Carrying C&B Supplies Historically?

[crockett]

On the smaller guns for the towns folk. My great grandfather ( he was a carpenter/contractor) carried a 32 S & W but in a regular holster and belt with about 20 bullet loops. Out on the plains he was attacked twice in his life but he never had a rifle.
It was the cowboys that carried the big hog legs.
Mark Twain wrote of carrying just one Colt Navy revolver but as stated, there is a surprisingly large amount of folks that never carried anything. I think the most popular of all Colt percussion revolvers was the little 31 caliber pocket model, I'm relying on the information in the DGW catalog.

 

[Zonie]

It's a bit off track but your comment about the .31 caliber Colt seems to be right.

According to Flayderman's Guide, the Colt 1848 Baby Dragoon and the Colt 1849 Pocket Pistol (a redesign of the Baby Dragoon) had a production total between 1847 and 1873 of 355,000.
15,000 of these were Baby Dragoons and 340,000 were 1849's which came in several different models.

The famous .36 caliber Colt 1851 Navy, manufactured between 1850 and 1873 had a production of 215,348.

The .44 caliber, Colt 1860 production which was produced between 1860 and 1873 was 200,000 pistols.

Now, back to the "what did they carry for reloading?" question.

 

[Derek]

I can find no hard data on how much ammo an officer would carry. In the desperate fight on Little Round Tops in the battle of Gettysburg, officers must have fired MANY rounds, that scrap went on for hours, even the soldiers ran out of ammo and scavenged more from the dead and wounded of both sides.Does anyone have any idea how many pistol loads an officer would start with?

 

[scrubby2009]

[QUOTE="Redstick Lee, post: 1488497

the best instructions i've found for making the mandrel and making the cartridges is @ The 1858 Remington Forum......this subject is discussed obsessively over there.[/QUOTE]
Great description, not sure if I'd be as "obsessive" if I wasn't shooting a genuine CW survivor Remmie found here in the Gold Country of California. Ers Gone mold and the Hemp paper '300' rolling papers is what I use. It;s relaxing and focuses the mind to build piles of paper cartridges. In several hundred rounds now, I had one cylinder with three "failure to fire" situations occur. I used the nipple cleaner in my wrench to positively pierce the paper, re-capped, and all discharged normally. I dip my completed rounds in wax/tallow and do not grease otherwise. real blackpowder fouls less I've found with 4 or 5 cylinders full than BP substitutes like Triple7. As for field carry, I make paper packets and shove them in my jacket pocket or hunting pack. My Remington and a blackpowder cartridged Marlin lever were my hunting arms this rifle season. Sadly, it was too warm yet for high country bucks, but it was great to spend several days afoot in the mountains with a rifle made in 1890 and a pistol issued to the War Dept. in Jan1864.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Some of the early guns like the Walker were not used with paper carts, they were issued with a large powder flask and a mould that would run either a Pickett or a ball.

 

[Juice Jaws]

On the smaller guns for the towns folk. My great grandfather ( he was a carpenter/contractor) carried a 32 S & W but in a regular holster and belt with about 20 bullet loops. Out on the plains he was attacked twice in his life but he never had a rifle.

Who attacked him??

 

[bigted]

Have to remember a couple little things I believe.

In my hunt for writings and references to the revolvers and practices i have come up with an "opinion" concerning this favorite pastime of mine.

First off I gotta figure how many fellers were actually out and about in the wild country. Not many is what i deduct. Second thing I come up with is of these fellers that are wondering about in wild country, what would they be armed to defend against. Remember this is 1850's and after. No beaver trade, not many "wild" indians to deal with and the amount of "bad" men hung around where they could PREY on other folks for their posessions and hardware. This indicates being around towns of some kind where getting supply's would be an easy thing to do, provided you had cash/gold or what have you for the trade.

Most "folks" would be WORKING either on their own farms/ranch's or for other folks for wages. Dont know bout you but i have tryed to log and carry a revolver and it do not work out at all.

What i am getting at is with exception of lawmen and bad men ... most folks never needed these revolvers. The ones that did carry em never shot em too much and hardly ever had need to reload em when they did shoot them.

This is the why of the large sales of Colts "pocket revolvers" chambered in 31 cal. Easy to carry, hide inna pocket and hardly ever actually fired.

Reloads outside a military need then were an issue hardly ever required. Therefore the "needs" for reloads is a modern requirement. Other then a "packet" of 6 reloads in a paper cartridge pack was a item hardly ever needed.

20 or 30 years was the time frame for these revolvers and remember how expensive they woulda been to a civilian with little use in real life needs.

Reloads are a modern luxury for us to worry about. So any way is modern and not PC in my humble opinion.

 

[Artificer]

Hi Jon,

During the UnCivil War, there were indeed special cartridge boxes for revolvers and they came in two sizes, one a bit larger than the other, though both were intended to carry either .36 or .44 caliber combustible paper cartridges and caps. As I understand it, these cartridge boxes held one paper/card board box of 6 cartridges and caps or might have held 10 to 12 "loose" cartridges, not in the paper/cardboard box.
http://antiquearmsinc.com/civil-war...ry-accoutrements-remington-1858-1851-navy.htm

I don't know how many civilians used combustible cartridges, though I expect most would have loaded from a flask with loose ball or conical bullets.

Gus

 

[Artificer]

Oh, forgot to mention Cavalry Soldiers carried the pistol cartridge boxes on their right front or sides of their belts, if and when they actually used them. They also carried larger Carbine Cartridge Boxes (that had wood blocks inside to hold 20 cartridges) on the backs of their belts and/or possibly on their sides when going into action.

Infantry Officers may have used the Pistol Cartridge Boxes when going into action as well, though you don't often see them wearing them in period daguerreotypes (Photos).

When I did a Confederate Officer's Impression for re-enacting, I wore the larger Carbine Cartridge Box on my back and carried a small flask, wonder wads and a tin of caps to load or reload my revolver, though I never reloaded during a re-enactment, but some times during "Tacticals" (Civil War Wargames, not usually open to spectators). I have no idea if civilians did something like that during the period or not, though.

Gus

 

[Denny B]

I have a Remington revolver and I carry extra cylinders for it when I am out hunting. It beats carrying a lot of extra supplies with me when I am walking around.