where the barrel meets the frame, etc.  Not a lot, but it tells you the surfaces are still at factory level...not worn down like most.  There are also various sub-inspector initials on the parts.  Action is nice and indexes, locks, has half cock, and full cock.  Cylinder has very little lateral play so it didn't get used a lot, just neglected.  The bore is Good, frosty with some light pits as you would expect from black powder, but exhibits very good rifling.  It could be improved a bit with cleaning.  The Remingtons were real work horses for the Union Army, especially with the Cavalry units.  They weren't as aesthetically pleasing as the stream-lined Colt 1860 Army, but they had much stronger frames with the solid top strap and screw-in barrel.  They were also much eaiser and faster to reload.  Great example of the 1863 that needs nothing for a reasonable price. 

SOLD

Antique: Yes
Manufacturer: Remington Arms
Model: New Model 1863 Army
Barrel Length: 8
Caliber Info: .44