The Model 1851 Navy was one of Colt’s most popular cap-and-ball “belt pistols,” and more than 250,000 were produced between 1851 and 1873. But approximately 42,000, bearing their own set of ...

The 1851 Navy soon found a ready market. Models exhibited at the Great Exhibition in London that year, alongside Dragoon and Pocket revolvers, were in such demand that Colt later established an ...

An ivory-handled Colt 1851 Navy revolver. NRA Museum. Designed by Samuel Colt himself, the Model 1851 Navy was so-called because of the naval battle scene engraved on its cylinder.

Though Wild Bill’s original 1851 Navy revolvers were cap-and-ball designs, ... exposes the bored-through cylinder capable of accepting six rounds of standard .38 Special or .38 Colt cartridges.