Trego's Mountain Ear

It looks pretty good for a 50-year-old percussion revolver.  Dad bought me my first revolver – a 22 High Standard – but the 1858 Remington replica was the first handgun I bought for myself.  I think the cost was $37.95 plus shipping – the top of the barrel reads Euroarms, Brescia, made in Italy.  The left side reads 44 Cal New Model Army.  109,000 of the originals cost the Union Army $12 each.

This photo is of a Euroarms replica as it came from the factory – I replaced the front sight on mine with a taller sight, so that it would better match the bullet path at 25 yards.  I figure the original front sight must have been set up for 100 yards.

Technically, mine is not an 1858 Remington, but is a New Model Army.  There are slight evolutionary differences between the original Remington Beals, the Old Army and the New Model Army.  My view at the time I bought it was that the New Model, with a second cylinder on hand, was the closest thing to a cartridge revolver for reloading speed.  Fifty years has only confirmed that view.

The New Model can fire both roundball and conical bullets.  The first mold I had didn’t produce the quality of conical bullets that gave good accuracy, so I stuck mostly with roundball.  If I were to make the old revolver a main carry gun now, I’d get one of Lee’s new roundball loads and use only conicals.  It is a rather progressive percussion revolver.

Power?  My calculations a half-century ago were that it was about the same as a 38 special.  I don’t see a need to get more specific than that.  It was fifty years ago – the Gun Control Act of 1968 was recent history, and I really did expect a ban on short guns would come soon.  I wanted an alternative, and my chemistry background was enough that I could, if necessary, make black powder and percussion caps at home.  I’ve never needed to, and today’s Supreme Court makes those outright gun bans unlikely in my lifetime.

Changing to a second cylinder is easy – drop the loading lever, pull the cylinder pin, remove the empty cylinder and push the fresh one in from the right.  Put the pin back, lift the loading lever back up, and you’re good to go.  Go ahead and fill all six cylinders – part of the New Model’s appeal is a series of cuts between the cylinders where you can set the hammer down safely, not resting on a percussion cap – it was Remington, not Colt, that put the six in six-shooter.

Today, the same design is available online with adjustable sights – the revolver costs about ten times what I paid for mine, and the spare cylinder is about $60.  Percussion caps are up, too – about $40 for a tin of 100.  Throw in another $50 for a great conical mold, and you’re rolling for about $550.  But there’s more – once you have your New Model in hand, if you get a Pietta or Uberti replica, you can get another cylinder that takes 45 colt cartridges – all available through mail order.  I’m fairly sure they wouldn’t fit my older version.

I’m not sure that cartridges offer that much improvement in reliability.  Someone developed a simple short synthetic sleeve that stretches over the percussion caps – holding them in place where recoil once knocked them off, and removing the possibility of cap fragments jamming the action.  I suspect Josey Wales would have approved the improved reliability.

I must like the New Model Army – it’s been with me over half a century and never been traded off.