Colt 1851 Navy Revolver Colt 1851 Navy Revolver The Colt Revolving Belt Pistol of Naval Caliber (i.e., .36 cal), later known as the Colt 1851 Navy or Navy Revolver, is a cap and ball revolver that was designed by Samuel Colt between 1847 and 1850. Colt first called this Revolver the Ranger model; but the designation Navy quickly took over. After the Civil War, revolvers using fixed metallic cartridges came into widespread use. The Colt Navy remained in production until 1873, being replaced in the Colt line with what would become one of the manufacturer's most famous handguns, the Colt Single Action Army (also
Colt Open Top Pocket Model Revolver White patent for metallic cartridges firearms manufacture expired (c. 1870) the Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company started working on its own metallic cartridge revolvers (Colt had previously been manufacturing the so-called Richards-Mason conversions). Thus, Colt introduced its first rear-loaders in 1871: the Colt House/Cloverleaf and the Colt Open Top Pocket Model Revolver. In the 1870s the firearms market was awash with cheaply made knockoffs of the .22 caliber Smith & Wesson Model One which sold for about $2. Colt's president Richard Jarvis decided it would not compete directly with the knockoffs; that its .22 would be of Colt quality.