Prologue: I have a Pietta 1851 Navy Steel .36 (date code [CM]: 2014) and my newly-ordered Pietta Griswold and Gunnison Brasser should be here in a couple of days (date code [CN]: 2015). I want to use both pistols to mix/match parts to create as many as 14 different versions of an 1851 and its cousins (with the addition of a squareback TG). 5 will be somewhat accurate modern day copies of 150-year-old pistols: 1851 Navy 2nd and 3rd Models, Leech and Rigdon, Griswold and Gunnison, & Schneider and Glassick. The balance will be "fantasy" pistols.
Sorry to be so long winded.
Trying to be as historically accurate in appearance to the originals using replica pistols, I have researched many online sites and print books, and I keep finding a reference to a "pin-and-ball" lever catch (almost always on historical sites for L&R, G&G, and S&G), but no reference to any other type of catch. I have scoured Swayze's " '51 Colt Navies" and unless I completely missed something, I see no reference to a pin-and-ball catch and no other type, except for different dimensions on (IIRC) lug thicknesses and latch widths/depths. The same can be said for Shumaker's treatise on 1848/1848 Pockets.
What am I missing, and do the Piettas have the pin-and-ball latch?
And Hawg: I am really looking forward to see the difference between the backstraps on the Pietta 1851 and the Pietta G&G. For some reason, I can't believe that Pietta went the extra step to re-design the backstrap/grip differently than their 1851 Navy models. We shall see, but I'll probably end up deferring to you, sir.
Jim