Information on a Remington 1858 New Model Revolver

Joined
Sep 15, 2013
I have a Remington 1858 New Model revolver 137274. It appears to have been converted to .46 rimfire. The of the cylinder is a tight fit but it appears rough in the milling process ( not Smooth of the rear of cylinder). The barrel length is 8 ". There is also a stamping on the bottom of the barrel near the muzzle that is stamped 1915 which I have not been able to find anything about. There is also a gov't inspectors cartouche on the grip initialed JWK in a fancy script. I have attached some pics. If anyone could provide information as to approximate production date of the revolver, whether it may have seen service in the Civil War and the 1915 stamping it would be much appreciated.
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Cylinder.jpg
 
According to Remington Tips by E. Dixon Larson you have a Type I factory conversion. The stamping on the bottom of the barrel was likely applied by the factory at the time of the conversion and is simply a mating number rather than a year. The frame should have the same number stamped on it underneath the grips. (You would have to remove the grips to see it.)

Flayderman's Guide says that the New Model was produced from 1863 to 1875 with serial numbers beginning about 15,000 and going to 147,283 which puts yours near the end of the production run. Civil War procurement would have ended somewhere around serial number 100,000.

Given the factory conversion and the high serial number I would guess it is likely that yours never left the factory in the original percussion configuration.
 
The roughness at the end of the cylinder is from some kids playing cowboys and Indians with it . Snapping the firing pin onto the back of the cylinder without proper lock up caused the damage. I've seen this far too often.
 
By the way you were dead on about the "1915" mating number being under the grips as well. I checked and sure enough there it was.
 
The roughness at the end of the cylinder is from some kids playing cowboys and Indians with it . Snapping the firing pin onto the back of the cylinder without proper lock up caused the damage. I've seen this far too often.

I looked carefully at the damage and the hammer head and you were right on. That damage that I thought was poor machining was indeed due to plenty of dry firing. I notice that if you don't pull the hammer all the way back and I mean to the stop the cylinder does not rotate into exact alignment thus allowing for the 360 degrees of damage I see. I do notice that the trigger will fire from any position, half cock, 90% cock (which is that that position that gets the cylinder to almost align and of course full cock. Is that normal? It would seem like a significant safety issue to discharge the firearm even slightly out of alignment.
 
I looked carefully at the damage and the hammer head and you were right on. That damage that I thought was poor machining was indeed due to plenty of dry firing. I notice that if you don't pull the hammer all the way back and I mean to the stop the cylinder does not rotate into exact alignment thus allowing for the 360 degrees of damage I see. I do notice that the trigger will fire from any position, half cock, 90% cock (which is that that position that gets the cylinder to almost align and of course full cock. Is that normal? It would seem like a significant safety issue to discharge the firearm even slightly out of alignment.
It's not normal and this is due to abuse of the action.
 
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