I agree with hellgate. One more little bit though. Did the NMA actually have the hammer slots between the nipples, or was the the Old Model Army?
--TK
Ahhh Weedhopper, the answers you seek are found here:
http://www.scorrs.org/articles/evolution.htm"The first large-framed revolvers made by E. Remington & sons were based on "Beals" 1858 patent, collectors call these first revolvers "Beals" models. About 2,000 were made in the army model, and slightly more in the "Navy" model. The army was .44 cal, with an 8" barrel while the navy model was in .36 cal with a 7 3/8" barrel. They differed quite a bit from the "New model 1858" Remington repros we commonly see today.
...
"During the year of 1861/62 other changes were being made. The hammer was given a shorter spur so a person with a small hand could cock it more easily. The frame was cut out in the rear near the face of the cylinder, exposing barrel threads, I presume to help overcome the effects of fouling. The safety notches were added to the rear of the cylinder, and the 61 style of loading lever was done away with.
Again all these changes were not done overnight. So many guns are encountered with some changes and not others. Sometime during the run of 61 models they even changed the direction of twist in the barrel. Early guns had left hand twist, so the inertia of the bullet going down the tube tended to unscrew the barrel. I know it's happened to me. So they kept exactly the same style of rifling, i.e. five groove gain twist, but reversed direction so that the inertia of the bullet tended to tighten the barrel. One of the last things to go was the dovetail front sight.
By the time all these changes were made, they actually had a "new" gun, so therefore, they called it the New Model 1858. Reverting back to the original "Beals" Patten, some of the early new model 1858's had the dovetail cone type sight from the factory, so the last real change was the steel blade that screwed in. About 100,000 of the new models were made, and around total of 30,000 Beals, and 61 models; this includes Navies of all types. "
yhs
prof ( I can has bookmarked links!) marvel