Revolver Type

[Story]

Regarding prices, I remember reading where the advertised New York price of a Webley-made .44/.450 Bulldog revolver was $8 and a Belgian knock-off half that price.

That's very helpful thank you. Is the Colt Conversion something they would have done at a gunsmith as well?

Depends on the skill level of the gunsmith.

This is a good synopsis -

Converting a Model 1860 C&B pistol to Breech Loading is a Simple Affair

: Turn down the nipple section of the percussion cylinder but keep the ratchets, bore through the cylinder for the .44 caliber cartridge of your choice, install a conversion ring, with a loading gate if you wish, modify the percussion hammer to ignite your cartridge type, i. e. rim fire (RF), center fire (CF) or even pin fire and you are ready to go. Fitting an ejector for convenience would be nice to have, too. That was the basic principle of a conversion after the Civil War.

Flat Sales of Revolvers' at Colt's after the Civil War: Technically by the end of the Civil War 1865 percussion guns were obsolete. The future belonged to standard cartridges no matter if it was for a rifle, shot gun or pistol. They functioned much more reliable due to their positive ignition, were less affected by humidity, reloading was much faster, low risk of overcharges (!) after the practical experience with European and US systems. However, the high prices of these modern cartridge guns and their ammunition compared to percussion guns prevented their fast and wide distribution in the United States and at the Western and Southwestern frontier in particular. Add to the pricing issue repeated short supplies of center fire cartridges you get the idea.

The Colt factory had to address a number of peculiar issues before they could bring competitive breech loading revolvers to the market. They just did not expect this dramatic stop of the booming C&B revolver business after the Civil War. Now only very few customers required or could afford to buy an Army conversion pistol or even a more modern breech loader for big bore cartridges from Hartford.

http://www.1960nma.org/WolfConversions/Wolf on Conversions-4.4.13.htm

 

[nc native]

Since your work is set in the 1869-1870 time period, I think cap and ball revolvers would
be in use here. The Mason/Richardson cartridge conversions were first produced in 1871
so cartridge conversions would be a rare thing to see in that time frame.

You have one character carrying two revolvers. Since he is a bounty hunter, I think a
pair of Colt Army 1860s would be a good choice. One could be standard size and the
other could be a cut down barrel hideaway gun. Cut down Colts were popular with
both famous lawmen (Dallas Stoudenmire) and outlaws (Orrin Porter Rockwell) during
this period. The Colt 1860s could be captures from the Civil War since your characters
are ex-Confederates.

Since the other character primarily relies on a rifle, how about a Henry lever action and
maybe a Colt 1861 Pocket Police, 1862 Police or 1851 Navy as a revolver. The Colt Pocket
Police series of revolvers was actually the best selling revolver in the Old West for years
until sales of the Peacemaker surpassed it in the mid to late 1870s. The Colt 1862 Police
was a favorite of Bloody Bill Anderson and the 1851 Navy was carried by famous officers
of all sorts, U.S. Grant, R.E. Lee and N.B. Forrest, just to name a few who loved it. Wild
Bill Hitchcock made his famous seventy five yard shot to end a gunfight with a 1851 Navy.

 

[Private Watkins]

Let's not do another Cold Mountain here with the LeMat.

3. The LeMat was rare and expensive even when it was commercially available, to the point that it's appearance in westerns (Cold Mountain, Quick&TheDead, ect http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/LeMat_Revolver) is memorable enough to draw "oh not again" style comments [The prevailing joke is that most of the modern reproductions are acquired, admired but never shot, and then sold on to someone else. Rinse, lather, repeat].

Ok, I admit being a LeMat fan is kind of like being a dime store cowboy/farb - guilty. But I still think they're cool...

 

[ikesdad]

Winchester types have been done to death.
I vote for this....