Wyatt: I will have to tell you the story of my 1851 Colt; I had just graduated from High School. A fellow graduate was packing to attend an Ivy League college back East. His folks were packing to move to Chile as his Dad was a Mining Engineer. He had me come by his house and he presented me with an actual 1851 Colt. It was in pretty rough shape. He said neither he nor his folks could take it with them and he knew I liked and respected guns. I accepted it, cleaned and oiled it and put it away. About two years later while attending College and working in the custom rifle shop in Reno I met one of the customers whose hobby was restoration of blackpowder handguns. I asked about him and found he had an excellent reputation. On my next trip home to Vegas I brought the Colt back with me. He looked it over and told me it was going to be an easy job. It looked like an impossible job to me. When he brought to back to me about a month later I couldn't believe it was the same Colt. Any part replaced had been replaced with authentic Colt parts. He refused to take any payment. I got a can of FFFg powder, some caps and some 31 caliber balls. I used stiff axle grease to top off each cylinder and went to shooting. It was a lot of fun shooting the old BP gun, but what a job to clean and re-oil. So, I put the Colt away again. About 15 years later I got into shooting regulation Skeet. I wanted a Browning Ultralight Skeet O/U in the worst way. The opportunity came up to trade for a two barrel set Skeet grade Ultralight and the old Colt went on to the next owner. I really liked that Browning, but now of course wish I had kept the Colt. I never gave a thought to taking some pictures of that Colt. I don't even have a record of the serial number. ....
