[Iver]

I have a second generation dragoon, first model, f series. Guy in a gunstore and I were talking about second gen Colts and he sort of put them down, saying they were made with Italian parts. While that's partly true, I got to thinking:

C series were made with Uberti parts, which Colt assembled in its factory, from what I've read. Today, if one buys many a gun, sometimes it was not made by the folks whose name is on it. I've heard Winchesters and Weatherby's are made overseas, or were for a good while. So, at least those Uberti parts were assembled by Colt at Colt, right?

My dragoon is a F series. From what I've read, Uberti supplied some things such as back straps, but good old American Iver Johnson made the frames and cylinders here in the USA. Yeah, though Iver Johnson assembled the guns, the guns at least passed through Colt for inspection.

Lastly, I read that the first generation, first model, Colts, were made for Colt by Eli Whitney.

Tell me if I'm wrong, but I think we who own C and F series second generation Colts have legitimate Colts. I mean, if Eli Whitney did the first!

That's all. I just registered here. Feel free to tell me any stuff you know about second gen Colts. I'm always wanting to learn more.

Iver (No relation to Mr. Johnson)

 

[Iver]

Thanks

Yup, and you guys are smart. I learned a lot I didn't know before, also, such as Savage making the first Remington rolling blocks.

Thanks

By the way, when I was a kid, in the 1970's, I bought a Navy Arms 1851 Colt Navy revolver from Dixie Gun WOrks. Is Navy Arms still around? All I hear about in this day and age are Uberti and maybe some other, but not Navy.

 

[Iver]

No, wish I did.

 

[Iver]

The "C" series were perhaps composed solely of Uberti parts, but the F series were not. Iver Johnson manufactured the frames, springs, screws, nipples, and other parts here. The barrels, cylinders and straps were Uberti. But even those must have been built to tighter specifications, stipulated by Colt. I got this from an old "Guns and Ammo" article:

"Unlike their first arrangement, Imperato was now responsible for the entire production of Colt black-powder models. "They were all hand-fitted. There was no way to do mass production," explains Imperato. "We had the barrels, cylinders and backstraps cast in Italy (as Forgett had done), but we finished them off in-house. We made the frames, the center pins, nipples, all of the screws, springs, and built every F Series gun at Iver Johnson Arms. We even used the old style color-case hardening method with the charcoal and bone meal, and Colt's exclusive Colt Blue Finish. They turned out pretty good. In fact, I think our finishes were actually better than Colt's single actions being done in Hartford."


Well, in this day and age, can we really imagine Colt investing in new machinery so it can build percussion revolvers from scratch, all by its lonesome?

Which leads us to another aspect: will Colt ever do it again? Will there ever be another generation of percussion revolvers from Colt? Heck, maybe in 2075 they will use 3D printers to manufacture them in-house. That'd be something. Maybe in 2100 they will use nanotechnology to have globs of metal assemble themselves into Dragoons.