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Field/Farm Use of Cap & Ball Revolver

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Technology marches forward, some day Glocks will be antiquated

Ironically my most carried guns are Single Actions, either an NAA .22 Magnum PUG or a .22 LR Mini. They are tiny , light and I feel they are enough for a regular guy to carry around just doing daily life stuff. If I would ever need them, the threat would probably be on top of me and if I have time to aim, I have time to run or get my family to safety/behind cover. I'm not a gunfighter and I'm not John Wick. If I'm pulling a gun it's for a Hail Mary, we're about to die , I have no other option scenario. Top shelf CCI .22 Mag or LR will go off, as reliably as a CF. I trust these guns to work if I need them.

The most I carry is a 5-shot .38 snub , if I'm going "heavy". If I'm firing more than 5 shots and going for the speed strip I usually carry, what is really going on at this point and again, if you're still alive to be reloading, you've either just shot a threat , ,missed with all of them, or scared whatever it is off, and if you've got time to reload, you've got time to get the he-- out of there.

I have carried a percussion revolver just for fun but it's a very rare occasion. Murphy's Law will dictate, the one time you need a gun will be the one time you're carrying something weird.

Like when I was followed home from work one night, years ago. I went down back roads, and I live a good piece from home.....far enough that no one else would have this same path of travel at 10pm and also not take the chance to pass me when I slowed down to 20mph on a two lane road. I have no idea why, or who they were, but I'm certain they meant me harm. And...what did I have on me......an old Freedom Arms .22 Short 5-shot revolver (the precursor to NAA ). I'm like yeah what am I gonna do with this thing....I figured I'd never "need" a gun on my ride home so I kept that little pop gun in the console, and that's what I had on the one rare, out of the blue incidence when I might need to shoot to live......I managed to crank the wheel and hit an exit ramp with a surprise hard right on a road with no way to turn around easily, and lose them. I'll never know what they wanted.
 
When we talk of a BP gun being reliable, do you think you can get off 200+ consecutive rounds without a misfire or cap jam? That is what I demand from any unmentionable before I'll use it as a carry gun. It may be fun to play cowboy but when your life is on the line you need to have the most efficient tool available which can easily go through the abuses of everyday carry.
 
Not bragging, as I’m sure many here have more than me. But I have almost every conceivable modern/traditional caliber combo there is. If I could have only one, I’d take my old, beat up, Mossberg pump 12 gage with 00 buck.
My Remington 870 is my home defense weapon and sleeps just inches away every night.
 
Saw a picture once of what a round of 12 gauge buck will do to the roof of a police cruiser. When attending the required police academy in my state back in the 70's one of the instructors who had been a police officer in a large California city showed a slide of it during a weapons safety class. Some officer while attempting to remove a pump shotgun located in the middle of the front seat in a vertical gun cradle triggered off a round into the roof. Instant air vent, jagged hole, but probably a fore runner of the moon roof feature of later car models. 😳 Instructor advised the Chief of the Dept wasn't very happy.😫 Also saw what a 12 gauge round of 4/0 buck will do to an older style wall of lathe and plaster at around 15 feet. Went through into the next room. Big mess!!!!!
 
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When we talk of a BP gun being reliable, do you think you can get off 200+ consecutive rounds without a misfire or cap jam? That is what I demand from any unmentionable before I'll use it as a carry gun. It may be fun to play cowboy but when your life is on the line you need to have the most efficient tool available which can easily go through the abuses of everyday carry.
We have fun going back in time and shooting these old guns for fun , but there's a reason why every person and developed nation that could afford to do so got away from percussion firearms and went to cartridge guns as quickly as they possibly could

I'd like to see any historical documentation or a letter home from a soldier in the 1860's-70s who missed his 1860 Army or Springfield rifle-musket....I'll bet there's none and every combat troop in the Indian Wars probably couldn't get rid of them fast enough .

It's 1874, and I'm a Cavalryman on the Frontier.....yup take this percussion .44 and let me get that Schofield.......no brainer . I wouldn't be like, I miss that percussion Colt that fouled up after 2 cylinders, didn't always fire and the cartridges disintegrated at the first hint of water exposure........

We love percussion revolvers now, because we have other options. They're range toys the Italian gun makers made to profit off the Spaghetti Western craze. Please don't trust your family's life to weapons tech everyone else in the period that bet their life on guns ran away from

In spite of popular opinion, Wild Bill owned conversion Navies too and a pocket break top. The "Wild Bill trusted his percussion Navies to the end" is fiction

I had fun shooting my Zouave today but also saw what a leap forward my 1889 Trapdoor Springfield is...
 
been doing some testing. keeping the single shot .50 cal and the 1858 loaded for several days at a time. anything over two days and the trapper hangfires shooocaboom. I do not keep a cap on the nipple and i suspect that is one of the primary reasons. that and it not being an inline like the revolver. the 1858 has been much more reliable likly because its capped and on the safety notch and its an in line. its been flawless when left for a day or two. Just tried about 5 days and had one hangfire out of six shots. Using tripple 7 also scored 10 tins from wallys for $5.62 a tin. felt bad for cleaning out the entire rack...
 
been doing some testing. keeping the single shot .50 cal and the 1858 loaded for several days at a time. anything over two days and the trapper hangfires shooocaboom. I do not keep a cap on the nipple and i suspect that is one of the primary reasons. that and it not being an inline like the revolver. the 1858 has been much more reliable likly because its capped and on the safety notch and its an in line. its been flawless when left for a day or two. Just tried about 5 days and had one hangfire out of six shots. Using tripple 7 also scored 10 tins from wallys for $5.62 a tin. felt bad for cleaning out the entire rack...
Don't.
If you didn't, someone else would have.
 
Usually, the heavier the gun the heavier the throw weight.
1911 Was 112 years ago. Plenty of time to get the kinks ironed out or well understood. Not many two legged critters that can handle a dose of .45 caliber aspirin. It may not be the latest and neatest whiz bang, but I do consider it old reliable.
 
1911 Was 112 years ago. Plenty of time to get the kinks ironed out or well understood. Not many two legged critters that can handle a dose of .45 caliber aspirin. It may not be the latest and neatest whiz bang, but I do consider it old reliable.
That’s what I carry.
 
All summer it's either been a1911 or an 1858. Mostly the 1858. Realistically my threat rating is some tiny fraction of zero so letting the 1858 tag along in the van is pretty much just for fun.
 
I absolutely agree with you. the only reason i brought the pistol with me on a few of my camping trips this summer is because its a fairly new to me 1858 and I am like a little kid with a new toy. I do not have a gun in my work truck or van with normal every day travel. I have brought the 1858 on my overnight trips this summer. Obviously if I thought there was an actual threat I would have brought something slightly more modern. we are headed out this afternoon on a week long trip in the van with the lady friend and will Not have a firearm in the vehicle. . too many laws in different states and 99.9% not nessicary. I do a lot of really dangerous things that require constant life and death decisions
IMG_1724.jpg
and I an pretty confident in this one.
 
1911 Was 112 years ago. Plenty of time to get the kinks ironed out or well understood. Not many two legged critters that can handle a dose of .45 caliber aspirin. It may not be the latest and neatest whiz bang, but I do consider it old reliable.

Well, still getting kinks out of the reproduction cap guns . . . would be easier if they were made to spec like 1911's are.

Mike
 
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