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Army vs Navy
Colt made both a Colt Army Revolver and a Colt Navy Revolver. The primary difference between the two involves the ammunition--the Army Revolver used .44 caliber ammo, while the Navy Revolver used smaller .36 caliber. As a result, the Navy Revolver is slightly smaller. While this distinction was a matter of contract between Colt and the various military departments, in practice Navy Revolvers were often used by Army officers and vice versa.
Navy Models
The 1861 Navy was a redesign of the 1851 model Navy Revolver, using the 1860 Army Revolver as a pattern. The primary difference between the two Navy models is in the more graceful lines of the 1861; the 1851 was more squared-off. The 1861 also came with some slight design variations; for example, although the standard cylinder design displayed an engraving of U.S. and Mexican navies in battle, a few were manufactured with fluted cylinders and no engraved scene. Some others were designed to use a shoulder stock. It was manufactured from 1861 until 1873.
Some Basic Stats
The 1861 Navy was a single-action revolver, which means you had to manually cock the hammer before you could fire it. It was built before the advent of cartridge ammunition, so it used “cap and ball” shot (also called percussion ammo); loose gunpowder, lead ball bullets, and firing caps were loaded individually into a six-shot cylinder. Overall, the gun weighed 2 pounds 10 ounces and was 13 13/16 inches long, with a 7 1/2-inch round barrel. This longer barrel made it a more accurate firearm.
Manufacture
A total of 38,843 Navy Revolvers (also called the Model 1861) were manufactured at Colt’s Hartford CN facilities between 1861 and 1873--only about one-sixth as many as the Model 1851, which was also produced until 1873. Records show only 4,000 of these being purchased by the government, and 650 of those went to the Navy.
Historical Significance
The 1861 Navy Revolver is considered one of the most beautiful of Colt’s cap-and-ball pistols, and was one of the last of its type ever manufactured. Its limited production makes it very desirable as a collectible.