Navy Arms Company

“You can have anything you want made in the gun shops in Brescia,” our friend told us. “What shall we make?” Val asked me. “The Navy Colt can be made for $20 in Germany; maybe it can be made for the same or less here,” I replied. On a handshake a deal was made and Navy Arms Company came into being. I was to supply the model and get the business going, for I had ways of transferring the pistol to Italy quickly and could follow up on the manufacturing details.
A full study was prepared by me of manufacturing all parts of the Navy Colt. Since I possess the first prototype and the first production model I flatter myself that their attention to the fitting of the lock work, the “lock timing,” is a consequence of translation and study of my manufacturing prospectus. The document included sketches of possible manufacturing set-ups, photos of engraved guns, and drawings of engraving layouts on the pistols.
Meanwhile, we tried to mail a Navy Colt to Brescia. The pistol was borrowed from a collector friend in

France and taken secretly to England, where it was delivered to an arms company for export directly to Italy. Though clearly marked as an antique, the pattern pistol was refused by the Italian customs authority because the addressee did not have a license to manufacture firearms. The addressee was the firm of Vittorio Gregorelli, a subcontractor to the Beretta factory on M-l Garand and on Beretta .30 caliber carbine parts, and general machinsts to the gun trade. But, Gregorelli did not make complete guns. The pistol was returned to England.
Desperate, Val turned to me and I promised to get my model pistol No. 82 over to the Italians. In the spring of 1958 I flew to Berchtesgaden, Germany, to cover the convention of the Association of Rod & Gun Clubs, U. S. Forces, Europe. There, I turned the pistol over to Johnny Neumyer, genial outdoor writer for Stars & Stripes. Johnny was fascinated by the project and promised to deliver the gun to his brother, Major Neumyer, stationed in Italy. He did, the Major got it to Brescia, and Gregorelli began cutting metal.
To be sure that the manufacture of the pistol was perfectly understood, Gregorelli was required to make 12 model arms (for promotional and display purposes). He made not 12, but 16 guns. I believe 10 of these were copies of the Colt Navy Ml851 pattern which I had supplied him, and the rest were with brass frames and round barrels, copies of the Confederate Griswold & Gunnison .36 Army revolver.
I received No. 1 of the Colt, the “Yank” and No. 13 of the “Reb” at my office only four or five days before I departed for Europe again. The models were excellent, brilliantly blued, but there were many details incorrect. “For gawdssake get over there, Bill, and get those details straightened out with the Italians,” was Val’s happy sentiment when I phoned him before my departure. This I did, and duly noted were some dozen changes between the prototypes and what should be produced by machine.
Most of the changes were subtle; two are obvious. The front sight in the prototypes was a blade dovetailed in from the front of the flat muzzle. This was decreed altered to a bead screwed into the top like the original Colt. Also, the screw heads of the guard screws were too large, and the brass of the guard plate had been left wide at the rear screws to surround the bigger heads. This caused the brass to project out slightly, not being flush with the thickness of the frame at that point. Also, the end of the guard plate was chopped just beyond the front guard screw; this was corrected to more nearly conform to the model. The handles on both “Yank” and “Reb” are like the Colt but not quite. I deliberately did not have them copy the inner curve and beveled angle on the back of the guard plate, since this made a quick distinction between the modern copy and the old original. The barrel tops from No. 1 of the production series were marked navy arms co; the prototypes are unmarked.
I was later glad the grips were so different; at a meeting of the Wisconsin Gun Collectors Association several years later I saw a neatly rusted brass framed pistol tagged “Confederate, $300.00”. I thought this price was a trifle unfair since Navy Arms Company only charged $89.95 list price for their pistols and that was with all the original blue and markings, not rusted and filed-off as this specimen of “Reb” that I saw before me. I did not bother to inform the advanced collector of his choice; the grip shape was a dead giveaway. Internally, of course, the tight and shallow rifling for 9mm is another giveaway. The prototypes had 7 grooves right hand (clockwise) twist; the production pistols from the first, 6 grooves.
Characteristic of the Navy Arms pistols is the absence of the Colt safety pins on shoulders between the nipples, and consequently lack of the tiny cut in hammer face to slip over these pins. The lip of hammer

Model arms in author’s collection include prototype Navy Arms pistols No. 1 “Yank” and No. 13 “Reb,” left and second; third and 4th pistols show Made In Italy stamping on barrel, are serial numbered Yank 1, and Reb 2. Brass-framed pistol is simulation of Griswold & Gunnison, though differences are at once obvious in handle and frame shapes.

New Model Army Colt .44 of 1860 was creation of Centennial Arms Corp., first issued in 1960. Pistol was intended for black powder shooting enthusiasts. Lyman wood-handle moulds were sold but firm now offers copy of Colt double cavity iron mould.

has a square notch rear sight instead of Colt’s Vee, a copy of the sighting notch I had filed in my own pistol for better aiming.
It was almost ten months from my visit in the summer of 1958 that corrected the production error, to the delivery of the first pistols to Navy Arms in New Jersey. From then to date the fabrication of these guns has been a steady business. Forgett thought it desirable to make a rifle, and I suggested the Remington “Zouave” rifle as being the most colorful of the Civil War patterns to be available for copying. While originally this manufacture was to be undertaken by one shop in Brescia the Italian agent of Navy Arms did not agree with the contractor as to terms, and the job was given to another maker, Zoli.
Navy Arms also contracted for the Remington .44. At about the time the Italians began to work on the Remington revolver, I learned that a Pennsylvania gunsmith and machinist, Witloe Precision, Incorporated, of Collingdale, proposed to fabricate a copy of the New Model Remington .44 and price it at $125. I happened to know that cost estimates on the Navy Arms Remington ran approximately 10 per cent of that and also, that Witloe didn’t know of the pending release of the Navy Arms gun. I notified a go-between that in my opinion Witloe would lose his shirt on trying to build 5,000 of these guns to sell at $125, and let it go at that.
Witloe was too deeply committed in parts stock to stop, and for a time it appeared that he and Navy Arms might make some deal in which Navy Arms would buy him out of the Remington business. But this folded and Witloe decided to go it alone. He has produced a bronze framed model, somewhat after the Spiller & Burr Confederate guns, calling it the “Lee,” with the iron framed pistol the “Grant.” All are .44, 8-inch, blued finish and exceedingly well made, to justify the quite high price. Perhaps because the model of Remington copied is of most interest to the black powder target shooter, due to the sights being more in a fixed relation than the Colt style, the Witloe guns will probably not fall afoul of special markings and faking.