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Caping your pistol

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I sure wouldn't try to convince a man who needs to see someone shot to prove a point.

I like my hide too much. :grin:
 
The hammer down on the pin keeps it from firing when the hammer spur is impacted like from dropping it out of the holster or what ever.
This is a much more likely scenario for an AD ( accidental discharge)than snagging the hammer on something, partially cocking it and the half cock failing to arrest the hammer drop on a live chamber.
I think what is often forgotten on hammer pin carry is that the cylinder also must revolve unto the live chamber along with the hammer snag which is far less likely to happen in a fitting holster.
The 58's with the notched out cylinders are the best and I carry fully loaded in a flap holster hammer in the safety notch.
Also these flap holsters are so configured that they point down and way from the body and legs. MD
 
That makes me chuckle but I don't think he was saying he wanted to see someone shot to prove his point, just that a hammer notch on a pin is a safe way to carry a fully loaded revolver. After all, Sam Colt the designer must have felt the same our he would have left off drilling one cylinder hole after the safety pin.
Actually I think most AD's in these scenario's aren't really dropped or snagged hammers but rather when farting around with a quick draw and the thumb slides off the hammer spur prematurely.MD
 
True enough and always fun to knock wives tales and myths in the head when ever encountered. :wink: Your hammer fully down is under nearly as much tension as at half cock so wither you do or don't your spring or you will never know the difference.MD
 
Cynthialee

Where did you ever get the idea that hammer down on a loaded chamber is dangerous? Did you drop your old colt peacemaker and have it shoot someone? No, of course not. You know it's dangerous because a lot of people did just that, and there is a lot of evidence and documentation to show that. Silly not withstanding.

The Colt cap and ball revolvers have been around since the first Paterson Colt. Then the Walker in 1847 on up through the 1860 Army. If there had been an unsafe method of carry there would have been a whole lot of “silly” documentation and you empty chamber people would be spouting it ad-nauseum every time the subject comes up. But the history and evidence is just not there.

Safe carry of the cap and ball revolver was never a real world issue, and still isn't. It only became an issue when these forums started showing up on the internet. People started looking at their C&B revolvers and comparing them with the Peacemaker. Apples and oranges.

Six loaded chambers and the hammer on the pin has been a safe method of carry for the past one-hundred and sixty years or so. For the most part, these forums do not constitute the real world.
 
IONBuckaroo said:
Safe carry of the cap and ball revolver was never a real world issue, and still isn't. It only became an issue when these forums started showing up on the internet. People started looking at their C&B revolvers and comparing them with the Peacemaker. Apples and oranges.

Six loaded chambers and the hammer on the pin has been a safe method of carry for the past one-hundred and sixty years or so. For the most part, these forums do not constitute the real world.

:hatsoff:

Armchair cowboys and lawyers! :blah:
 
Cynthialee

I apologize if I have offended anyone. Like I said, it makes no difference to me how a person carries their cap and ball revolver. My method of carry is just as safe, and gives me one more bullet.
 
Exactly. No matter what kind of gun you carry, YOU should be comfortable with carrying it. Whatever you need to do to feel safe, so be it. Its not my decision on how you carry a gun. I'm just glad you're carrying a gun, period :thumbsup:
 
Real world, my world anyways. I see a lot of the Colt copies that new, have a pin or more missing.
Some new ones the pins are damaged.
Used colts I have seen can have pins damaged from having the hammer on the pin.
Used Colts can have the hammer pushed and dented into and blocking the grove that holds the pin,
Caused by putting the hammer on the pin and just firing the gun a lot.

Colt was basically the first attempt at a revolver. The real world leaned from it. When Remington made
his improvements he did away with it.
When Ruger made his he did not use pins either.
My opinion based on my experience, don’t gamble your life or someone else’s.


Also my opinion based on my own experience.
I am not sure why a person would think they would need to have all six loaded.
I have only been in one real world gunfight with a cap & ball revolver.
If you are using a cap & ball for personal defense you should rethink your position.

Above all be safe and have fun.
William Alexander
 
I would prefer a proper modern pistol for defense. But I have to stay with in the rules my spouse is comfortable with. For some reason having a black powder revolver doesn't bother her. But the second a modern cartidge gun is brought up I get stonewalled. I have seen her have an almost panick attack when she realised the guy in the line in front of us was packing a 1911.
So it is a cap and ball for me. I have this pistols personal quirks figured out and have not had a FTF in at least the last 100 shots through it. But I make sure to fire it, clean it well reload and make sure each cap not only seats well and snug but is inspected to be sure there is some of that stuff that ignites on impact in the cap and it hasn't fallen out. I feel pretty confident that if some idiot were to try and do the home invasion thing or a coyote or bobcat goes after my birds, my pistol will function when needed.

But I agree 100% that a modern pistol would be better for defense. There is an adorable pink glock that has been siting in the display case at the store for the last few months that I drool over every time I see it.
 
Cynthialee said:
I would prefer a proper modern pistol for defense. But I have to stay with in the rules my spouse is comfortable with.

Cynthialee

I can understand that and that’s fine.

“I feel pretty confident that if some idiot were to try and do the home invasion thing or a coyote or bobcat goes after my birds, my pistol will function when needed.”

A cap & ball has work well for me when it had to. If I am out in the sticks, a .36 Colt copy is my gun of
choice more times than not. If I am backpacking or canoeing in somewhere I take a shoulder stock in the
pack for my Colts or my Remingtons. Makes a nice setup. It does what I need. I am not looking for
trouble when I am camping.


I do think it is safer to not load all six.


Have fun be safe
William Alexander
 
Tinker2

I am aware that there are shoulder stocks available. But I have never known anyone who actually used one. They must be pretty effective to warrant carrying one in a backpack. At the risk of hi-jacking this thread, I would like to know what you have found to be an advantage.

Thanks IONBuckaroo
 
I would also like to know more about shoulder stocks. I thought they were outlawed and we could not have them.

Can I put one on my Pietta 1851 and get away with it? Can I get one for a Walker and it be legal? If so I will get a Walker and a shoulder stock and put it in my bug out bag.

I am going to start a new thread on this.
 
Cynthia - You know, if God forbid you ever had to use your weapon in a home defense situation you might not have half the manure to deal with from "the authorities" as you would with a centerfire smokeless pistol.

Note that I did say "might".

As an aside, wearing a cap 'n ball revolver around the house "just in case" does have a definite cool factor! What are you wearing these days, if you don't mind me asking?
 
I load 5 and lower the hammer on the empty,maybe unnecessary but I don't leave anything to chance....
 
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