Rem 1858 markings- proofing? Inspection?

[bczrx]

Hello,

I have what I consider a 'shooter' grade 1858 that was made in Nov of 1864, from what I was told.

In addition to the 6 digit serial number it has letters stamped in various places on it.

On the barrel and frame I find the letter 'C' stamped in multiple locations.
On the trigger guard it has a letter 'J' stamped. Also, the serial number seems to be stamped inside the guard but it is missing the first digit.

However, on the cylinder it has a 'G' and a 'W' stamped on it, on the outside cylinder wall near the nipples. The G is on one side and the W is on another. When the cylinder is rotated at one point the G will be at the 9 on a clock while the W is at a 3 on the clock.
It also has 2 or 4 digits stamped near the ratchet area, but they don't seem to connect to the frame serial number.


My questions:

Why would the cylinder be stamped with 2 marks, and at opposite sides?
Does the fact it was stamped with a G and a W [while the barrel/frame have a C] indicate it is not the original cylinder?
Does the fact it has different digits stamped indicate it isn't original?

I suspect it is not the original one as I had to shim the cylinder stop over .023" to get the chamber to align perfectly with the barrel.

• I used a bore light and magnifying glasses to view down bore.
  With shim there is no cylinder face visible.
  With shims from .021" and smaller there was cylinder face visible.
  When I bought it there was very noticeable cylinder face sliver visible.
  • Stop 'tooth' has been fitted to cylinder so there is no sideways slop.
    Just had to move stop toward centerline of frame that far to get cylinder aligned with barrel.

Also, would the J on the trigger guard indicate a replacement part, or were all trigger guards inspected and stamped by "J" before going to C's frame/barrel, for example?

Thanks for any insights you can share.

[Hawg]

The letters are sub inspectors stamps where the parts were inspected before assembly. Sometimes parts were inspected more than once so it's not unusual to have two inspectors stamps on a part. The numbers on the rear of the cylinder are not a serial number. The serial number is on the bottom barrel flat and the left side of the grip frame under the grip. J is just an inspectors mark.

[aardq]

Hi bczrx,

Send the serial number and we cn tell when it was made. Photos always help identify what you have. The first question for you, is the letter "c" a C, capital, or a lower case? If it is smaller, lower case then those are inspectors' marks. If it is upper case, then the letter stands for condemned. That Doesn't mean that the gun is bad, just that it failed the gov inspection, so Rem would have fixed the problem and sold the gun on the civilian market.

The "W" is a in house Rem inspector's mark, I'm not familiar with the letter "G." A wild guess is that if the cylinder was replaced, another inspector would have checked how it fit, and stamped the cylinder if it passed.

Rem only put the serial number on a cylinder if hand fitting was required. That tends to indicate that the cylinder was replaced at some time, but there is no way to know when or by who.

The "stop tooth" is called the cylinder stop.

All the small letters are an inspector's mark.

Do all three serial numbers march? If so, then the gun is probably all original, except for the cylinder.

Daniel