You can’t call yourself a red-blooded American if you don’t like the guns of the Old West. I use “Old West” to describe any American revolver produced from the Colt-Patterson to the 1899 M&P series. The Old West invokes the right image, even though all these guns were designed and produced on the East Coast. These guns have an allure that’s ingrained in our culture. Western films and television shows cemented them into our collective consciousness, and they are still produced to satisfy that American itch for the six-gun.

The problem with a lot of these guns is that a fair amount were black powder designs. Black powder replicas exist and can be a lot of fun but require a different level of commitment. They aren’t plug-and-play like a cartridge firearm. However, every so often, you find something neat and silly that lets you play cowboy without dealing with cowboy problems.

Cimmaron offers you one of those kinda neat, kinda silly options with their 1862 Colt Navy Pocket conversion.

The 1862 Colt Navy Pocket Revolver

Colt divided their earlier black powder guns into two categories. You had Army models, and you had Navy models, which were also called belt models. Army models were great big things designed to ride on the pommel of a horse in calibers like .44. The Navy models were much smaller and capable of riding on a belt and used .36 caliber balls.

Over time, the Navy models shrunk, and the 1862 Colt Navy is essentially an 1851 Navy, but in a smaller frame size with a reduced capacity of just five shots. There isn’t much information regarding conversions of these guns, but it seems like they did happen, and the caliber of choice was often some form of .38, which historically means a .357 caliber projectile.

The Cimarron 1862 Colt Navy Pocket keeps that tradition. Kind of. Cimarron produces these guns as black powder .36 caliber guns and .380 ACP cartridge pistols. I got my hands on a .380 ACP variant, and while it might be far from practical, it’s insanely fun.

The .380 ACP cartridge seems silly. You might ask, “Why not 9mm?” If I had to guess, it’s because of the open-top design. There is only so much pressure the gun can safely handle. It might be fine with 115-grain 9mm loads, but heaven forbid someone feed it something in the +P category, right?

The little .380 round is also fairly common and affordable. The round headspaces on the case mouth are not needed, and you couldn’t really use moon clips if you wanted to. The rounds drop in without drama, and it’s a simple setup that allows you to play cowboy without dealing with expensive ammo or the slow process of loading black powder guns.

Specs and Features

One thing that looks ridiculous on this gun is the six-inch barrel. It has a pocket in the name, but it wouldn’t fit a modern pocket. Admittedly, the weapon was intended more for a man’s jacket pocket from the 1860s. Various historical barrel lengths were available, including 3.5-, 4.5-, 5.5-, 6-, and 6.5-inch models.

Cimarron imports these guns from Uberti, an Italian manufacturer. Importation means compliance with the Gun Control Act, so the weapons have to meet certain point criteria to be imported legally. This includes metrics based on size, weight, caliber, and sight configuration. Cimarron had to import the six-inch barrel variant for the 1862 Pocket Navy to be importable in a centerfire configuration and maintain its status as an accurate historical piece.

At the end of that long barrel sits a single gold bead sight. It’s eye-catching, for sure, but not overly effective. The rear sight is a small notch on the hammer. It’s an interesting configuration and historically accurate but rudimentary at best.

The gun holds five rounds. We don’t get the pleasantry of an ejector rod, and you’ll need to bring your own punch rod to knock out empty cartridges. There isn’t a loading gate either, but the rounds sit just offset enough when cocked or with the hammer down to be out of line with the gate. The round will not slip out when loaded as long as the hammer isn’t in a half cock position.

Walking the Walk

Uberti did a great job building the gun. It’s a really beautiful weapon. The glossy blue finish looks great and absorbs fingerprints like a child’s mind absorbs curse words. The frame features a case-hardened design that looks fantastic. The backstrap and trigger guard are brass, and the grips are wooden.

The cylinder features some scrollwork to keep things looking fantastic. It looks like it should be a wall-hanger, but it’s a good little shooter as well.

To The Range

The simple sights work, but the gun isn’t particularly accurate. You expect a six-inch barrel to offer a nice long sight radius and to be plenty accurate. The fixed, minimalist sights don’t do you any favors, and groups ranging around four inches at 15 yards are the standard. There is nothing you can do to adjust the sights.

Accuracy hits the ‘it’s fine’ factor pretty hard. Hitting poppers and gongs is where it’s at. I really enjoyed shooting the weapon, and out to 25 yards, I hit a rather large popper and consistently enjoyed the ding.

The recoil is a little stiff but not painful. The long barrel balances the weapon well and helps keep everything fairly tame. The gun barks and bucks a bit, and it wants to fight its way upward, but the trigger guard isn’t slapping your middle finger. It’s brisk, and I think the smooth grips exaggerate its effects. A little checkering would go a long way to making the weapon easier to control and handle.

There isn’t a certain tightness to the hammer and gun. It’s as I can feel the rims of the .380 cartridges dragging a bit against the frame as I cock the hammer. It feels a little rough and not uber smooth when you cock the weapon. It fires fine and doesn’t seem to cause any reliability issues.

Speaking of, the gun always goes bang. There are no reliability concerns. It chews through all the Fiocchi .380 ACP I have on hand without complaint.

What’s the Point?

What’s the point of a rather large, five-shot, .380 ACP single action-only revolver that isn’t all that accurate? Well, it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun. It’s charming, relatively cheap to shoot, and a blast all around. Some guns can just be fun guns, and I think most cowboy guns fall under that fun gun territory. It’s a total blast to shoot.

The little .380 doesn’t offer a ton of recoil but still makes you feel like that Civil War-era cowboy. It’s a pocket .380, but it’s unlike every other pocket .380 ACP ever to exist. It’s just fun, and it’s even affordable. That’s a great mix to me.