#Colt 2nd generation black powder serial numbers series
It was in Middlesex that all F Series standard production models were manufactured as The Authentic Colt Blackpowder Series. He signed a deal with Colt's and Iver Johnson to produce a new line of black-powder models. The timing could not have been better for Imperato. He showed them a display of various black-powder models and they were once again intrigued-but as before, had no way of manufacturing. " your guns and everyone else is getting rich on them and you're not out there." He came in with both barrels blazing, so to speak, reprimanding Colt's management.
A year after Colt's discontinued the black-powder line, Imperato moved the Iver Johnson works to Middlesex, New Jersey, and approached Colt's with the idea of producing an entire line of black-powder pistols, which the Italians had been doing successfully since the late 1950s. In 1973 Lou Imperato had purchased the Iver Johnson Arms Company in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. This, however, was not the end of the black-powder line. The relationship with Imperato continued until Colt's discontinued the first series of percussion revolvers in 1976. Unfortunately, labor disputes delayed the Dragoon in 1974, causing Colt's to take the unprecedented step of re-announcing the Dragoon model in 1975, when deliveries actually began. The Dragoon and Navy models were listed along with the Python, Detective Special, Cobra, Agent, Diamondback, Trooper MKIII, Official Police MKIII, Lawman MKIII, 1873 Peacemaker Single Action Army models, and semi-autos. The company's enthusiasm for the percussion revolvers was obvious in its decision to place the new Third Model Dragoon on the cover of its 1974 sales catalog. However, late in 1973 Colt's decided to seek a new supplier of components and the following year Lou Imperato, its largest American distributor, took over. The first C Series 1851 Navy repros included the now collectible Grant and Lee Navy sets. in 1993 (which produced the 3rd Generation Colt Blackpowder line through 2002), recalls that Forgett sold Colt's the components (rough castings) to build the first 2nd Generation 1851 Navy revolvers, which were completed at the Hartford factory from 1971 through 1973. Imperato, who founded Colt Blackpowder Arms Co. 4, 1864.Īs for the tooling used to make the later percussion models produced through 1873, it was simply discarded over the years, so Colt's could never have brought back the 1851 Navy, or any other percussion era model had it not been for Forgett, Uberti and, ultimately, Lou Imperato. There have been countless tales how Colt's dusted off the old tooling from the 1851 and began manufacturing new guns at Hartford, which would have been very interesting had the tooling not been destroyed when a fire razed most of the factory on Feb. They chose the Colt 1851 Navy as the first percussion revolver to be reproduced in Italy in 1958.Īfter a dozen years and thousands of Colt reproductions, the success of the Italian-made '51 Navy-which Aldo Uberti frequently supplied to filmmaker Sergio Lione and Clint Eastwood for early spaghetti westerns-had finally come to the attention of the company that invented it.
The tale of the 2nd Generation Colt black-powder line actually began in the late 1950s with Val Forgett, founder of Navy Arms, and Italian gunmakers Vittorio Gregorelli and Aldo Uberti. With the reintroduction of the legendary 1851 Navy-a gun made famous by James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok-Colt's embarked on an 11-year odyssey that would result in one of the most popular and collectible series the Hartford, Connecticut, armsmaker would ever produce. One of the more interesting footnotes in the company's story, however, began in 1971, when it made the unprecedented decision to re-introduce a model it had last built in 1873. Throughout the storied history of Colt's, there has been a succession of illustrious models, from the innovative Paterson revolvers of the late 1830s to the 1860 Army-the principal sidearm of Civil War Union officers-to the 1873 Peacemaker and Model 1911A1, the most distinguished military sidearm in American history. (This is an excerpt from Dennis Adler's latest book, 'Second Edition Blue Book of Modern Black Powder Values', published by Blue Book Publications.) Since folks seemed interested in the history of the colt black powder guns, I thought I would post a bit more in addition to what Larsen posted.
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