Old Revolver With A Story

Over twenty years ago while I was in college my roomate and I decided to order 2 black powder revolvers.

I ordered a replica pistol patterned after the 1851 .44 caliber Navy revolver. The thing I liked about it was the full brass frame and the ornately engraved sailing ships on the cylinder.

My buddy ordered a replica of the New Army model. His replica is the one shown in the picture. His pistol was a little more robust, less detail but heavier built with a smooth cylinder. The trigger guard on his was brass but the frame was steel.

Both were good quality Italian made firearms.

We were under 21 at the time and discovered we could order these through the mail because there was no age restriction on black powder pistols back then.

My friend liked to mess around with stuff (too much) and I had given him permission to shoot my pistol, when I was away on vacation.

The Navy model had one thing that really irritated my friend. To sight the pistol a groove had been cut in the hammer. The idea was, in the fully cocked position one could use the hammer to help aim. The problem was due to the springs that moved the hammer forward the hammer would drift slightly throwing the accuracy off. The New Army had a deep sighting groove down the length of the top of the frame. One other difference is the Navy had a smooth rounded barrel while the Army had a heavier octagon barrel.

I liked the pistol and did not want any improvements made. My friend could not leave it alone. Long story short he ended up breaking it and gave me his New Army to replace my now non-functioning Navy model.

The guns were fun and messy to shoot. The right amount of powder was put into a chamber of the cylinder. Then a round lead ball (sized .454) was placed in the opening of the chamber. A lever under the barrel then was unlatched and used to seat the lead ball in the chamber. Some lead would shear off in the process but it would make a tighter seal that way.

This action had to be repeated 6 times to fill the whole cylinder.

Grease then needed to be applied to the outer rim of the cylinder on the bullet side to prevent a "chain fire". A chain fire was when powder residue ignited potentially igniting portions of the cylinder not inline with the barrel. In layman's terms the pistol could turn into a bomb. With this in mind my friend and I put plenty of grease on when we fired the pistols.

The last step was to put little red firing caps on the rear of the cylinder covering the "nipples" (black powder terms not mine) and fire the pistol.

Both firearms were single action meaning that the hammer had to be pulled back each time before firing. A double action fires when the trigger is pulled or when the hammer is cocked to the rear.

It was very satisfying to hold a heavy steel pistol in one's hand, point it, pull the trigger and send a large piece of lead toward a target. There was a big puff of smoke that would obscure the target. Sometimes we wouldn't know if we hit the target until the smoke cleared away.