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NICE CONDITION REMINGTON-BEALS REVOLVER

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This Remington-Beals percussion revolver comes to us in a used but quite nice condition.  Throughout, the bluing remains with very minimal wear to the cylinder pin, cylinder bores, and the upper receiver of the frame, evidence of firing and the long-ago accumulation of black powder residue.  Still, there is no major corrosion and only light surface oxidation.

The barrel itself shows a nicely rifled bore with typical evidence of firing and cleaning, while the exterior looks nearly mint.  The front sight is still sharply machined with an eye-catching shine.

The top side of the octagonal barrel is stamped, “BEALS’ PATENT SEPT 14 1858” over “MANUFACTURED BY REMINGTONS’ ILION, NY”.

The patented loading lever and cylinder pin both operate as new, and the cylinder timing is great – rotating into alignment with each slow cocking of the hammer.  Trigger pull is crisp and percussion cones have obviously seen minimal-to-no dry firing.

The brass trigger guard is still bright in areas, with a light patina around the outer edges and surfaces that give it a nice yellow-orange tone.  The dark walnut grips show minor wear along the lower edges and butt.  No martial/inspector stampings are noted.

Barrel length from cylinder to muzzle: 7.4”

Overall length: 13”

Height from butt of grip to hammer spur at rest: 5.25”

Cal.: .36

In 1857, the firm of E. Remington & Sons of introduced their first percussion revolver. Since the founding of the firm in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington, the company had concentrated on the production of gun parts and then long arms. The first products were gun barrels, then gun furniture and then finally complete flintlock rifles were added to the product line. In 1845, Remington acquired a contract for 5,000 US Model 1841 “Mississippi” Rifles that had originally been granted to John Griffiths of Cincinnati, which he had defaulted on. The Ordnance Department was so pleased with the product delivered by Eliphalet’s company that he was granted two additional contracts for Model 1841s, eventually delivering some 20,000 of the rifles to the US government over the course of a decade. Remington apparently saw the influx of government contract money as steady stream of income that would allow him to expand his business, and he soon sought additional US contracts. The same year as the Mississippi Rifle contract, he acquired a contract to deliver 1,000 Jenks Naval Carbines, with the newly devised Maynard Patent tape priming lock. Remington purchased the necessary machinery from the Ames Company of Chicopee, MA, who had delivered the first production variation of the carbines and rifles, and who no longer needed the equipment. However, it was clear that the technological evolution of firearms was heading toward repeating arms, and to that end the company began to pursue the development of a percussion revolver.

In 1856, with the addition of Remington’s three sons to the business, the firm officially became E. Remington & Sons. The following year, their first revolver was ready for sale, the Remington-Beals Pocket revolver. This was the invention of Remington employee Fordyce Beals. Beals had been instrumental in the production of the Jenks carbine contract, and had actually been acquired from Ames, as had the machinery, as part of the negotiated arrangement between Remington and Ames. Beals’ design was a compact, single action, .31 caliber revolver that bore a resemblance to the “Walking Beam” revolver then in production by Whitney. This should come as no surprise as the Whitney revolver was based upon Beals’ 1854 patent which evaded Colt’s protection of his pistol’s mechanism. In 1856, Beals patented the features that were salient to his new Remington revolver, and in 1858 patented the cylinder pin and loading lever system that would define the profile of all the large-frame Remington handguns through the 1880s.

Beals’ 1858 patent (#21,478) was granted on September 14^thof that year and covered the winged cylinder arbor pin that secured the cylinder to the frame, which was retained by the loading lever located under the barrel and could be withdrawn from the frame only when the lever was lowered. Thus, began the evolution of the second most used US marital revolver of the American Civil War. The first guns were produced in .36 caliber and production started to roll off the assembly line during late 1860 or early 1861. The .36 caliber “Navy” revolver was followed by a .44 caliber “Army” variant soon thereafter. By the time Beals pattern revolver  production ended in 1862, some 15,000 of the “Navy” sized handguns had been produced, while only about 2,000 of the larger “Army” revolvers were manufactured. The subsequent model was the William Elliott “improved” Model 1861 pattern Remington revolvers, also known to collectors as the “Old Model” Remingtons, started to replace the Beals models by the middle of 1862.

The Beals Navy Revolver was Remington’s first large frame, martial handgun to make it into production, with the Beals Army following fairly quickly on its heels. While an experimental Beals “Army” had been produced earlier, which was really just a scaled-up version of the Beals pocket model, it was only produced as a prototype and it is believed that less than ten were manufactured.

This revolver is an increasingly scarce example of an early Civil War pistol and a successful forerunner to the second most widely-used revolver by US forces.  This item would display beautifully, making it a superb item for the gun collector, Remington enthusiast, or Civil War collector.  [cm][ph:L]

DISCLAIMER: All firearms are sold as collector's items only - we do not accept responsibility as to the shooting safety or reliability of any antique firearm. All firearms are described as accurately as possible, given the restraints of a catalog listing length. We want satisfied customers & often "under" describe the weapons. Any city or state regulations regarding owning antique firearms are the responsibility of the purchaser. All firearms are "mechanically perfect" unless noted, but again, are NOT warranted as safe to fire!

 

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