Recently acquired a brand new 1863, 31 caliber of course. ( My avatar picture in fact )
I'm pretty happy with it but it does something I don't believe I have ever seen my 1858 do. When the cylinder is removed on half cock and the hammer is drawn all the way back, the hand moves up into a position that looks like it sticks out further than it would with the cylinder present and the trigger is unable to be pulled until I take my finger and manually push down the cylinder stop bolt.
The gun functions perfectly fine with the cylinder installed. I recently loaded up two cylinders with four rounds ( so as to keep the hammer on an empty ) and aside from relatively horrible accuracy, it functions fine and had a 100% fire on the first drop rate.
Shooting at a pizza box size Target from 20 ft or thereabouts, I was able to keep three out of four rounds on paper.
I certainly won't be going and stalking any deer or hogs with it anytime soon.
I'm pretty happy with it but it does something I don't believe I have ever seen my 1858 do. When the cylinder is removed on half cock and the hammer is drawn all the way back, the hand moves up into a position that looks like it sticks out further than it would with the cylinder present and the trigger is unable to be pulled until I take my finger and manually push down the cylinder stop bolt.
The gun functions perfectly fine with the cylinder installed. I recently loaded up two cylinders with four rounds ( so as to keep the hammer on an empty ) and aside from relatively horrible accuracy, it functions fine and had a 100% fire on the first drop rate.
Shooting at a pizza box size Target from 20 ft or thereabouts, I was able to keep three out of four rounds on paper.
I certainly won't be going and stalking any deer or hogs with it anytime soon.