O.K. have a close look at these photos and see if you can quickly tell which one is the Modelgun OR AM I BEING SMART AND THEY ARE BOTH REAL 1851 Navy Colts?Seeing them side by side in real life, you have to take a very close look, because one just might be an older Colt than the other. They even feel the same weight. It is a credit to the Japanese modelgun makers that it is so hard at first glance.
What gives the modelgun gun away are the safety designs that stop it from being loaded and fired: the blocked barrel and the partially blocked chambers in the cylinders.
Next is the under barrel ram lever. First, the release catch is not just the release catch itself – the whole lever moves as it is spring-loaded. Second. The lever only travels part way, because of the cylinder bocks.
Even closer inspection shows many of the dimensions a placement of screws and components differ from the real deal! The trigger guard is wider and slightly larger on the replica. There are ribbed finger grips on the hammer and the lever release – but maybe some Colts did have those features too. The real Colt I have does not.
And it field strips totally differently. On the replica the take-down wedge is a dummy – you have to remove the hex bolt with an Allen key (wrench) situated under the hammer to disassemble the revolver.
Made in the late 1960’s and early 70’s the MGC Navy Colts didn’t find approval in the market place at the time. Semi-auto pistols or WW2 automatics were more popular, so relatively fewer numbers were manufactured. Because of their rarity today these modelguns can fetch MORE than a real deal antique in the collector’s market in some countries!
I hope you’ll agree MGC made an excellent replica Navy colt – one of the first many fine modelguns before they finally closed down in 2007. See this link for a History of modelguns by
Smootik :
https://mp40modelguns.forumotion.net/t1949-history-of-modelgun-industryKiwigunner 
Sat Oct 08, 2011 1:26 pm
