Shipbucket

Passaic Arms Company, "Passaic Revolver", Model 1840:

The Passaic Arms Company is a historic enigma. What is know is that they began production in 1840 in Passaic, NJ, probably as a reaction to the closure of Colt’s Patterson factory, of a single action cap and ball revolver in .36 caliber. The pistol was clearly patterned after the “Texas Pattersons”, with a barrel length of seven inches and an overall length of fourteen inches. but had significant design differences. The most notable of these was a conventional ring trigger, the mechanism of which was simpler and cheaper to produce than the folding trigger of the Colt. Also noticeable is the simplified form and decoration on the pistol, no doubt another cost saving measure to compete with Colts on the secondary market. Also unusual are the German Silver grips, a standard feature on all known surviving examples. Like the original Patterson, the gun lacks a loading lever, indicating it was patterned after some of the earlier examples of the Colt. Total production numbers are unknown, but serial numbers indicate about 100 guns were produced from about 1840 to 1848 when Colt reentered the pistol market. It is speculated that either Colt threatened legal action agains the company, or that the release of Colts new pistols made the operation uneconomical, hence it’s abrupt termination. In any case, the guns while not as well regarded as Colts, they offer slight improvements over early Patterson revolvers and are almost as rare.

This particular example saw action in the Civil War, with a officer of the 3rd New Jersey Cavalry, the colorful “Butterfly Boys” unit of hussars. After the war, it’s original owner moved west to Denver, Colorado, where it eventually made its way into the hands of the local historical society after nearly a century of being stored in a trunk along with the veteran’s Civil War memorabilia. It remains there, on public display, to the date of publishing.

Pulaski M1909, sold commercially as Mle. #6 Safety Automatic Hammerless
Mass: 2.9 livre(1.42kg)
Barrel length: 6 pouce(165mm)
Capacity: 6 cartridges
Break open double action only
Cartridge Specs;
Bullet: 275gr(14.58gram)
Velocity: 1125 pied/sec (366m/s)
Units: OldFrench(metric)

Owing to its design as a cavalry arm, the mostly featureless design is meant to be cheap while providing minimum snag potential and ease of use with one hand and reloading under reign. With the adoption of moon-clips, the previous .41-50 cartridge was altered into a rimless brass head that uses the same drawing dies as the service rifle cartridge(6x63mm) and allows rapid fumble free reloading with the soldier's free hand as the gun is held with the reigns in the other. The service arm is based off the commercial Safety Automatic which had been in production since 1871, all be it with rimmed singular cartridges.

The deadline for the Big Iron Challenge has passed and the community poll is now open. Please consider responding. It poll can be found at this link. Responses will be accepted until 23:59 UTC-12, 19th of August. A countdown timer can be found here for those wondering how long the poll will remain open.


If you have a suggestion for a future challenge, please visit the suggestions thread. If an idea has already been posted by someone else, don't be afraid to declare your support. Also, the community poll for the Second World War Aircraft Carrier Challenge is open too. It can be found through this link. Do consider voting in that poll as well.

The poll for the Big Iron Challenge is now closed. This was definitely one of our smaller challenges, with a grand total of seven submissions before the deadline. However, I do not think variety or quality suffered. Revolvers were submitted from across the time frame, and the gold engraving seen in a couple of entries was a great addition. I wish to thank everyone who participated in the community poll, including the 11 who responded after my plea on Discord earlier today.



Congratulations to JCSTCap, who achieved first place with the beautiful 1861 Mahtsrevolver. They also achieved the highest score in each individual score category. In second place is Pantsu and the aesthetically pleasing Masterson Duelist. Aiseus was third with the neat Reitus Frontier Type revolver. Great work everyone! For those interested, the First World War battlecruiser challenge is now open.