Remington Police New Model .36 caliber percussion revolver (pics)

[Turbinator]

A relative of mine lent this to me so I could take some pictures of it...



It's a rusty beauty - based on the stampings on the barrel and my basic Internet research, this appears to be a Remington Police New Model, in .36 caliber, percussion black powder revolver, made somewhere in the 1870's. Serial # is 33XX. I've read that there were between 17,000 and 18,000 of these made. Most of them were converted to later fire rimfire, some by the factory and some aftermarket. The lockwork seems fine and it's got a fairly crisp trigger pull. I was careful not to damage it during trigger pull testing, as I know that you don't want the hammer slamming into the percussion cap nipples. This revolver has been in the family for a long time and is fairly rusty in the bore.

Does anyone know anything else about these? I welcome all comments and inputs.

Turby

[plumbum]

Beautiful! Just Wow, any backstory to the piece?

[scrat]

WOW very nice. they were actually converted to fire 38 a loading gate and a new cylinder would be put in. Richard mason style

[Mike A]

What a neat little gun, Bill Ruger modeled the physical appearance of his original "Bearcat" .22 after this revolver (although the lockwork is different, of course) right up to the brass triggerguard. The triggerguard on the original Bearcat was alumabronze alloy, however. Looked like brass, tho.

[jigenax]

That's so col. Can't wait to hear the family story about it.
Thanks for sharing.

[Turbinator]

Hi guys, unfortunately I don't know enough of the history behind this gun to share any cool stories. This gun likely belonged to a great-great grandfather. The relatives who had it did say that this gun had been stashed in a drawer in the garage for as long as they could remember.. they didn't even know how or why it was obtained. These relatives grew up in the 1940's and 1950's, as a measure of establishing a reference of time.

If I had to offer wild guesses based on fantasy, the era was right after the Civil War. It most likely was common for people to obtain and keep firearms for self defense, given the turmoil and violence the country had just been through. It seems to have been made after the Remington New Model Army, a model that had been used by the Union troops during the Civil War. My guess is that the New Model Police was marketed towards civilians after the war - it was probably the 1870's equivalent of a Beretta 92FS / Glock 17 / SIG 226 / HK USP 9 / Springfield XD9.

Turby

[Turbinator]

Here are some more pictures I took:







Turby

[jigenax]

I wonder if it's value would drop if you applied a light coat of oil on it. Not scrubbed clean but enough to stop the rust.