People overestimate how often percussion revolvers were reloaded...

[Whughett]

"Filling the room with pistol smoke" kinda sticks in my head. Sounds like an accurate description of a bar-room gunfight.

Those old staged photos weren't digital, nor polaroid. Some are accurate, others not at all. Later on, photography evolved to faster exposure times allowing greater freedom to capture images. Regardless, exposure times could be quite lengthy - even in sunlight.

Mathew Brady's work still garners my admiration.

Would not take many pistol shots of black to fill the room to obscurity
On windless days at my club the smoke can actually hang in the air like fog.

 

[Bobby44]

Sometimes when I cannot get a cap to fit a nipple I think about cavalry. On horse, gloves on, one hand on your primary weapon - the saber. While controlling a horse in a mad environment I think - should I try to reload? Or even try to knock apart your Colt and exchange cylinders.?The answer? 2 Colts. 1 on the belt. 1 on the saddle. When they are empty it does not matter. Keep your hand on the saber!
Only ever saw a cylinder exchange on tv. Hell on Wheels. The star changes cylinders walking to the next fight.

 

[SPQR70AD]

I routinely shoot black powder revolvers once or twice a week. Colts style can easily handle 100 plus rounds with out cleaning and very little loss in accuracy at 12 to 15 yards.
Pretty much the same for Ruger Old Armies and Rogers and Spencer’s.
Remington Style revolvers on the other hand will need the base pin wiped and oiled after as few as 12 rounds depending on one’s powder charge and the caliber.

The differences is found in the arbors of the Colts, much larger in diameter and with numerous grooves for powder fouling to collect in. Compared to the Remingtons base pin which is much smaller and has no clearance to accommodate powder fouling. The ROA’s and R&S’s design has a bushing on the cylinder face that deflects the fouling gases around and away from the base pin.
As mentioned properly lubed and loaded with round balls I haven’t observed any loss of accuracy due to bore fouling.
My typical range visit is 98 rounds of percussion and often additional black powder cartridges with conversion cylinders both in Colts and Remingtons. I shoot a lot of black powder and round balls in percussion and black and bullets in 45Colt.
And I have every model of Colts revolvers with the exception of the Dragoons and several calibers in the Remingtons, and my real pride a Remington Revolving Carbine by Urberti from Taylor’s and Company. It and a 5” NMA share cylinders and a conversion cylinder.

I would take a brass framed Rem 1858 on my framing jobs and shoot it every day after work 50-60 times never missed a beat I never knew about the cylinder pin issue. I used crisco lube over the chambers and shot until we got tired of loading it. guys that have to take apart a 1858 and clean the base pin are using a lube or wads that dont do anything . if I had to take the gun apart after 12 shots I would throw it away

 

[Stantheman86]

Sometimes when I cannot get a cap to fit a nipple I think about cavalry. On horse, gloves on, one hand on your primary weapon - the saber. While controlling a horse in a mad environment I think - should I try to reload? Or even try to knock apart your Colt and exchange cylinders.?The answer? 2 Colts. 1 on the belt. 1 on the saddle. When they are empty it does not matter. Keep your hand on the saber!
Only ever saw a cylinder exchange on tv. Hell on Wheels. The star changes cylinders walking to the next fight.

Jeff Daniels is shown in Gettysburg taking apart his Colt 1860, and I always wondered what exactly he was doing because carrying an extra loaded cylinder wouldn't seem likely at all

 

[flatcapper]

Check out the Clint Eastwood movie Josie Wales. He carried 4-6 guns and never reloads during a fight. He just switches pistols. I saw one western where the shooter actually carried backup cylinders and changed them to reload during a fight. Rather rare but did get shown in a couple of period movies. On a side note I'm making my own #10 caps now. Haven't tried them but comes out ro an unlimited supply.

 

[Eutycus]

Check out the Clint Eastwood movie Josie Wales. He carried 4-6 guns and never reloads during a fight. He just switches pistols. I saw one western where the shooter actually carried backup cylinders and changed them to reload during a fight. Rather rare but did get shown in a couple of period movies. On a side note I'm making my own #10 caps now. Haven't tried them but comes out ro an unlimited supply.

It sounds as if you're possibly thinking about the movie "Pale Rider".

 

[Stantheman86]

It sounds as if you're possibly thinking about the movie "Pale Rider".

I was just thinking that, where he has the cylinder pouches with spare cylinders.

 

[shorthair]

Check out the Clint Eastwood movie Josie Wales. He carried 4-6 guns and never reloads during a fight. He just switches pistols. I saw one western where the shooter actually carried backup cylinders and changed them to reload during a fight. Rather rare but did get shown in a couple of period movies. On a side note I'm making my own #10 caps now. Haven't tried them but comes out ro an unlimited supply.

My question was always about how rare that system would have been since spare cylinders were probably fairly hard to come by and likely would have had to be hand fitted. If we are talking about battlefield pickups then why would a guy throw away the rest of the revolver to keep just the cylinder? These folks didn't waste much unlike modern folks.

 

[stephenprops1]

Remember movie 'Zulu' where the guys hands were shaking so much he could hardly stick a Cartridge into his Webley? That's the reality. Try that DURING COMBAT with loose, or, OK, paper cartridges. Oh, and little copper caps.

The guy was Lieutenant Charad, one of the commanders. His hands were shaking after the threat had passed. You may have noted that the second the Zulu returned for the next assault wave Charad's hands quit shaking. --- My dad was like that and so am I. The thought of what could have happened is unsettling. The instant the threat is present we were/are lucky to be able to function.

 

[toot]

Photographic studio props

that is one HELLEVA photo!!! he is bringing many guns to a GUN FIGHT!!! & a knife/ sword!!

 

[Sixgun_Symphony]

I watched Gettysburg last night and there were Cavalrymen and Officers taking 200 yard shots their revolvers while on line with the Infantry guys....I'm like hey why not , might as well get in the fight

They would be shooting at a large mass of company sized infantry formations rather than at individual men.

This was why rifles of The Great War had sights that went up to 2000 meters sometimes. It was from 19th century conflicts, especially colonial wars, where volley fire was still used on large masses of an enemy.

 

[Flintlock Whiskey]

It sounds as if you're possibly thinking about the movie "Pale Rider".

Pale Rider is where his character swaps out the cyl on a Remington. Thought about carrying an extra cylinder but the caps being exposed to getting knocked on made me think twice.

 

[Crowtalks]

In John Wesley Hardin's autobiography he mentions an incident which took place during a cattle drive. A conflict arose with another cattle outfit which prompted Hardin to pull a percussion pistol "that I had worn out from shooting on the trail" or words to that affect. Hardin also mentions that when the gun was cocked he had to hold the cylinder in place with his other hand and when he had emptied that gun at his adversaries he went back to camp to get better armed. So I guess someone was doing some shooting and reloading. But I understand the original point--there probably wasn't a lot of "tactical reloads" during a gunfight.

I saw an old newspaper article where Hardin was attacked by a school mate when he was twelve, because Hardin was accused of insulting a girl in school. The classmate attacked Hardin with a knife, Hardin took the knife away from the kid and stabbed him with his own knife. The article said Hardin (his Dad was the school principle) "almost got in trouble" over the incident. My, how times have changed!

 

[Stantheman86]

My question was always about how rare that system would have been since spare cylinders were probably fairly hard to come by and likely would have had to be hand fitted. If we are talking about battlefield pickups then why would a guy throw away the rest of the revolver to keep just the cylinder? These folks didn't waste much unlike modern folks.

I doubt it was ever done . It was probably tried , because people were as curious back then as we are now but I had problems swapping cylinders in Pietta .36 Navies that are made with modern production techniques, let alone original revolvers that were hand fitted.

 

[shorthair]

I saw an old newspaper article where Hardin was attacked by a school mate when he was twelve, because Hardin was accused of insulting a girl in school. The classmate attacked Hardin with a knife, Hardin took the knife away from the kid and stabbed him with his own knife. The article said Hardin (his Dad was the school principle) "almost got in trouble" over the incident. My, how times have changed!

I believe that Hardin's father was a preacher and was pretty disappointed by his son's failure to follow his way of life.

 

[kansas_volunteer]

The guy was Lieutenant Charad, one of the commanders. His hands were shaking after the threat had passed. You may have noted that the second the Zulu returned for the next assault wave Charad's hands quit shaking. --- My dad was like that and so am I. The thought of what could have happened is unsettling. The instant the threat is present we were/are lucky to be able to function.

When high on adrenalin one remains pretty steady, but as the "drug" wears off violent shakes often set in. Once when a platoon leader I was in a situation where I stayed high on adrenalin for quite a while doing everything cool and calm and correct. When I finally got my patrol behind the wire I went off and set by myself and tried to relax. I began shaking uncontrollably. I couldn't have reloaded my M16 if I had needed to. After a withdrawal period I got back to my normal self. The scenes in Zulu could be considered chemically correct, even by accident. Old west gunfighters like Hardin or cavalry men might have been better reloaders in a fight than they could have been afterward.

 

[Robby]

Eat a snickers or a John Wayne bar, that'll calm you down.
Robby

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

I can see it more in an actual combat scenario, like Civil War, Indian Wars, etc when sure, you had to re-stuff your six gun to keep shooting , of course it was likely done but probably not very often. The movie Gettysburg which , for it's time tried to be totally correct shows Col. Chamberlain reloading his Colt in between Confederate charges but I don't think he'd be doing that while actively engaged. I have a hard time capping a revolver when I've had too much coffee let alone while getting shot at

But yes it would all depend on the situation.

I was going to mention that very thing but you beat me to it...

 

[Dale Lilly]

Im not usually a revolver shooter [I have six] but I enjoyed the 'education' I received in this thread. Thanks. Polecat

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

Some mentioned on here somewhere....if there were so many spare cylinders back in the day, Ex,. Gettysburg........where are they and what happened to them?