Curiosity regarding Confederate Brass revolvers

[Toomuch_36]

Will do. Like I said, I was just cruising Cheaperthandirt. I used to buy a lot of ammo from them, and of course sometimes they have some pretty cool novelty (ex-mil) stuff too...

If I recall correctly, Midway had better prices on reloading gear too.

It has been my experience that in most cases Cheaperthandirt prices are not. In many cases, for bulk ammo especially they are usually higher than MSRP.

Toomuch
.............
Shoot Flint

 

[cdg]

Not to take this off topic, but they used to be able to get a great deal on some cheap-manure Winchester ammunition... haven't ordered from them within the last year though. I still like some of the neat manure they have, particularly the old bags and novelty junk... :grin: I guess I have an eye for useless manure.

 

[almrl]

Read in a biography of JEB STUART some time ago that he preferred his men to use the sabre, more dashing, daring, etc.

BTW Stuart was mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern with a pistol, by Private John Huff, a dismounted Michigan Cavalry trooper.

Old Coot

 

[almrl]

During the WAR OF THE REBELLION,the rebs made the following revolvers:

Agusta Machine Works (browned finish '51 Navy type)abt 100 made.

T. W. Cofer (brass framed, spur trigger) est.50-140 made.

Columbus Fire Arms Mfg. (browned finish '51 Navy type) est. 100 made.

J. H. Dance & Brothers (.36 & .44 blued finish, no recoil shields) est. 325-500 made.

Griswold & Gunnison (brass frame, '51 Navy type) est. 3,700 made.

Leach & Rigdon (blued finish, '51 Navy type) est. 1,500 made.

Rigdon, Ainsley (blued finish, '51 Navy type) est. 1,000 made.

Spiller & Burr (brass framed Whitney type) est. 1,450 made.

George Todd (blued or browned finish, '51 Navy type) less than a handful made.

Tucker, Sherrard (parts mf'd during the war but not completed until after the Rebel surrender.

Per "Flayderman's Guide to Antique American Firearms"

Old Coot

 

[benvenuto]

They were brass not bronze. Machining wasn't the problem, raw materials was. A good portion of the brass used came from church bells from all across the south. Sorry to disappoint you but infantry troops tossed revolvers by the roadside by the hundreds. Some were sent home and some were traded but there was such a glut of unwanted revolvers they weren't worth much. Revolvers were a short range weapon whereas the rifle was good for several hundred yards. I could see cavalry troops tossing a rifle to keep a revolver but not infantry.

Sorry to disappoint you, but church bells are made of bronze... thats copper and tin as the two main constituents usuallly (90:10 with a trace of iron for good tone), not copper and zinc.

In early european conflicts, church bells were regularly and sucessfully recast as bronze cannon, and in the second american civil war bells may have ended up as 12 pdr Napoleons.

Brass revolver frames were probably recycled from other sources.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Since this thread seems to have been revived I'll add; the "brass framed" Henry and '66 Winchester rifles were also bronze and didn't stretch so badly as the modern brass replicas. And I still feel that bronze was chosen for revolver frames because of easier machining. Why are modern brass replicas cheaper today, even though brass is the much more expensive metal? I can mill brass with the cross-feed vise of my drill press. Any attempt to mill even dead soft mild steel results in disaster.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

Brass is much easier to machine than steel and can be cast very close to finish dimension is a reason the South used it in making revolvers.
I had 2 brass-framed '58 Remington 'Buffalo' revolvers and used max loads quite a bit in them shooting a ball, they never 'loosened up', I sold them but regret doing so now. They were 'Pietta's'
I don't know how they would do shooting a hot load using conical slugs but I suspect they would last a long time, maybe 1000's of shots.

 

[philo426]

I don't like brass-framed revolvers because they aren't as good looking as a color case-hardened steel frame.Just a personal preference!

 

[G. W. Gill]

From about '72 -'78 I shot a brass framed Rem. I used heavy loads. It became unsafe and I disabled it. It was a good pistol and saw many thousand rounds through it. Italian Repro.

 

[benvenuto]

With the modern replicas, I'd say the manufacturers are as lax with their terminology as the customers.

Until someone digs a chip out of their revolver frame and send it for analysis, we will never know for certain wether it is silicon bronze, manganese bronze, "straight" bronze (gunmetal), brass or what :winking:

I was quite convinced for a long time that all original bronze pistol and carbine barrels were "straight" gunmetal but then someone did some research and found out there were bronze barrels that had traces of nickle, lead, and iron in the mix; and some that were actually brass (nickle-zinc and trace elements).

Whether these elements got in there by accident or by a result of someones secret formula, we'll never know, but hey were fine shooting guns! :hatsoff: