Dave, great info. Between that and what Steve said it made me do a little different searching and found that his reported last pair are in fact converted .44 Armies. It seems info and pictures are something the Adams Museum in Deadwood is not very willing to share. I've been looking at too many repro navies, they do come in .44, my mistake.
I even found a hint that he may have carried Dragoons at one time.
From Historynet.com---
"Besides Hickok's obvious liking for Colt Navy revolvers, at various times he was armed with, or proficient in the use of, Colt's Model 1848 Dragoon. By the early 1870s, however, the introduction of centerfire and rimfire revolvers to replace the still popular percussion, or cap-and-ball, arms was led in the United States by Smith & Wesson. That company's No. 3 model in .44 rimfire, which broke open to load or eject its cartridges, was superseded by Colt's New Model Army revolver, the "Peacemaker." Hickok did not get his hands on the latter, but when, in March 1874, he left Buffalo Bill's theatrical Combination, William "Buffalo Bill" Cody and Texas Jack Omohundro presented him with a pair of Smith & Wesson No. 3 "American" revolvers. Later that year it was reported from Colorado that Hickok carried them, but by the time he reached Deadwood in Dakota Territory, they had disappeared and he either had the old cap-and-ball Navy revolvers or perhaps a pair of Colt's transitional rimfire or centerfire revolvers known as "conversions" . "
Here is a neat site with production numbers and specs for the early Colts.
click here
Tim
