ACW Repeating Caplock?

[Loyalist Dave]

Hello Everybody!
One of my favorite movies is El Dorado with John Wayne, and Robert Mitchum, and James Caan. Almost stealing the show from Caan is Arthur Honnicut, who plays "Bull" the town deputy. One of the "fun" parts of Bull's character, he uses an 1855 Colt/Root revolving rifle...,

they never fully say, but it may be left over from the ACW. No idea if Bull has had it converted over to use cartridges or not.... here he is shooting the thing in the movie....,

Then I found a video of one, and it's a pretty good, overall look, at the caplock rifle. The host of the video settles on what I'd a thought was a pretty light load. I would've expected the rifle should be loaded closer to a Walker load....



LD

 

[Stantheman86]

Colt's "Revolving wheel of Misfortune " they were called.

They were a commercial failure and some were used as Sharpshooter rifles in the ACW. Apparently very prone to chain fire and the fact that your arm is in front of the cylinder gap was not a good design feature.

The one journal entry of a soldier describes shooting one of these and he spent "all the evening picking lead out of my arms and face"

At one time Palmetto made a repro of the Colt Root rifle but I don't think they sold well.

A guy in 3:10 to Yuma has one but it's a cartridge conversion

 

[tenngun]

I remember seeing the repos in catalogs, but also write ups on them. Most states didn’t let them be used in ml season. So it was a shooter and not a hunter.
I would think some cowboy action guys would use them. But I’ve never seen one shot.

 

[Carbon 6]

I have a 58 Remington repro made by Armi-Sport. The gun shoots well, but is so miserable to shoot is has only seen the light of day twice in over 30 years.

Your face is about an inch from the cylinder when you pull the trigger. To close for me.

 

[Stantheman86]

The Revolving Rifle is something that everyone tried but no one made it work.

I always kinda wanted one of the Remington 1858 carbines but I figured it offered very little over the handgun version.

Uberti makes a neat "unmentionable " 1873 revolver carbine though . I'd like to own that.

 

[Treestalker]

One cool looking gun, but without a steel gauntlet on the hand that holds the forearm, it would be a single shot! You hold the forearm and I'll shoot it, Ha!

 

[desi23]

A few units used them with varied success during the war. The cylinder flash, occasional lead spitting and the fear of a crossfire certainly affected their popularity. Some liked having multiple shots available but, once empty, they took longer to re-load. There are contemporary illustrations showing that Colt advised what is basically a two hand hold with the support hand cupping the firing hand instead of on the fore end. I have one of the Remington carbine replicas and that is the type of hold I use with it. It is fun to shoot and very accurate but the flash being so close to your face is ...impressive. I wouldn't care to shoot it without safety glasses like they would have done in the old days

 

[TFoley]

Unbelievably, Berdan's Sharpshooters were initially issued with this mechanical klutz.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Now that I look hard at the one Bull is shooting, I see the wood is cut back and no ramrod. So his must be converted for Hollywood. Not to mention the low amount of smoke and flame.


I think the carbine based on the 1858 Remington a better idea, and faster on the reload, either with a second cap and ball cylinder or if one uses a conversion cylinder. Because of the smaller size, much easier to use both hands at the trigger guard, a la "Colonel Mortimer" played by Lee Van Cleef.



LD

 

[Kevin K]

The Colt 1855 carbine that Bull uses in El Dorado is definitely fitted with a percussion cylinder. Heck, it was probably his from the war!

The carbine Lee Van Cleef uses is a long Colt SAA with a detachable stock, which came to be known in the late 1950s as the Bluntline Special. They retained their original pistol grip, so hand positioning is fairly intuitive.

The Remington 1858 style (1865?) revolving breech rifle actually has a little spur on the trigger guard to hook your off hand index finger on. A reminder of where to stick your off hand? I wouldn't want it out front unless it was a cartridge gun! I have one of these by Uberti. Prettiest stock on a spaghetti gun I have ever seen. Definitely wear a bandana and eyes, though. Caps pop real close to the face.

 

[bang]

Colt's "Revolving wheel of Misfortune " they were called.

They were a commercial failure and some were used as Sharpshooter rifles in the ACW. Apparently very prone to chain fire and the fact that your arm is in front of the cylinder gap was not a good design feature.

The one journal entry of a soldier describes shooting one of these and he spent "all the evening picking lead out of my arms and face"

At one time Palmetto made a repro of the Colt Root rifle but I don't think they sold well.

A guy in 3:10 to Yuma has one but it's a cartridge conversion

Yep better be a cartridge virsion.