Patersons?

[Smokey Plainsman]

Anyone ever deal with the Colt’s Paterson’s?

Came out waaaaayyyy back in 1836, the first real practical revolver. Pietta makes a repro and EMF has them for sale in stock. I’m thinking about getting one. Yes I know they are much different from the later Colt’s and have a lot of quirks and are more complex.

I’ve been on a cap n’ ball kick lately and am looking for a challenge. I just love tinkering and stuff so I’m looking forward to it. Seems like such a beautiful gun to and I imagine it’s pretty fun to shoot and seems like it could be real accurate with that long 9” barrel.

Thoughts?

 

[sawyer04]

Make sure it comes with loading lever, I have seen some with and some without. It is an interesting firearm. I shot one 40 years ago and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, but not holding the weapon responsible.

 

[Zonie]

Most of the Patersons did not have an attached loading lever but they all came with a loading lever.
It was a loose lever with a plunger attached to it and to use it, the shooter removed the barrel and placed the lever thru the "wedge hole" in the cylinder arbor.
Once inserted, moving the lever moved the plunger up and down so it could ram the ball into the chamber.

As strange as this idea sounds, it was actually quite inventive. The only other common multi-shot handguns were the Pepperboxes, and almost none of them had any loading lever at all.

To understand why things like the Paterson loading lever was accepted you have to put yourself in the average handgun owners place back in the 1830's.

For 90 + % of the owners there wasn't a need to reload rapidly. They could sit in their parlor at the table and carefully load their guns in their leisure.
Once loaded, it was a rare occasion they would need to fire multiple shots and if they did, anyone who could get out of the area, did.
After the smoke cleared, the shooter could go back to his room or home, clean the gun and then carefully load it again.

 

[jonathan butcher]

Good info Zonie! The Colt Paterson is to me a pre-cursor for what was to follow, a kind of transition gun. I say this even though it found itself in battlefield conditions ( the Battle of Bandera Pass, Capt Jack Hayes ) it was certainly not robust nor practical from horseback nor particularly hard hitting.
But it provided multiple shots..

Most of the Patersons did not have an attached loading lever but they all came with a loading lever.
It was a loose lever with a plunger attached to it and to use it, the shooter removed the barrel and placed the lever thru the "wedge hole" in the cylinder arbor.
Once inserted, moving the lever moved the plunger up and down so it could ram the ball into the chamber.

As strange as this idea sounds, it was actually quite inventive. The only other common multi-shot handguns were the Pepperboxes, and almost none of them had any loading lever at all.

To understand why things like the Paterson loading lever was accepted you have to put yourself in the average handgun owners place back in the 1830's.

For 90 + % of the owners there wasn't a need to reload rapidly. They could sit in their parlor at the table and carefully load their guns in their leisure.
Once loaded, it was a rare occasion they would need to fire multiple shots and if they did, anyone who could get out of the area, did.
After the smoke cleared, the shooter could go back to his room or home, clean the gun and then carefully load it again.