GUNS Magazine Percussion Pocket Pistols Of The 1850s

Big Iron

The Paterson was produced in .28, .31, .34 and .40, all of which Sam Walker felt were underpowered. The Dragoons were definitely not and all of these were large, heavy, six-shot .44 percussion pistols weighing 4 lbs. or more and not easily carried. Colt’s first Belt Pistol, so-called as it was easily carried in a holster such as the “Slim Jim” on the belt, was the .36 caliber 1851 Navy followed by the .44 1860 Army and .36 1861 Navy. All three of these were extremely popular and easily and comfortably carried.

For a look at the history of the Colt Pocket Pistols I use as my resource, A History Of The Colt Revolver From 1836 To 1940 by Charles Haven and Frank Belden, 1940. This book is remarkable in its coverage of so many aspects of the history of Colt and personally remarkable as I purchased it in the Kent State University bookstore in 1963. What are the chances of finding any such book in a university bookstore today?

The following is from the Haven & Belden book: “The first pocket model put out by Colt in his new establishment on Pearl Street was a .31 caliber five-shot revolving pistol with a standard barrel length of 4”. The notches for the engagement of the cylinder-locking bolt were round or elliptical, the back of the trigger guard was square, there was no roller on the hammer at its bearing point on the mainspring and the arm had no ramrod. The barrel was octagonal and similar in shape to those of the small Paterson models, but the frame was square at the back like the ’48 Dragoon and all following models.”

The authors go on to refer to this as the Old Model Pocket Pistol that was later followed by the Old Model Police Pistol. Also according to the authors, the former is sometimes called the Baby Dragoon while the latter is identified as the Wells Fargo Colt.

There is considerable confusion and disagreement on the calling of this later model the Wells Fargo Colt. The authors say this: “As the Wells Fargo Express Company was not organized until 1851, and did not send its first representative to the West until 1852, three years after the improvements were applied to the Model of 1848 revolvers, one of two things must have been the case if the model of 1848 with the arm supplied to them. Either Colt had on hand the stock of left-over arms of the earlier model, an unlikely occurrence when his factory could not keep up with his regular orders, or else a lot of old-type arms were specially made up for some reason that seemed good at the time. Either of these eventualities is, of course, possible but we consider them unlikely.”

Whatever the real situation, it is now lost to history but both models are available in replica form as the Model 1848 Baby Dragoon and the Model 1849 Wells Fargo. Both are of .31 caliber, five-shot and do not have loading levers/rammers. The cylinders must be loaded off the gun.

With all of these designs being offered, none of them, at least according to civilian sales, were the most popular. This distinction goes to the 1849 Pocket Pistol. This was a five-shot, .31 caliber single-action percussion pistol designed for easy concealed carry. The fact it was the most popular of all percussion revolvers offered by Colt once again attested to the fact most sixguns of the time period were not carried openly but rather in a pocket.