Remington nomenclature

[5judge]

I note references in the forum to 1858 Remington revolver use. Being an uptight sort, I can't help observing most of not all writers should probably be referencing their use of M.1863 (aka: New Model) Remington replicas. Don't believe the '58 has been copied. As I understand it, what's commonly called the 1858 was replaced by an M.1861 which itself evolved by degrees into what we shoot today, the particularly swell New Models. Just sayin'.

[Pettifogger]

The makers of the guns call them 58s.  Would be kinda confusing if we called them something else.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Yeah, and brass framed Henry rifles and 1866 Winchesters were really framed with gunmetal, a type of bronze. But gunwriters have been calling them brass for so long that it ain't worth making a fuss over.

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[5judge]

Yeah, but remember what Gail Davis was wont to say in each episode of "Annie Oakley" 55 years ago: "Two wrongs don't make a right".

[Driftwood Johnson]

OK, but you will have an uphill battle before you. You are going to have to do a lot of explaining every time you make the point. They have been called 1858s for a long time now. I remember when I bought my first one in 1975 they were called 1858s. I no longer try to correct people about the metal used in brass framed rifles unless they have a few minutes to chat. Another phrase comes to mind, 'discretion is the better part of valor'.

[5judge]

Well, this sure ain't a holy crusade. As to bronze or gun metal being incorrectly called brass, bronze cannon in the mid 19th Century were routinely called 'brass' cannon. the distinction has long been blurred. Difference is: there is an M.1858 family of Remingtons and they are different than New Models. A Model T Ford ain't a Model A. As I said... just saying.

[Trailrider]

English language is a dynamic, changing thing.  Some terminology just becomes ratified by use.  For example, the M1866 Winchester wasn't called that until the Model 1873 was introduced.  Prior to that what we call a '66 was simply the "Improved Henry".

Did you know there is no such thing as an "Artillery Colt Single Action Army"?  That is a collectors' term for the cut-down SAA's with 5-1/2" barrels.  Neither, originally, was there such a thing as a Colt' Single Action revolver in .44 WCF.  Nope, it was "The Colt's Frontier Six Shooter."

Strictly speaking, what we call the Remington M1858 is really the New Model Army revolver.  The reason for the '58 appellation is that is the patent date stamped on the gun.  Et cetera, et cetera!

Kinda like the patent "tonic" back in the 1940's, "Hadacol".  It was supposed to make older folks feel better.  Of course it made them feel better...it was 90 percent alcohol, and they were half-bombed all the time!    (FDA finally made them take it off the market.)  Why did they name it "Hadacol"?  Well, they Had-a-call it somethin'!

[5judge]

I recollect Hadacol. Though off topic (it IS my thread), in the 1950s my wife's aunt married into the plantation house in North Carolina where General Hardee's son died after the Battle of Bentonville. The house had been inhabited by Confederate widows and spinsters (male candidates for marriage having been culled-out by attrition 1861-65) since The War. In a large chest she discovered, amid Klan robes, dozens of emptied Lydia Pinkham bottles. Doubtless avowed tea-totlers, those ladies had swigged in heroic amounts alcohol-laced Lydia Pinkham's Herbal Remedy for Female Complaints for decades.