Revolver Match Maintenance

[mcritelgmail.com]

I have recently hosted a mid 19th century winter shoot in the spirit of George Caleb Bingham's paint "Shooting for Meat". We amassed quality living historians from around the country to converge on a snowy plains day to shoot three different classes of competition.

Smoothbore and rifle went as planned, but I noticed a lot of straining to reload as the pistol match wore on. Initially we only set out for 3 shots, but found ourselves shooting many more. Some revolvers were fowling a bit which made the loading of the later round balls harder. There were no modern items allowed at the event, aside from a clearing kit hidden out of site.

So- what are your historically accurate methods for keeping this sort of problem to a minimum? Obviously, fowling happened and was a concern as the battles, etc wore on. I was shooting a Uberti 1851 colt with a 5.5" barrel, and had a little fowling by the end of the match, but ultimately won the pistol class.

 

[Kansas Jake]

I can't help with the "historically accurate" part. I do know my Remington replicas seem to foul in cylinder area more than my 1860 Colt replica. I will pull the cylinder on my Remington after a couple of cylinders and clean it and the cylinder pin to help with keeping things loose. I also use some grease or lube on the cylinder and pin. A little Hoppes Black Powder Solvent on the pin also helps to clean things up.

I know this isn't HC, but is what I do.

 

[Artificer]

Mitch,

Historically and in a gunfight or during war time; they fired the rounds in one revolver and the fight was over or they grabbed another loaded revolver or gun or knife. They didn't have time to reload and continue shooting, usually.

Some cased revolvers came with "loading and/or cleaning" rods and some of them had a metal tip that a ball screw, or worm or maybe an old time patch tip (not normally a loop tip) could be screwed into for use. A worm wound with tow would clean even the cylinders pretty effectively.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any accounts of what people did when they practiced or did target shooting. That doesn't mean there aren't any, though, it is just I have never run across any.

Gus

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I read somewhere that mounted cavalry would charge. firing their carbines, then their revolvers and lastly using their swords. If when the revolvers were nearly empty, or empty, the enemy line was not broken, they withdrew to a point of safety to reload, regroup and charge again. I read an account by a Union soldier about a Black Confederate unit covering Lee's withdraw from Gettysburg, and the Union man wrote with an apparent bit of frustration about how the Black unit repulsed the first three charges of Union Cavalry before being overrun. His account seemed to back up the charge and withdraw tactic. Darn though I can't find it now.

 

[mcritelgmail.com]

Given the majority of my background is in mid 19th century military muskets, I always think there has to be a way. But understand that there just isn't a whole lot of documentation for revolvers of the same period.

The search continues! Thanks fellas!