Colt's · Revolver

Colt Model 1849 Pocket

Name: Colt Model 1849 Pocket
Brand: Colt's

Single action · .31 Caliber Percussion (Cap and Ball) · introduced 1850

Also known as Colt 1849 Pocket Model, Pocket Model of 1849, Wells Fargo (no-lever variant)

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About the Colt Model 1849 Pocket

The Colt Model 1849 Pocket was a compact .31-caliber single-action percussion revolver and the most-produced of all Colt's percussion handguns. Built on a small pocket-sized frame, it typically carried a five-shot cylinder (six-shot after roughly serial 187000) with barrels from 3 to 6 inches, the 4-inch being most common. Its small size and reliability made it an enormously popular personal-defense revolver in the mid-19th century.

With well over 300,000 made, the diminutive .31 Pocket outsold every other Colt cap-and-ball revolver, becoming the discreet 'gentleman's' sidearm tucked into coat pockets across the American frontier and the Civil War.

Colt Model 1849 Pocket specifications

General

Type: Revolver
Action: Single action
Firing mechanism: Single action
Trigger: Single stage
Calibres: .31 Caliber Percussion (Cap and Ball)
Magazine capacity: 5 rounds
Magazine: Rotary magazine

Dimensions

Barrel length: 102 mm (4.0 in)
Overall length: 222 mm (8.7 in)
Weight (empty): 0.74 kg (1.62 lb)

Barrel

Rifling: Right hand
Grooves: 7

Materials

Barrel: Steel
Receiver / frame: Steel
Stock: Wood
Finish: blued

Performance

Effective range: 25 m

History

Introduced: 1850
Discontinued: 1873
Production status: Out of production
Country of origin: US
Designer: Samuel Colt

Features

Revolving cylinder
Compact pocket frame
Single action only
Percussion cap ignition
Roll engraved cylinder

Safety

Hammer safety pins between nipples

More than 325,000 were made in the United States between 1850 and 1873, plus around 11,000 from Colt's short-lived London factory, making it the best-selling Colt percussion revolver. Cylinders were roll-engraved with a stagecoach holdup scene.