1858 Remy "speed loading".

[DrewN]

So, I was arguing with my BIL about the viability of this as an actual practice,outside of battlefield conditions maybe. It undoubtedly works, I'm just wondering who is fool enough to carry a loaded,primed extra cylinder. Unprimed, yeah, sure. That would save you some time at least. I guess if you had a very well fitting,secure case but even then I doubt I'd be comfortable with it.

[KansasGunner]

Paper cartridges were a thing for front stuffer wheel guns as hell as long guns, much more practical than trying to swap cylinders, at that point you might as well carry two guns and do the old NY reload.

[NoHeavyHitter]

If I were of the time, I'd certainly carry a couple of uncapped (but loaded) spare cylinders. There are many times when one might expect to be busied by conflict, so I would not be personally averse to pre-capping my spare cylinder(s) under these circumstances.

The greatest risk would likely be to drop a capped cylinder, backside down on a hard surface while reloading - so I'm thinking that one would be paying extra attention into avoiding such a mistake. In short, I'd be willing to take the risk to pre-cap to further improve the time needed for a full reload.

This would be in addition to my willingness to carry a (or multiple) "New York reloads" as so many others in that era did.

[Garand Hunter]

I know that western type shoot em up movies are well just movies. But, remember the Clint Eastwood flick where he comes into a town next to a gold mining camp etc and at the end he gets his Colt Dragoons out of safe deposit box and cleans house with the two pistols and extra Loaded and capped cylinders at the end of the movie ? That sounds like what you are describing.

Psalm 1

[6mmintl]

I keep, use, 2 spare cylinders in a GI dbl grenade pouch.

[Wheellock]

I don't know the answer, but if you dropped a capped cylinder and it went off, how dangerous would it be? My guess would be not very. Would be interesting to put a cylinder only across a chronograph and see. (Could be done with a Colt type and something to hold the cylinder on)

Second, could you devise a holder that wouldn't allow the caps to contact if dropped? I think you could.

[DrewN]

I don't know the answer, but if you dropped a capped cylinder and it went off, how dangerous would it be? My guess would be not very. Would be interesting to put a cylinder only across a chronograph and see. (Could be done with a Colt type and something to hold the cylinder on)

Second, could you devise a holder that wouldn't allow the caps to contact if dropped? I think you could.

If you had a chain fire on your belt I'd bet it would get your attention right quick.

[Springfield45]

I don't know the answer, but if you dropped a capped cylinder and it went off, how dangerous would it be? My guess would be not very. Would be interesting to put a cylinder only across a chronograph and see. (Could be done with a Colt type and something to hold the cylinder on)

Second, could you devise a holder that wouldn't allow the caps to contact if dropped? I think you could.

I am certain at close range it would be lethal.

[NoHeavyHitter]

I don't know the answer, but if you dropped a capped cylinder and it went off, how dangerous would it be? My guess would be not very. Would be interesting to put a cylinder only across a chronograph and see. (Could be done with a Colt type and something to hold the cylinder on)

Second, could you devise a holder that wouldn't allow the caps to contact if dropped? I think you could.

Well your guess would be totally wrong. Cripes, they even have a cap & ball handgun that HAS NO BARREL!

Oh yeah - in case you don't believe me - do a search on "1851 pepperbox". You tell me if a loaded cylinder is dangerous or not..

[Wheellock]

Well your guess would be totally wrong. Cripes, they even have a cap & ball handgun that HAS NO BARREL!

Oh yeah - in case you don't believe me - do a search on "1851 pepperbox". You tell me if a loaded cylinder is dangerous or not..

I am NOT advocating carrying a capped cylinder, so I hope I didn't give that impression, and I wouldn't want to be hit by a ball even if hand thrown.

I would really like to test this now, once this bug is over, I will rig up a way to shoot a cylinder only. I don't have a chrony, so will have to do a penetration test.

I have seen the cylinder only revolver (like: https://www.taylorsfirearms.com/1851...pepperbox.html ), cylinder is a little longer than standard so it must get the ball flying enough to cover some distance, also 36 cal, so bore to barrel length is significantly better than a standard 44 cylinder would be.

I used to have an interior ballistics modelling software from Aberdeen that I could have tested this with, but I can't find it now. It would have been able give a good indication, it was pretty accurate. As an aside, diminishing return on black power is huge.

[Wheellock]

I did a little math on this issue and it give a little to think about. Using measurements from the revolvers at hand (Colt style in 44 ad 36) I came up with the following.

The 44 cylinder I have has an overall length of 1.85" and bore length of 1.30".
25 grains of BP would make a powder column length of 0.67" in that cylinder.
With a 0.454" ball on top, you would get an effective bore length of 0.4" (contact point of the ball to the end of the cylinder). 0.4" if bore is 0.9 calibers long.

What adds some interest on top of that, is if using a reduced load, you will get more effective bore, and possible more velocity on the ball. A load of 5 grains will get 0.9" of bore (2 calibers long) which is significantly more.

With the pepperbox style, it is 36 cal. I couldn't find a cylinder length on them, but looking at the pics, I will guess 3" (if someone had one I will change the math to fit). With a 25 grain charge, you would get a bore length of 1.25" (3.5 calibers long) and using only 5 grains you would get over 2" (5.7 calibers long).

The bore lengths for the pepperbox are well into vest derringer length, so I would expect that to be dangerous to humans. The 44 cylinder would need something more rigorous...maybe time to get a chrony.