copyright William Marion 2008
Black Powder Revolver
The Online Magazine and Resource for Black Powder Revolvers
October 2007 Edition
Page 5
Mail Bag
Parts are Parts
Parts are Parts
Hello
Question for you. I am looking for some part's for a replica pistol. I have all ready checked with gun part's corp they are out of the part's that I need . Can you help by chance?
Tony
Tony;
I have had the best luck with VTI Gun Parts and Dixie Gun Works. VTI has parts by replica maker and usually has them in stock. Dixie has parts but not by maker so you may have to fit them. You can find them at: http://www.vtigunparts.com/ and http://www.dixiegunworks.com/ hope that helps.
BPR
Black Powder Revolver;
I was just curious on how to tell if the this is a authentic 1840@ Army black powder. A customer of mine brought it in to see what we thought of it. He just inherited it from his father and has no idea of its background. It is silver in color and engraved all over, but it looks identical to the 1840 Army 8” barrel. It has a serial number on it of A60843. It also has several other stamps on the bottom of it. The most prominent one is a capitol A where the cross in the a is an upside down triangle. The other it has two of, one on the brass
handle plate and once one the silver barrel, that one is a shield with two pistols crossed inside and what looks like a star above it. If you have any info we would appreciate it, sorry but right now we don’t have a digital camera so I can’t send pictures. Let me know if there are any ways of identifying what it might be.
Thank you,
Arden
Arden;
I think the second mark you describe is the proof house seal of the Gardone proof house in Italy. The first one is a bit harder to figure out, but I'm guessing that it is the markers mark. Based on what you describe, it may be an early Pedersoli. Their mark is described as a diamond shape inside a circle, which could be the A with an inverted triangle. I attached a few pictures that show the makers and proof house marks along with a few pictures of popular replica models to match it to. Some of the Italian makers did custom runs for U.S. distributors such as Navy Arms, Dixie Gun Works and Cabela's that did not have their makers markings. Hope this helps, if you can get pictures somehow, we can probably get a bit closer on an ID and a value. The fact that it is silver (probably nickel or stainless steel) and has engraving will probably increase the value.