Welcome back, friends! we have reached the end of the road colt 1862 police. Part I covered the history and final years of Samuel Colt, Part II dealt with variations and how to distinguish police from pocket navies, and Part III explained the specifications, dating and aftermarket condition for both the original and Uberti replica. Now comes the fun part. Eventually I had to take out the Uberti 1862 police and put on some caps and move on. As a reminder, this Uberti has stood in for an original throughout the series, in the same way Uberti stood in for a Richards-Mason original in Wild Bill parts 132 and 133. Let’s dive into it.
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Welcome to our recurring series of “Curious Relics.” Here, we would like to share all of our experience, knowledge, audacity and passion for vintage firearms that one might classify as curios and relics – any gun that is at least 50 years old. ATF. Hopefully along the way you’ll gain a greater appreciation for vintage firearms like we have, and you can also teach us things by sharing your expertise and ideas in the comments. Understanding old firearms, their significance and their evolution, which has led to many of the weapons we cherish today, is incredibly fascinating and we hope you enjoy what we have to share!
Range Time: Colt 1862 Police
Before anything else the first thing I want to say is that this gun is small. I mean small. handling of Uberti 1862 PoliceIt almost feels like a toy in the hand. It’s remarkably cute, and I don’t use that word lightly. It seems like it should be a .22 or cap gun, but it isn’t. This is a real .36 caliber percussion revolver, just built on that little pocket frame. It’s really surprising how small quantities they were able to get this type of thing in the 1860s. That said, small doesn’t mean inconvenient. It fits my large hands well and is a pleasure to hold and shoot.
For powder I used Pyrodex P. I’m not going to specify an exact fee here, and that’s intentional. I don’t want to risk recommending a specific powder charge to anyone, so I’ll just say I stayed within the manual’s recommended range. If I’m honest, I probably should have leaned more towards the average of that range, not the maximum, but a little higher than what I was used to. Here’s why. It seemed as if the ball would not always hold firm against the powder. Before the powder column becomes tall enough to completely back the ball, the ram will run out of travel one way. It was still safe, no big air gaps or anything like that, just a little less than ideal seating area. If I had known going in, I would have brought along the next size up powder spout to get the column up. If you go this route, keep a few things in mind.
For the projectiles, I used .375 round balls, and yes, they shaved a nice clean lead ring going in, which is exactly what you want to see. That lead ring is your seal. I loaded both with loose components and with the homemade paper cartridge I put together using a 3D printed jig, cigarette paper, and the same powder measurements. To be honest, performance was indifferent between the two modes. Both worked fine and I didn’t notice any meaningful difference between paper and loose.
Now let’s talk caps, because this is where I ran into some trouble and most of it was my own doing. My fresh caps were Remington #10 and they ran fine. However, my first batch was a set of hats that were at least 15 years old. That was a mistake. They were very tight on the nipples and did not come off easily. Good thing I had already prepared to remove the gun from the field, because I needed to take things apart to safely remove those dead caps from the nipples. Lesson learned again: old hats aren’t worth the headache.
I faced some jamming and some misfires. I want to make it clear that this is not a criticism of Uberti. This is just part of the design of these old Colt-style revolvers. They all have these issues. The open-top percussion Colt is an amazing piece of engineering for its era, but it doesn’t have a modern seal system, and fouling and cap pieces are just part of the deal. My misfires occurred because the caps were not fully seated, and again, that’s my fault, not the gun’s.
On the subject of serial fire, I had zero. No chain fire and no one is really concerned. I didn’t run over the ball too much. I relied on the oversized ball lead ring to seal the chamber, and I applied grease to the mouth from time to time. I will say that it was a very hot day, so hot that the grease I was using basically turned into liquid and wasn’t doing much. So actually I was leaning on the lead ring to do the sealing job and it worked.
The loading lever felt great. Solid, not at all fragile, which is not always a given on replicas. However, it fell on me once during the shooting. When I looked closer I knew why. When the lever is fully raised, the latch does not catch the small cut made for it properly. It’s almost as if the notch wasn’t cut deep enough. The latch is just kissing its edge. Combine this with a little side-to-side play in the lever, and if it’s tilted to one side it will fall down. If this were my personal gun, which it is not, I would probably take a file to that notch and deepen the edge by just a hair to fix it. Minor thing, easy fix, but worth mentioning.
The trigger pull on my gauge averages about 2 pounds 14 ounces. There is no take-up to speak of. It’s just a hard wall and then suddenly, kind of an ugly drop. It’s not a sophisticated trigger by modern standards, but as it is, it does the job.
As far as accuracy is concerned, it shoots at a high level. The groups I was hitting were running about 3 inches at 15 yards while standing without any support, and they were landing about 2 to 3 inches above my aiming point. The six o’clock grip will probably set things right. Shooting high is extremely common with these vintage designs and this replica is no exception, so it’s no surprise.
I shot it until the fouling started affecting the action. Let’s call it 20 rounds, maybe 25. I know I reloaded at least four times before things started appearing. The traffic jams continued to increase and the process became difficult and lengthy as the dirt increased. It’s normal for black powder to appear in hard collision action, and that’s your signal that it’s time to wipe things down. Nothing to worry about, it’s just the nature of the animal.
Some mechanical notes for the record. The barrel wedge remained in place the entire time. It was tightened just fine and I had no issues with it, which is worth pointing out because a loose wedge is a classic complaint on these open-top Colts and one of the original shooters in my research encountered it. Other than the jams I’ve already mentioned, I haven’t had any timing or lockup issues, and they were cap and fouling related, not a mechanical fault. No over-rotation, no index failures, nothing like that.
The visuals are raw, but I think raw is a bit too harsh because it’s unfair compared to what we have now. It is simply a notch in the hammer at the back and a post at the front. This is it. But this is exactly what these guns originally had, and it is no more crude than any other muzzleloading black powder revolver of the period, or even many of the newer ones. For 1860s technology, it’s completely appropriate, and once you accept it for what it is, it works.
Final Thoughts: Colt 1862 Police
So here we are at the end of part four colt 1862 policeAnd I must say I have fallen in love with this little thing. It is easy to see why the .36 caliber pocket revolver sold so well. You get the real .36 caliber right in a package that practically disappears in a coat pocket, and even modern replicas capture that charm perfectly. Holding one, you immediately understand the appeal. This is the original concealed carry, and it came from the mind of Samuel Colt himself as he had a hand in the last design before he passed away.
The Uberti replica does the original justice. It handled well, it shot like you would expect an original to, and the few complaints I had were either my own fault, the product of a very hot range day, or simply inherent quirks that every Colt open-top percussion revolver has. That loading lever notch is the only thing I would actually put a file on, and that’s a five-minute fix. For someone who wants to experience what this gun was like without shooting a real gun without spending serious money on a 160 year old original or, worse, a fragile gun that must be preserved, Uberti Way to go. That’s exactly what these replicas are for.
If you have something basic, my advice would be the same as it has all the series. Keep it safe. Most of these were converted to cartridges before the turn of the century, so an intact percussion example is a rare piece of history. Let the replica endure the abuse at the limit and let the original rest. Both of them have earned this.
This concludes our series on the Colt 1862 Police. From Samuel Colt’s last design to a hot day at the range with a little bit of recovery standing in for the real thing, it’s been fun to work on. Thanks for following along.
In conclusion, I hope that our Curious Relics section has provided information as well as entertainment. All of this was written in hopes of continuing gun appreciation and preservation. We just didn’t realize how guns were supposed to look and work. It was a long and difficult process that shaped the world we live in. If you have any questions or you’re sitting on information that could sharpen an article like this, you can find me through my linktree. Until next time!
