ND: Black Powder Revolver

[fyrediver]

According to the article, the owner dropped his Colt .45 black powder pistol and it discharged shooting himself in the process.


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[hoody]

Storing a loaded cap and ball pistol seems like a bad idea: there's no easy way to fully unload/clear it. But at a minimum, why store it with caps on?

 

[Mark W.]

Storing a loaded cap and ball pistol seems like a bad idea: there's no easy way to fully unload/clear it. But at a minimum, why store it with caps on?

Curious where do you get the Idea this was a cap and ball revolver? Colt never made any 45cal cap and ball revolvers to start with and the article says nothing about it being a precussion revolver only that it was black powder. As would be any Colt SAA made before about 1894-95 when smokeless powder came into use.

These old SAA had a hammer spur type firing pin and if dropped on the hammer could easily fire.

 

[mrblond]

Sounds like he had 6 cartriges loaded instead of 5 with the hammer on a empty chamber.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Curious where do you get the Idea this was a cap and ball revolver? Colt never made any 45cal cap and ball revolvers to start with and the article says nothing about it being a precussion revolver only that it was black powder. As would be any Colt SAA made before about 1894-95 when smokeless powder came into use.

These old SAA had a hammer spur type firing pin and if dropped on the hammer could easily fire.

The Colt Dragoon takes a .454 ball though it's called a .44.

 

[Mark W.]

YES it does and its called .44 cal because the barrel is .44cal The caliber marked on the barrel will be .44 not .45 With a cap and ball revolver the ball used is larger then the cylinder so that when the ball is pressed into the cylinder it should actually cut a perfect tiny ring of lead off the ball to seal the cylinder. The long forcing cones these revolvers have tend to elongate the balls a little as they pass through them again causing a tight seal with the grooves in the barrel.

I have owned maybe a couple dozen various reproduction cap and ball revolvers over the past 30 years I have shot them.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Corngrats. The Ruger Old Army .45 shoots a .457.

 

[Mark W.]

Corngrats. The Ruger Old Army .45 shoots a .457.

yes but COLT didn't make it so it has no bearing on this discussion unless I missed something