Larry, I'm asking because I don't know the answers. Did Colt or Remington offer replacement cylinders for their revolvers? Or were they only offered/available with the initial purchase or aquisition of the revolver? I'm not disputing the opinion that spare cylinders weren't carried as often as some may think. I was just wondering about their availability. If cylinders were stamped with the last four digits of the serial number (as I know they were with Colt) then what would happen in the case of a repair or replacement? Even though I understand that damage to a cylinder had to be rare to cause need for total replacement. Were other revolvers scavenged for parts in this instance? And could this account for mis-matched numbers on some surviving examples? I'm really interested in this subject. And you appear to know your stuff. Can you shed more light? This subject reminds me of a Clint Eastwood movie where one of the characters was packing "pistols" everywhere he could find a place to stick one. One of the characters asked him "what are doing?" His reply was "I'm not getting killed for lack of shooting back". Haha. Very interesting subject. Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.

Keith