Solved? more input needed on old no-name pistol

dozer dan

dozer dan

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Jan 14, 2008
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here are the pictures of my pistol. the only pictures i could find to match it is the griswold and gunnison. my pistol is .36 cal. brass frame with a round barrel. there is no name on it. the ser. # is in the 17,000s and stamped two times on the brass, one time on the cylinder, and one time under the barrel assembly. all ser. #s match. the ser #s are erratic as they are not aligned well. the rod is 2 piece construction, in the pictures you can see this. there also appeares to be a blood etched finger print on the underside of the barrel. one person i asked to examin it said he thought he saw a tiny stamping on the cylinder of a crescent moon with a star in it. i however do not see this.
i am grateful for your interest and any info you could provide. sorry about the pic's. im still catchin on. Dan
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

Interesting little safety feature. My replica doesnt have any pins. I have to leave one empty chamber.

If broken off, you should still be able to see whether it had any pins/pin or not.
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

bigcypresshunter said:
Interesting little safety feature. My replica doesnt have any pins. I have to leave one empty chamber.

If broken off, you should still be able to see whether it had any pins/pin or not.
Click to expand...

Actually on allot of the pictures of historical colts, you can't even tell there was any there.
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

Perhaps they are referring to the timing notches in the cylinder . Looks too good to be a fake even with the anomalies .
Only one of the real experts could tell with a hands on inspection . My modest opinion .
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

Its hard to judge by just pictures. But I believe we can get it right.
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

I'll get the pistol out today and look for: the wire twist in the cylinder.
(which don't see on the original G&G either)

and the safety pins.

I'll also get more pic's

i still havent heard anything back from Les Jensen at westpoint museum.
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

dozer dan said:
I'll get the pistol out today and look for: the wire twist in the cylinder.
(which don't see on the original G&G either)

and the safety pins.

I'll also get more pic's

i still havent heard anything back from Les Jensen at westpoint museum.
Click to expand...

Well the safety pins are missing on yours (can see that from your picture of the cylinder), but on a note, I think even the one passed down through the family to me doesn't have the pins anymore either.
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

The pins may have broken off, but I think the trigger will need to be notched to fit.

Look inside the barrel from the muzzle end and count the lands and grooves of the rifling.
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

I would lean toward a doctored up repro but you could also post on the NSSA website forum. There are some really knowledgable Civil War gun guys there.
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

yesterday, i took a screw to fastenall (they sell nuts,bolts, rivets, ect.........)

they held it up to a plastic comparison jig to match the threads. i think that's the word I'm looking for.

well anyway once again the results were mixed. they kinda leaned towards metric but not sure.
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

dozer dan said:
yesterday, i took a screw to fastenall (they sell nuts,bolts, rivets, ect.........)

they held it up to a plastic comparison jig to match the threads. i think that's the word I'm looking for.

well anyway once again the results were mixed. they kinda leaned towards metric but not sure.
Click to expand...
I was afraid of that. Look inside the barrel and count the lands and grooves of the rifling.. There should be 6 lands and 6 grooves if its authentic Griswold. "The barrel has 6 lands and grooves, turning clockwise, and there is a considerable gain twist in the fore half of the barrel. The hammer has a roller, and the cylinder has 6 safety pins unlike the Colt that has only one."

Also there sould be a notch in the hammer to go over the safety pins (that may be broken off).
"Later Colt revolvers had a notched hammer that would fit over an intermediate safety pin located between cylinders on the back of the chamber when all cylinders were loaded, thereby obviating contact of the hammer with the percussion caps until the single-action hammer was intentionally cocked." Remember Griswolds had 6 pins with the notched hammer. The pins may be broken off but look for the original notched hammer. It seems to have the roller.
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

Looking at the photos and the discussion that ensued so far, its pretty clear that this pistol is a combination of a few original parts and some replacements that was passed off as authentic and probably bought for some good money by the guy who's estate auction you attended. This mix of parts is why is so difficult to pin down. I know of at least one confederate issue cap and ball that blew up while the owner was firiing it and he had some pieces replaced by a very competant gun smith. I suspect the someday inheritors of that pistol will have the same problems you do if anybody stops to question it.
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

still waiting on westpoint museums opinion.


are we all thoroughly stumped yet?????????????
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

dozer dan said:
still waiting on westpoint museums opinion.


are we all thoroughly stumped yet?????????????
Click to expand...
No, Im waiting on you to count the rifling grooves so we can check this one off.

Also look for the notch, or lack of one, in the hammer.
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

6 lands...........

6 grooves.......

mild clockwise twist.........

hammer notch that acts as the rear sight when the pistol is cocked?
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

Ok the 6 grooves is not what I expected so maybe the barrel is original.

I dont know if that is the same as the safety pin notch. My Italian replica has the same V notch. It is, like you say, for the sight. It should have a notch or hole that will fit over a safety pin (the way it was described).

I still think we need to ID the bolts as Metric or Standard. I know that you tried several times. If I had the bolt I would know. Maybe if you try buying a few of the bolts, oil them up good, and carefully try to thread them in. But then again that may not prove much as a bolt could have been replaced and even retapped. Brass is also easy to strip.

Have you tried removing a nipple for thread comparison? Those threads are bigger and should be easier for you to match up.


I think counting the rifling grooves is the best we got yet in the direction of authentic. But with modern font serial numbers it would appear that many parts were replaced in the past 50 years or some idiot stamped them thinking that it would look better. :-

We may not be able to ID this with pictures. My next thought is the nipples.
 

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Re: old no-name pistol

more pics.
 

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