My brother has the opportunity to purchase this handgun. His interest is purely for collection purposes. Can anyone give me any information or websites so that I may help him on his decission on whether to buy it or not. Thanks in advance for your assistance in advance.
Alan D

You didn' t mention if it' s an original Colt or a reproduction? I' m sure you' re talking about a reproduction?If it' s an original Colt I would check Colt' s site out .www.colt.com. If it' s a repro it' s probably not much for collection purposes. These repro' s are a dime a dozen. If your brother wants a real shooter invest a little more and buy the Ruger " Old Army" .The original Colts are bring big money now.
Ruger Redhawk

Redhawk is right. If it is an orginal it will be worth serval thousands of dollars, and I would have it appraised by someone that: 1- really knows what its worth, and 2- can tell you if it is a knock off that someone is trying to portray as an original.

If you brother is looking at getting a cap n ball reproduction, most run for less than $200 new. The problem with any used black powder gun, is that often the orignal owner didn' t clean it properly, so check the barrel and cylinder very carefully for corrosion.

If he' s planning on shooting it - orginals must be checked over throughly by a good gun smith. Used reproductions should too, just it case the orignal owner did something stupid. I' ve got an article on my site that covers the basics of cap-n-ball shooting.

If it is an 1845 model Colt, and is actually .45 caliber, it may be exceedingly rare, since there were .44 caliber Colt Cap & Ball revolvers (Walker and Dragoon) models in that approximate time frame, but I have never heard of an " 1845 .45 caliber cap & ball Colt" .... Am not sure there ever was such a critter. To the best of my knowledge, Colt never made a .45 caliber revolver until the advent of the Single Action Army in .45 Colt caliber in 1873, and this one was a cartridge arm, not C & B !!

IF this gun has truly been represented to your brother as an " 1845 Colt Cap & Ball revolver, in .45 caliber" , have it checked by an expert for authenticity before parting with any cash!! There are a lot of fakes and forgeries in the Colt field from that era!!

You guys gave him good advice. I never heard of a 1845 either but then again I' m not really up on the Old Original Colt' s.I have a few Colt BP Pistols but they are the Second Generation.(?) I have a 1851 Navy, 1862 Pocket Police and a 1860 Army in S/S. There was a limited run of them by Colt in Stainless Steel.I' ve been thinking about selling them.I' m sure the S/S one would be worth a considerable amount since it was a limited production. The 1862 has been fired a few times by previous owner. The 1851 and 1860 are NIB Unfired.
Ruger Redhawk

I had a thought on the .45 Cal, since I' ve never heard of a .45 c-n-b revolver, but like Redhawk I' m not an expert on what Colt produced and when, but is it possible you are getting the .45 from the ball size. When shooting a C-n-B revolver you normally use a larger ball than the actual caliber. For example in my .44 I shoot both a .451 and a .454. When the ball is seated a thin ring of lead is shaved off the ball, this make a very tight seal between the ball and clyinder, and keeps the ball seated through the recoil when other clyinders are fired.

I don' t know about the year.