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A friend was searching a local New Mexico ghost town and found a Colt US Army Model 1894 pistol in workable, but poor condition. On the butt and on other matching parts there are 4 numbers. 4 (XXXX) serial numbers are not in the correct range for this age pistol, however it appears on the butt someone had installed a lanyard loop and then removed it and professionally plugged the hole with a rivet. It could have been the Army or anyone else during the last 100 years? I suspect some serial numbers were destroyed.

Obviously this firearm is Pre68. Arcadia So Red The Rose Remastered. If the serial number has been altered, is this pistol legal to own? I appreciate any comments. A friend was searching a local New Mexico ghost town and found a Colt US Army Model 1894 pistol in workable, but poor condition. On the butt and on other matching parts there are 4 numbers. 4 (XXXX) serial numbers are not in the correct range for this age pistol, however it appears on the butt someone had installed a lanyard loop and then removed it and professionally plugged the hole with a rivet.

It could have been the Army or anyone else during the last 100 years? I suspect some serial numbers were destroyed. Obviously this firearm is Pre68. If the serial number has been altered, is this pistol legal to own? I appreciate any comments. Thanks, Max Hi Max and welcome to the Forum.

Great first post! I love the oldies. That even includes these early Colt double action revolver models. They're actually a turkey of a design.

The revolvers appear quite modern and operate just like any other Colt double-action revolver model with swing-out cylinder. They are very slightly larger than a Smith & Wesson K-Frame. They even have a somewhat elegant and graceful appearance about them and they do balance very nicely in the hand and point very well. They're design duds though with primitive lock work that gives stiff, jerky double-action trigger pulls and hard single-action trigger pulls. Both the lock work and cylinder lock-up on these revolvers is a 'weak-as-water' design and most are found in condition from 'loose and wobbly' to 'completely out of order.' One of the heaviest-hitters over on Colt Forum, a true expert who has authored a book on them, suggests that they not be fired at all out of safety considerations.

They are considered by many to be made of early steel alloys without the strength inherent in later Colts. They also are prone to spit particles due to bad barrel/cylinder alignment resulting from the typical loose cylinder lock-up.

On a loose one, the bullets' frequent hard impact against one side or the other of the forcing cone causes metal fatigue and forcing cone failure, resulting in blowing out a section of the forcing cone. This is not so uncommonly seen on old clunker examples of these revolvers. An example of a 'good' action inside of a commercial New Navy, shown with a broken rebound lever spring (trigger return) which is only one of the many maladies that afflict this primitive design. Since bmc is not all that intelligent and despite all these provisos, I have a ball shooting my old Colt New Army/New Navy models of which the various U.S contract revolvers are a variant. I don't hold that the steel itself in these revolvers is inferior or weak for the era in which these revolvers were produced.

Colt was always a premium firearms manufacturer and its revolvers among the most expensive in the world. Colt always strove to use the finest steels in producing its arms. I'm of a view that if ammunition that performs similar to the specifications of the ammunition originally intended for these revolvers is used then they are nominally safe. In my opinion the revolvers' reputation for being weak and for bursting comes from the fact that the chambers are bored straight through.

That means that any ol'.38 Special and some.357 Magnum loads will fit the chamber. Firing off such ammunition in one of these old Colts would be a way to guarantee the 'grenading' of the revolver. I don't shoot the revolvers in double-action mode in order to avoid the iffy barrel/cylinder alignment problem that could arise. My Colts of this type are pretty tight but there's no need to risk damaging a forcing cone by shooting them double-action, besides which the double-action experience is dismal in the extreme. Better to cock the hammer and eyeball the cylinder alignment between each shot.

When these revolvers were first developed the ammunition contained black powder but it wasn't too long into the 1890s that smokeless powder began to be used in.38 Long Colt ammunition production. It is claimed that these Colt models are black powder arms only but, in the context of the times, this simply isn't true and they were intended for use with the latest ammunition developments. Model 1901.38 is the Colt revolver I've had longer than any other Colt revolver on the place, well over 30 years. It's averaged probably a box of ammo per year for that period of time. Some years it's not fired at all and others it may be hauled out from some sort of.38 Long Colt handloading experiments or else I get a yen for a 'Spanish American War experience' so shoot it a bit.

As you can see, these revolvers are firmly in the realm of collectors' items rather than serious 'usin' guns.' One could defend himself in a pinch with one in good mechanical shape, even using it double-action, but there are much better choices for serious work or for regular range use. It must be pointed out that, for all its poor stopping reputation, the.38 Long Colt, if its 150 grain soft lead blunt-nosed bullet is loaded to U.S. Military specifications, whips any.380 ACP load ever fielded.

The round approaches low-end.38 Special performance, giving about 750 fps and flinging a significantly heavier bullet than the.380 can muster. In more recent times, some historical investigations have suggested that some lots of.38 Long Colt ammunition were deliberately and fraudulently loaded to sub-standard performance levels by some commercial ammunition suppliers and sold to supply our troops in 1898. The Model 1894 revolver you describe is one of the earlier variants of the standard issue U.S.

Military side arm of the 1890s. These all represent the military version of the Colt New Army which is the name of the civilian version of this model. There is also a New Navy model which is no different than the New Army except for the styling of the hard rubber stocks and the fact that an 'N' is stamped inside the frame which designates it as a New Navy. The military contract models began with the military designation 'Model 1892' and proceeding through: 1894, 1895, 1896, 1901 and 1903. The differences in these are so minute as to be insignificant and they are all really the same revolver. For instance, a mere change in roll markings netted a different year designation tacked onto 'Model.' The most significant changes were an early addition of hammer and trigger locks in an effort to improve the design, the convenience of an added lanyard ring, and in the Model 1903, a bore reduction from.362 to.357.

When one considers that these revolvers were repaired and upgraded during the years they were issued then it becomes apparent that, in most cases, the various year designations become meaningless. I am of the view that the serial number of the Colt Model 1894 you describe could very well have a proper 4-digit serial number and be correct. Partial serial numbers will be found on the thumb piece and elsewhere on the revolver but the complete serial number is found on the butt. It is possible that your example has had part of the serial number defaced when the lanyard stud was added and later removed. Some photos would be appreciated, including the serial number.

Well over a quarter of a million of these revolvers were produced. When production ended in 1908, Colt had a winning replacement waiting in the wings. The Army Special, introduced that year still represents good revolver performance to this day. W_Kevlar.Mdl Download there. In fact, when all things are considered, the Colt Python is nothing but a gussied up Army Special, being a design outgrowth of that revolver introduced in the first decade of the 20th century.

Two links with more information than anyone would want to know about these Colt models. The first one shows a photo of a military contract Colt with correct 4-digit serial number positioning relative to a proper lanyard.