Curious Relics #136: By the Numbers – The Colt 1862 Police Part III

Welcome, if you are a newcomer to this fun bi-weekly segment of AllOutdoor.com! We are three parts deep into the Colt 1862 Police now. Part I covered the history, design philosophy, and the story of Samuel Colt’s final years. Part II tackled variations, early versus late production identifiers, the London export guns, and how to sort the Police from its near-twin the Pocket Navy. Today we are doing the nuts-and-bolts installment: specifications, how to date your gun, and what the aftermarket looks like if you are trying to keep one running. Let’s get into it.

Curious Relics Coverage on AllOutdoor:

• Curious Relics #132: The Richards-Mason Conversion Part I
• Curious Relics #133: Richards-Mason Conversion Part II – To The Range
• Curious Relics #123: The Blunderbuss – Thunder at the Table
• Curious Relics #114: Cans ‘n Clays – Scientific Products Targ-A-Launch
• Curious Relics #082: Sub-Caliber Device of The 1950s – Barrelette Shotgun Adapter

Welcome to our recurring series of “Curious Relics.” Here, we want to share all of our experiences, knowledge, misadventures, and passion for older firearms that one might categorize as a Curio & Relic  – any firearm that is at least 50 years old according to the ATF. Hopefully along the way you can garner a greater appreciation for older firearms like we do, and simultaneously you can teach us things as well through sharing your own expertise and thoughts in the Comments. Understanding the firearms of old, their importance, and their development which lead to many of the arms we now cherish today is incredibly fascinating and we hope you enjoy what we have to share, too!

Specifications: The Colt 1862 Police

The operation of the 1862 Police is the same as every other Colt open-top percussion revolver, so if you know the drill on a 1851 Navy or 1860 Army, you already know it here. Loading goes like this: bring the hammer to half cock so the cylinder spins free, charge each chamber with black powder from the muzzle end of the cylinder, seat a ball or conical bullet over the charge, and ram it home with the creeping loading lever under the barrel. A dab of lube over each chamber mouth helps prevent chain fires and keeps fouling soft. Then percussion caps go on the nipples at the rear of the cylinder, hammer to full cock, and you are in business. Five shots and then you do the whole dance over again.

Field stripping is just as simple. Put the hammer at half cock, drive out the barrel wedge, and the barrel assembly slides off the arbor, which frees the cylinder. Three big pieces and you are into it.

One thing I want to flag on the original price below. I could find no period document that pins down exactly what Colt charged for a New Model Police pistol. What is well recorded is that the 1860 Army retailed for $25 and the 1851 Navy went for $20 in 1861, and the pocket-frame guns sold for less than the Navy. Based on that, the Police most likely ran somewhere in the $12 to $15 range depending on barrel length and finish. That is informed guesswork, not a documented figure, so if anyone out there has a period Colt price list that names an exact number, please let me know.

• Years Produced: 1861 through approximately 1873
• MSRP In 1862: Likely $12 to $15 (roughly $380 to $470 in 2026)
• Number Manufactured: Approximately 28,000 Police models (combined Police and Pocket Navy production reached roughly 47,000)
• Operating System: Single Action
• Chambering: .36 caliber cap and ball
• Cylinder: 5-shot, rebated, half-fluted
• Barrel Lengths: 3.5″, 4.5″, 5.5″, 6.5″
• Overall Length (5.5″ barrel): Approximately 10.5″
• Weight: Approximately 1 pound 10 ounces
• Frame: Case-hardened steel
• Grip Straps and Trigger Guard: Silver-plated brass (iron on very early and London export guns)
• Grips: One-piece walnut
• Front Sight: Brass bead
• Rear Sight: Hammer notch
• Finish: Blued barrel and cylinder, case-hardened frame

Since the hands-on example for this series is the Uberti 1862 Police replica, here are the current factory numbers on that gun as well. Worth noting that Uberti only offers the one configuration these days, the 5.5 inch barrel, so if you want one of the other historical barrel lengths you are hunting the used market.

• MSRP In 2026: $529
• Model Number: 340710
• Barrel Length: 5.5″, round, blued
• Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Trigger Guard and Backstrap: Brass
• Rifling: 7 grooves, 1:32 left-hand twist

A couple of things worth noting between those two lists. The weight figure of 1 pound 10 ounces for the original is what most references give for the 5.5-inch barrel version, which is probably the most common configuration you will run across. Shorter barrels come in lighter, obviously. And notice the Uberti wears brass grip straps without the silver plating the originals had. On an original, that silver plating tells you a lot about a gun’s life. A piece with heavy silver loss on the grip straps has likely seen real use. One with most of its silver intact was either carried little or stored well. Neither condition is bad, just informative.

Dating: The Colt 1862 Police

Dating a 1862 Police is possible within a reasonable range, which honestly puts it ahead of a lot of the guns we cover in this series. Colt kept production records, and while the 1864 factory fire destroyed some of them, enough survived that researchers have been able to construct a workable serial number timeline.

The approximate production schedule for the Police runs like this:

• Serial 1 through roughly 3,000: 1861
• Serial 3,000 through roughly 8,500: 1862
• Serial 8,500 through roughly 15,000: 1863
• Serial 15,000 through roughly 26,000: 1864
• Serial 26,000 through roughly 29,000: 1865
• Serial 29,000 through end of run (approximately 47,000): 1866 through 1873, with pace slowing considerably in the post-war years

Those ranges come from R.L. Wilson’s reference work and similar sources. Treat them as approximations rather than hard lines. The fire of 1864 introduced real uncertainty in the mid-range serials, and production pace was not consistent year to year. A gun sitting at serial 20,000 is somewhere in the 1863-1864 window, but pinning it to one specific year with confidence requires additional research, possibly including a Colt archive letter.

Speaking of which: Colt’s own serial lookup tool is available at colt.com and is worth checking, though the site itself notes the results are approximate and should not be relied on for legal or compliance purposes. For a more definitive answer on a specific gun, Colt Archive Properties offers letters of authenticity that pull from whatever original factory records survived. That costs money, but it is the most authoritative documentation you can get for an original.

“If you are trying to obtain ONLY a manufacture date for a Colt rifle, please email us at [email protected] with your serial number. An archive letter is not required to obtain a rifle manufacture date. – Colt Archive Properties “

Matching serial numbers throughout the gun matter a lot when dating and also when assessing what you have in hand. On an original 1862 Police, the full serial number should appear on the bottom of the barrel lug, on the frame, on the trigger guard, and on the butt strap. The last four digits of the serial go on the wedge. The cylinder will show the number either in a flute on very early guns or on the rear face on later production. The grip panel typically has the number written in ink on the inside. If those numbers do not all agree, the gun has either been assembled from parts at some point, or something has been altered, and that changes what you are actually looking at.

Some minor discrepancy on the wedge, off by a digit from the rest of the gun, is documented in surviving examples and apparently happened occasionally at the factory. It is not automatically a red flag, but it warrants a closer look before drawing conclusions.

Aftermarket Parts and Accessories: The Colt 1862 Police

Here is where things get honest in a hurry. Parts availability for an original 1862 Police is limited, and you are generally going to be sourcing from one of three places: Numrich Gun Parts, eBay, or specialist dealers in antique Colt parts. Numrich lists the 1862 Pocket Police under their black powder revolvers section and does carry a parts schematic with the component breakdown. Whether any given part is actually in stock at any given time is another question. eBay turns up original parts periodically, but condition varies, and you are relying on seller knowledge, which ranges from excellent to nonexistent. For anything significant, you want a parts specialist who actually knows these guns.

The thread size situation on nipples for originals is its own rabbit hole from what I have read. Original Colt percussion revolvers in the pocket frame apparently used a thread size that essentially nobody makes anything to today. It is approximately .225-32, meaning 32 threads per inch at a diameter that does not correspond to any current standard thread specification. Remington original percussion revolvers used the same pitch, which gives you a slightly wider pool to draw from, but it is still narrow.

Some aftermarket nipples made in the 1940s and later were specifically produced to keep these old guns running, and Track of the Wolf has stocked them over the years, though you may need to chase down current availability. Expect to turn them down slightly to fit your specific gun. As one shooter put it in a forum post that has been bouncing around the black powder community for years, you tend to save nipples rather than replace them because finding the right thread pitch is a real headache.

For the Uberti replica, the picture is different and considerably easier. The Uberti 1862 Police takes a 12-28 UNF thread nipple, which is the same size used across most of Uberti’s pocket-frame percussion revolvers including the Baby Dragoon, 1849 Pocket, Wells Fargo, and Pocket Navy models. Taylor’s Firearms sells a factory Uberti nipple and wrench kit specifically for these pocket-sized guns, five nipples and a wrench packaged together, compatible with #10 or #11 percussion caps. Track of the Wolf stocks the same thread size under their stainless and hardened steel nipple listings. If you are running a Uberti replica this is not a difficult problem to solve.

One note from the transcripts that provided source material for this series: the shooter with the original 1862 Police found that his nipples had mushroomed over decades of use, spreading just enough that caps would not seat properly. His workaround was to swap in a set of salvaged nipples from an 1860 Army he owned. That kind of problem-solving is part of running originals, and it underscores why keeping a spare set of usable nipples for any working percussion revolver is a good idea before you need them rather than after.

Beyond nipples, the other practical maintenance item on these guns is the wedge. The screw-retained wedge that holds the barrel assembly to the frame on all Colt open-top percussion revolvers can work loose under firing, which increases the barrel-to-cylinder gap and eventually causes misfires or inconsistent ignition. This is not unique to the 1862 Police; it is a design characteristic of every Colt percussion revolver going back to the Walker. Check your wedge tension regularly if you are shooting one, and if you need an original replacement wedge for an original, good luck from what I am seeing.

For grips on an original, one-piece walnut replacements do come up. Again, Numrich and eBay are the starting points, and there are a handful of specialty craftsmen making reproduction walnut grips for Colt percussion revolvers if you need something that fits the frame correctly and looks period-appropriate.

The overall takeaway on parts for an original 1862 Police: take care of yours. Parts are out there, but they are not common, and finding the right thread pitch for nipples requires patience. For the Uberti replica, the situation is considerably more manageable.

End of Part III: The Colt 1862 Police

That closes out Part Three. Next time is range time with the Uberti 1862 Police replica, which has been standing in for an original throughout this series the same way the Uberti 1851 Navy stood in for a Richards-Mason original back in Parts 132 and 133. We will cover how the gun actually runs, what cap and ball shooting in a pocket-frame .36 caliber feels like, and any quirks the Uberti threw at us. See you then.

In closing, I hope our Curious Relics segment informed as well as entertained. This all was written in hopes of continued firearm appreciation and preservation. We did not just realize how guns were supposed to look and function. It was a long and tedious process that has shaped the world we live in. So, I put it to you! Is there a firearm out there that you feel does not get much notoriety? What should our next Curious Relics topic cover? If you have a question or you are sitting on information that could sharpen up an article like this one, you can find me through my Linktree. Until next time!

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