Sam Colt's Paterson No1 Model Carbine
Forgotten Weapons
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Sam Colt's very first work was done in Baltimore, but this ended fairly quickly, and it was with his subsequent move to Paterson New Jersey that the first true production Colt firearms were made. Colt set up a small shop there and introduced both handguns and rifles using his patented system in which cocking the hammer of a revolver would rotate and index the cylinder. Initially the rifles and carbines were substantially more popular than the handguns, mainly because of caliber. The pistols were tiny .28 caliber pocket models, and remarkably underpowered, while the rifles were .40 caliber and more practical. Both were very expensive, though. Only 200 of these first model rifles/carbines were made, with 50 of them going to the Army for the Seminole Campaign in Florida.
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