The Model 1851 Navy was one of Colt’s most popular cap-and-ball “belt pistols,” and more than 250,000 were produced between 1851 and 1873. But approximately 42,000, bearing their own set of ...

The “Colt Revolving Belt Pistol of Naval Caliber,” as the 1851 Navy was originally called, was Colt’s first practical revolver, coming after its 4-lb., 8-oz., .44-cal. Dragoon and the less ...

However, it was collectors and historians who later dubbed it the Navy Model of 1851. Colt himself never used dates to define new weapons; factory records simply described it as the Navy or Belt ...