Good morning,
Yesterday I took possession of a few old firearms. These have been in a wooden box up in a room above a shop for years. Not in the greatest of shape but I'd like to get to know more about them and how to inspect/repair in order to shoot. Along with the Mauser C-96, colt model 1872, Savage model 1899, 1918 Lee Enfield, Ranger 12 gauge, and a AMD percussion cap long gun of some sort, I found a Remington revolver.
I looked all over the internet, I'm not good at that sort of activity, and have determined it's what some call a model 1858, which is supposed to be a percussion gun. This doesn't look like a percussion revolver but I read some were converted from percussion to cartridge. This revolver seems to have a two piece chamber (cylinder ?), perhaps the back half was cut off and a non percussion part was attached? I assume the cylinder with the six bores in it is called the chamber?
It has 'PATENTED SEPT 14. 1858' on the top of the barrel with 'E. REMINGTON & SONS ILION NEWYORK U.S.A.' underneath. There is a 'C' stamped on the right side of the barrel just ahead of the mainframe, an 'A' stamped on the left side of the barrel just ahead of the main frame, there are two 'J's stamped on the chamber near the rear 180 degrees apart from one another. There is an 'S' stamped in the frame above the hammer pivot screw head on the left side, and an 'M' stamped on the left side of the frame just behind the brass trigger guard.
The serial number 33250 is stamped on the bottom of the barrel.
The gun has a tag attached to the trigger guard, it is an RCMP laboratories tag dated Nov. 5 1985. It has a case number and an inspectors signature on it. I don't know the history of the gun and whether it was involved in a criminal case or perhaps just some kind of gun registry. The owner has been dead for over 20 years, I got the firearms from his nephew.
The back of the tag has the serial number-33250, the make-Remington, the Model-New Model Army, type-HG, action-R, caliber-.44, shots-6, barrel-200MM, rifling--------------.
So that's about all the info I have about this revolver and wonder how/where to look for info about the date of manufacture, what kind of ammo is it meant to shoot, where to find a schematic of parts and how to disassemble and inspect it. And anything else about it that anyone can tell me. Like what's the difference in a New Model Army and an Army Model, who used them, any significance about this particular model, etc.
Thank you in advance.
Al
Oh yea, this gun is dinged up and filthy, I have to get it apart and cleaned up, but in the meantime would I be hurting it if I took the grips off and just soaked the whole gun in solvent for a few days to eat some of the crud off?.