Colt Dragoon

About the Colt Dragoon

The Colt Dragoon is a .44 caliber, six-shot single-action percussion revolver designed by Samuel Colt and introduced in 1848. A refinement of the massive Colt Walker, it was lightened and shortened for cavalry use by the U.S. Army's mounted Dragoon regiments. Produced in First, Second, and Third Models through 1860, the heavy cap-and-ball revolver saw extensive frontier and American Civil War service and remained one of the most powerful handguns of its era.

The Dragoon was Samuel Colt's answer to the unwieldy four-pound-plus Walker revolver: a slightly shorter, lighter, and more reliable design that helped re-establish Colt's failed firearms business after the 1847 Walker contract. Named for the U.S. mounted Dragoon regiments who carried it in saddle holsters, it became the standard heavy military sidearm of the late 1840s and 1850s and a symbol of the American frontier.

Colt Dragoon specifications

Cap-and-ball black powder revolver loaded with loose powder, ball, and percussion caps. Roughly 18,000 to 20,000 were produced at Colt's Hartford works, plus a small London Armory run from 1851 to 1855. The Third Model could mount a detachable shoulder stock.