1863 Remington New Army .44 with grip notches

[jduley2001]

Early in 2020 I purchased four Civil War revolvers from a third generation owner of a local gun shop. He had found these four revolvers in a drawer and had no idea if his father or grandfather took them in. They were dust covered from sitting in the gun shop. Two were .44 New Army models, one of which had the German silver front sight post. One was a Navy .36 caliber and the last was a Manhattan Navy .36 Caliber.

All were taken apart and cleaned well and while doing so I discovered that one of the New Army revolvers had six notches cut into the inside of the grips when they were removed. The notches could represent anything from war use to shooting tin cans, but the logic of putting notches on the inside of grips is notable. If you were taken prisoner of war and you had six notches on the exterior of your revolver, then you might well be the seventh notch. This revolver maintains approximately 60% of it's original bluing, and appears to have been well taken care of. The serial number of the revolver are written in pencil on both inside halves of the grips. The revolver is 100% matching.

I have shot three of the four revolvers with the New Army talked about above to be the last to be shot.

Has anyone ever encountered notches on the grips of their Civil War revolvers?

[aardq]

Hi jdudley,

Have not run into that myself. You will get a better response if this is posted in the pre-1898 handgun section, rather than in the general comments.

Good luck,
Daniel