1867 Rolling Block pistol

[marlinman93]

At our collector show last Sunday a friend told me of two Rolling Block pistols he saw for sale at a local gun shop. He said he wanted one, but the seller didn't want to sell them separately, so he was bummed about it. I asked about details, condition, price, what model? He couldn't answer all the questions, but said the bores were perfect and they were .50 caliber CF chamberings! I told him I'd help him with his dilemma and if they were as described "a perfect match condition wise" I'd let him have first choice on which he wanted. He went back yesterday and offered them $200 less for the pair, and they accepted! Their price was already a bargain I thought, so less was even better! And he let me choose which I wanted first. Not easy to do, as they were as described, a perfect match and in wonderful tight condition, and excellent bores. One had just a slightly better serial number, that was easier to read, so I chose it.
From some data I found online it appears I got a little lucky in choosing this one of the two we bought. There were 4 inspectors who stamped the barrels with their initials during production of these Model 1867's.

EB-Edward Barrett
JMBC-JMC Clitz
HE-Henry Erban
WDW-WD Whiting

Of the four, only 8% were inspected by Edward Barrett, and his EB is the rarest of the four. Mine is EB inspected, and has the Navy anchor rollstamp.



Of the 6500 first Model 1865's built, 6358 of those were sent back to Remington to be reworked to centerfire .50 cartridges. It took 6 years to get those guns back from all over the world on Navy ships, or ports and get them reworked. As part of the rework Rem. installed new triggers, and trigger guards, plus a CF breech block. The previous Model 1865's had no trigger guard at all. Barrels were 8.5" on the 1865, and were shortened to 7" at the same time.





All these actions are marked FCW and a P by Remington employee Frank C Warner. The P means it was proof tested.




I will begin the process of making up some cartridges by shortening .50-70 down to .86" case length, and trying to find some correct weight 290-300 grain .512" bullets. In hopes of at least making up enough to shoot it a little.
I've wanted one of the Rolling Block military Army or Navy handguns for a very long time! So this is one I'm really happy to finally add to my collection of old Remingtons!