Book Review - Handbook of Modern Percussion Revolvers.

Handbook of Modern Percussion Revolvers. Michael Morgan. 2013

This book is a simple, straight forward ”how to” book for those who want to shoot replica percussion revolvers of the Western period. The author does start with a little history, but is very quickly into the technicalities of live shooting pistols.

At just over 150 pages this 5” x 7” book this well illustrated book, will take you through all the stages of loading, firing and trying to get the best from your percussion revolver. It also has detailed guides on cleaning, stripping and reassembling the common replica pistols.

This may not be a book for the reenactor, but is certainly worth a read if you want to start shooting percussion revolvers. The clear photos give you a good safe step by step guide to loading shooting and clean your pistol.

What Gun would you have in the 1880s -Part 4

Cartridge Conversions and Cartridge Revolvers!

If you have done your homework after part 3 you will now be able to spot a Colt 1851 Navy, Colt 1860 Army and a Remington 1858. You may have even got your heads around all that muzzle loading nonsense! You would have also spotted that the “Percussion” blank fire pistols that we use take those new-fangled cartridges! That is because they are cartridge conversion revolvers – I’ll explain!

In the early 1850s Smith and Wesson where trying to develop a self-contained metallic cartridge. They took a European idea developed by Flobert; he had put a .22 ball in a percussion cap to create a very low power cartridge. It was used in indoor target pistols and was so low power it was no good for hunting or defensive use. Our heroes took this idea and developed the .22 rim fire cartridge, it later developed into the .22LR. This is probably the most used cartridge in the UK today.

Having developed a cartridge they now set about making a pistol, so they built a dinky little 7 shot .22 pocket revolver that had bored through cylinders so you could load the ammo from the back just like a modern pistol. The problem was that a chap called Rollin White, who worked for Colt, had the patent on this idea. Unfortunately for Colt he had dismissed Rollin’s ideas and pistol design, so Mr White was happy to sell the idea to Smith and Wesson.

By 1857 S&W were manufacturing a 7 shot .22 revolver and they quickly went on to make a bigger .32 calibre revolver. While nowhere near as powerful as a .44 percussion revolver, the ease of reloading and weatherproof properties of a metal cartridge made them very popular with troops fighting the US Civil War. By the end of the Civil War a number of metallic cartridges existed including those to fit the Henry rifle, Sharpes rifle plus others and all the pistol manufactures knew how to make cartridge revolvers but couldn’t due to Rollin Whites Patent.

Every time a company made a cartridge revolver, Rollin White took them to court to protect his patent. (The story of “patent evasion” and “patent avoiding” pistols is a saga in its own right!) So while Colt and Remington couldn’t make a cartridge revolver nothing stopped local (unknown) gunsmiths from converting percussion revolvers into cartridge revolvers, often to take a Henry .44 cartridge. All this is all just a long way of saying that our Colt Navy and Colt Army Revolvers that take blank 9mm cartridges are really replicas of these “cartridge conversion” pistols.

The patent finally expired in 1871 and now anyone could make a cartridge revolver. Remington made the “Improved New Model Army” a cartridge version of the 1858 Remington percussion pistol, this is what we really have in our blank fire Remington 1858s. Colt had loads of percussion parts to use up so they just made there own factory cartridge conversions of the Army and Navy models. But they were working on a better design!

1873 saw Colt release the “Single Action Army” (SAA) or as often called the “Peacemaker”! A much stronger pistol than the old Colt Navy and Army models and one designed for metallic cartridges! Bruni, Kimar, Uberti, Pietta and many others all make replicas of this pistol! But percussion pistols where not dead, Remington still offered a percussion version of the 1858 until 1888, often a pistol would come with two cylinders, one for percussion and one for cartridges.

Colt Richards Conversion

Book Review - Colt Single Action, from Paterson to Peacemakers.

Colt Single Action, from Paterson to Peacemakers. By Dennis Adler 2006.

I must admit right from the start this one of my favourite Colt books, a great mixture of coffee table quality photos and great information. This A4 landscape book is 300 plus pages with lots of photos on each page. most are contemporary images of historic pistols. As the title suggest the author covers the period of Colt’s early Patterson pistols, in the 1830s, up to the introduction of the Peacemaker in the 1870s.

Along with the history of the guns Dennis also covers some of the famous, or infamous former owners. This brings a human factor to the book and the story of Colts pistol’s that adds colour to the tale. A lot of engraved and presentation pistols are featured, if you like your pistols plain you maybe disappointed but if you like at bit of “bling” you’ll love it.

All in all, this is a good, entertaining book to start your education into Colts or a good addition to a growing library of western firearm literature.

What gun Would I have in the 1880s? Part 3

What gun Would I have in the 1880s? Part 3

Percussion Revolvers – Let the fun begin!

Pre the 1800s a few attempts had been made to make a repeating firearm, and one of the methods tried was a revolving cylinder. 1818 saw the first patent for an American made revolver by Artemas Wheeler, with the same design being improved and patented by Elisha Collier later in the same year. This turned out to be an evolutionary dead end. The real hero of our story turned up with a patent in 1936, a certain Samuel Colt. Colt goes on to make nearly a million percussion revolvers, more than twice the number of his nearest rival Remington.

By the 1880s over 200 different patents had been lodged for revolvers or improvements to revolver design and probably nearly as many gun makers had come and gone during that time. The Civil War had seen the country flooded with home production pistols as well as handguns imported from Europe, so our choice is wide. Or it should be!

If you have deep pockets real antique pistols are available, but look to spend at least £600 for a working but tatty revolver and you can easily part with a couple of grand! No licence is required, and you can fire (percussion) caps to get a bang but maybe not something you want to run around in the woods with.

The main options are modern made replica/ blank fire pistols. This really limits your choice to a few Colt and Remington models. But you do come across the occasional Starr or Spiller and Burr replica. Most are made by Italian arms companies such as Pietta and Uberti but there are others. They make high quality revolvers with the same model made in several different forms, as a real shooting pistol, as an inert pistol and a blank fire pistol. While we need a licence to own a real shooting pistol, one that has been deactivated is useful to us if it can fire caps. Inert versions with blocked barrels are again useful as they can also normally fire caps and of course blank fire pistols work for us.

This limits us to only a few models: - Colt Navy (1851), Colt Army (1860) and Remington 1858. These were all very common, quality, military percussion revolvers of the period and were normally made with a 7 ½” barrel and steel frames.

But a modern-day reworking of history has given us a few extra variations! During the Civil War the Confederates made a few Colt copies with brass frames, so you can now get a Confederate Colt Navy, Confederate Colt Army and Confederate Remington pistol all with brass frames. The barrel lengths have also been changed to give us a shorter version in each. With 5 ½” barrels this version is normally referred to as a “Sheriff” model. So, you can get, for example, a Confederate Sheriff Navy – A navy style pistol with a brass frame and a shorter barrel. This variation can be applied to the Colt Army and Remington as well. While we have only got a choice of 3 base models, each has 4 variations, with a choice of steel or brass frames and long and short barrels. If you wish to be 100% correct go with a steel frame and a long barrel. But brass framed pistols are normally cheaper and short barrels are often more convenient.

I will leave blank fire pistols until next time as we must get out heads around “cartridge conversion” pistols and the story of Rollin White. But for now, you can “Google” Colt Navy, Colt Army and Remington 1858s as the internet has loads of info on our 3 favourite percussion revolvers.

Percussion Pistol

Book Review - Packing Iron. Gunleather of the Frontier West

Packing Iron - Gunleather of the Frontier West. Richard C. Rattenbury. 1993

This book is a must have if you are interested in holsters, belts and associated leather work of the American West. This full colour A4 size book of over 200 pages guides you through the history and evolution of holsters. This is illustrated with black and white period photos and modern images of original holsters many with their period pistols.

Belts, saddle bags and rifles cases are also covered along with shoulder holsters and other ways of concealed carry! This book is a great reference for general interest as well as reenactors and leather workers who want to get things period correct.

What gun would I have in the 1880s? Part 2

What gun would I have in the 1880s? Part 2

Single shot flintlock and percussion (caplock) pistols, rifles and shotguns!

If you have read part 1 you will know that by the 1880s flint lock and percussion technology was old hat, but still a lot of those weapons would have been floating around. Most people could not just go and buy a brand-new Winchester or Colt that took those new-fangled metallic cartridges, not everyone would have trust them and for some it would not have been convenient. If you lived a long way from town a percussion rifle was easier to keep running as all you needed was powder and lead to cast your own balls. Much cheaper and easier than having to buy cartridges or reload your used ones.

Having said that, I think flintlock or percussion single shot pistols would have been very rarely used. Far less where made in the first place and they are very much for defence, not very good for hunting. A rifle or shotgun could put food on the table and money in your pocket! If you felt that you were going to get into gun fights and needed a defensive pistol a single shot gun would not be the answer! But if you do feel your character would have carried one Denix do some budget versions and Henry Krank stock some nice high-end replicas.

Flintlock rifles and shotguns are good both for defence and hunting, easy and cheap to run, so for a lot of poorer folk, farming people and mountain men they could still be a favourite option. They are documented to have been used right into the early 1900s by some famous hunters. However, lots of flintlocks were converted into percussion guns during the Civil War and it is an easy conversion that does make the guns easier to run and shoot more accurately. So again, I’m not sure how common they would have been, but if you need one Denix and Henry Krank give you the two ends of the budget for them.

Percussion rifles and shotguns! I think these are the guns that won the West! Post Civil War they were very cheap and available to buy and cheap and easy to run. For hunting or defence, they just work well. It is also quite an exciting option for us are they are easy to use for LARP, and we do have some original options open to us. A percussion gun, or cap lock as they were also called, uses a cap to ignite the main charge. For LARP purposes we can forgo the main charge and just use the cap to make a nice bang! Real percussion caps are available to buy and are not hindered by the need to get a licence, we can also use toy gun caps in their place so making them go bang is easy! Denix do several percussion replicas, they make Enfield 1853 rifles and carbines, these were used in vast quantities by the Confederates and were perhaps the best musket-rifle of the period. Denix also do replicas of Sharpe’s rifles and carbines plus double barrel shotguns. I think Denix intend these two as replicas of cartridges guns but we can run then with caps as if they were percussion weapons.

Now the exciting thing for me it that we can also get period percussion weapons that we can use! As these are antiques no licence is required to own one. While original rifles maybe out of our budget range cap-lock shotguns are quite plentiful with working antiques from about £200-£250 and non-working projects can be got from under £100. More expensive than a Denix but they will not lose value and in fact may increase in value over time.

In Part 3 I’ll start looking at the revolvers available to us starting with the percussion versions!

Percussion Rifle

Book Review - Firearms of the American West 1866-1894

Firearms of the American West 1866-1895 by Louis A Garavaglia and Charles G Worman. 1985.

An A4 size book of over 400 pages, with lots of photos in black and white only. With chapters that cover military and civilian rifles and pistols this book gives a lot of detail about the guns in common and less-common use. While it does cover the more well known makes like Colt and Winchester it also give a very good introduction to the lesser know makes including the European makes that found their way to America.

Many of the pictures are period shots that show the firearms in historic settings, as well as contemporary photos of the guns alone. However, the small size of some of the photos does mean that some details are lost.

While the book is of coffee table size the lack of colour photos does go against it. But this more than made up by the range of weapons covered, many not covered in other books on the period that often just cover the better known firearms.

A good addition to the bookshelf of the more serous historian of this period.

A guide to western blank fire pistols and other replicas that go bang!

Sorry about the long title but you will see why as you read on!

This is based on my understanding of the law and options available to us in the UK.

So, you want a Cowboy gun that goes bang, but don’t want to get a firearms license? Well these 3 options are the main ones available.

1. A blank fire pistol that uses blank cartridges in a purpose-built replica. The most common calibres are rimmed 9mm (centre fire), .22 short and .22 long (both rim fire). Other calibres are available for rifles, semi auto and auto guns. You can normally used .22 short in a pistol designed for .22 long but not the other way around. Rimmed 9mm is also used in blank fire grenades. Adaptors are available to convert 9mm to take .209 primers.

If your blank fire pistol is made of metal (in my experience they all are) it must NOT be front venting. i.e. shooting flame out of the end of the barrel. It must be side, top or bottom venting. The laws regarding blank fire pistols vary from country to country, in many EU countries front venting is allowed so take care when buying from abroad. (There are the odd exception to this, keep reading!)

2. A purpose-built pistol that uses Plug Fire Cartridges (PFC). This is a system developed in Japan to fulfil the requirements of their strict laws. These are legal in the UK. The system uses a reloadable cartridge that takes 1, 2 or 3 caps in either 5mm or 7mm size. Once loaded these cartridges are loaded like blanks and fired in the normal way.

If the replica is made of plastic, it can be front venting. If made of metal, it must be side venting.

3. If you have a section 1 or 2 firearms licence you could buy blanks of the correct calibre and use them in your gun. But it will be front venting, so check with the game/event organiser first. You may also wish to consider how you will secure your firearm during a game. This does not really help with pistols unless you have a section 5 or section 7.3 licence………….

These options you should NOT take.
1. Do not buy a front venting metal blank fire pistol from abroad. This type of firearm is often used in crimes and the Police don’t like it! You will go to prison!

2. Do not make or get some blanks for an obsolete calibre pistol. * This type of firearm is often used in crimes and the Police don’t like it! You will go to prison!

3. Do not covert a deactivated weapon to fire blank cartridges. * Any parts of a deac that have been modified by the deactivation process are inspected at the proof house and stamped with a mark. Any attempt to further modify these parts is illegal. You can modify unstamped parts. This type of firearm is often used in crimes and the Police don’t like it! You will go to prison!

4. Do not covert a non-blank fire replica to fire blanks, unless you are an engineer and know what you are doing. The replica may not the strong enough and you will end up in hospital and the winner of a Darwin Award!

*I have used 5mm PFC caps in deact and obsolete calibre guns and consider this legal. No modification of a deactivated part has taken place and a PFC cap is not a firearm cartridge component. They work well with percussion guns and hammer shotguns.

So, having gone through all of that we have the following options with the cheapest first!

1. Denix replicas – The Peacemaker family in the Denix range can be used with Denix made cap fire cartridges. They are crap with the Denix caps, a little better with normal toy gun caps and quite good if used with 5mm PFC caps. Available in black, silver and gold in a variety of barrel lengths. Does not strip like the real thing. I have a black 4 ¾” version and really like it. It has weathered to a nice patina and Denix do different grips that fit. From about £60 upwards.

2. Bruni Blank firers – The starting point price wise for a 9mm blank firer. Not as nice as more expensive ones but works well. I think they only come in 5 ½” barrels in black, silver and orange! The VCR Bill does not apply to firearms of a design pre-1870 designs, so most people consider the Peacmaker revolver exempt from needing a defence under the VCR Bill. You should not need to buy an orange one!! From £110 upwards

3. Chiappa/Kimar Blank Firers – The next step up in 9mm blank fire quality. Much nicer than the Bruni in visual quality and operation of the action. It uses a frame mounted firing pin rather than hammer mounted. This makes “fanning” a little less painful! Available in 4 ¾” barrel length in silver and black. Fully strip-able. From £140 upwards.

4. Schmidt Blank Firers – A high quality pistol often in .22 and a smaller frame size. Nice colour case hardening and bluing. Some come with two interchange cylinders one in 9mm and one in .22. Fully strip-able. Available second hand from about £225 - £350

5. PFC pistols – A range of Japanese pistols from makers such as Tanaka, CWC, Hudson. Marushin etc. Normally plastic and front venting but very realistic. I have a Tanaka that is great. From about £225 – £350 new or second-hand.

6. Uberti/Pietta – High quality 9mm blank firers out of the same factories that make the live firing versions. Lovely colour case hardening and blueing. Available in a range of styles and finishes, even engraved ones! Spares easily available so they can be rebuilt if you buy a broken one cheap. Prices from about £200 for a tatty second-hand one to £650 for a top range new one.

7. Jaeger Adler - A German make of quality 9mm pistol. A variety of types available including engraved examples. Secondhand prices from £250

8. Trinity/Stafford Hill – This is the one that breaks all the rules!! A UK legal front venting all metal blank firer. Not made any more but still legal as it has a baffle system in the barrel that stops it from being able to fire real bullets. Very good quality, prices from £700 upwards! If you can find one for sale at any price!!

With the help of Johnny 'Didn't Run' Fisher, Chris Thomas, Nic Saunders and a couple of others we put a range of blanks and caps through their paces and measured the sound level from each. I down loaded a sound level meter onto my tablet, I didn't try to calibrate it so this is more of a comparison test. So the results are -

9mm fiocchi blanks in a Bruni revolver 82dB
8mm fiocchi blanks in a Bruni Winchester 79dB
.22 short blank in a revolver 79dB
.209 conversion in a Bruni revolver 81dB
5mm Japanese plug fire cap 82dB
7mm Japanese plug fire cap 80dB
Super Disc caps 79dB
Supermatic caps 78dB
Montecarlo caps 78dB

9mm blanks give the best bang for your buck! If you fire a lot of 9mm blanks you can get a set of convertors to allow the use of .209 shotgun primers in your 9mm pistol. Not a lot of difference in the bang and can be half the price. While the Japanese plug fire caps can be equally good, they are hard to get hold of. Don't pass up a .22 blank firer as they are not far off the mark noise wise. Of the normal caps, the Montecarlo ones did not always work in the Denix pistols or on my shotgun, but I know other people like them. I think the Super Disc and Supermatic caps were equally good and reliable. they are also dirt cheap and easy to get hold of on eBay and similar. A load of those plus a Denix revolver and you can blast away all day for not much money!

What gun would I have in the 1880s? Part 1

Wow! That is quite a question! There is a short answer – but what is the fun in that! So, I’ll go for a longer answer that I’ll spread over a number of posts.

The 19th Century saw a massive change in firearms technology, we started the century with single shot flintlock rifles and pistols, a technology that had not changed much for two hundred years or so.

By the 1830s we saw the first change creep in with the introduction of percussion weapons. Still mainly single shot and like the flintlocks still muzzle loaders – You have to load it by putting powder and shot, in separate parts, down the end of the barrel.

In the late 1840s percussion muzzle loading revolvers became more available. Colt did not invent the revolver, but he did refine the design into a modern practical firearm. They were still muzzle loaders and were of the “single action” style. – You had to cock the hammer by hand (or thumb) each time you wanted to fire the pistol, when you pulled the trigger it only carried out one action, releasing the hammer to fire the pistol.

The 1850s saw the start of cartridge weapons, where the one-piece metallic ammunition was loaded into the breach like modern guns do. It was slow to develop at first and was quite restricted by copyright.

1860s, the early years saw the American Civil War. Everyone who could make a gun did so! Everyone who could design a gun did so! Everyone who could import a gun did so! But the vast majority of troops were still armed with single shot, muzzle loading rifles. While some lucky troops did get lever action Henry rifles and the Union Cavalry had a number of different designs of single shot cartridge carbines.

1870s Almost all new made guns are now cartridge loading weapons. Colt introduced the famous Single Action Army (SAA) or Peacemaker as it is often called in 1873 and Winchester were into about their 3rd generation of lever action rifles. Smith and Wesson who had controlled the copyright on cartridge revolvers had developed their Schofield revolver.

1880s! America is awash with army surplus rifles and pistols from the Civil War, a percussion rifle could be got at giveaway prices. While if you were wealthier you may be able to afford a Winchester or Peacemaker.

But the common man living in the country mostly had a smooth bore musket or shotgun – this was the most versatile weapon for hunting and defence and in flintlock or percussion form the cheapest and easiest to keep running! While flintlocks were by now very old technology many would have still been in use as hunting rifles and shotguns.

The common man in the city would have a pocket revolver maybe in .22, or .32 calibre as they could be bought new from as little as a dollar. Quality was poor at $1 and if they were fired it is unsure who would be in the most danger, the person firing it or the chap he was pointing it at! You would be better served spending $5-$10 on your defence.

So the simple answer to “What gun should I have” is anything made before 1865 if foreign made – as anything and everything was imported during the Civil War and anything US made before 1880.

In my next post I’ll start looking at what replicas are available to us, as this very much narrows down the list.

If you want to go old school take a look at the video below!

Flintlock Rifle