Multiple cylinder pistols.

[Pigman]

Multiple cylinder pistols.

Years ago I remember seeing a book about civil war weapons that has pictures of civil war era revolvers with multiple cylinders. The cylinders were stacked behind each other. Anyone ever heard of this?

Foster From Flint

 

[wulf]

Check Firearms Curioa by Winant. There are up
to three cylinders lined up...Also many other
interesting weird stuff....

 

[rafterob]

Check Firearms Curioa by Winant

"Curiosa" That is a cool book with lots of very interesting variations of firearms.

 

[Naphtali]

More than 15 years ago I bought Pietta 1858 Remington revolvers, their competition model. These revolvers (different from their high-production version) are so well designed and fitted that the bazillion extra cylinders and spare parts I bought simultaneously fit all revolvers bought without fitting. By "fit" I mean parts' relationship with remaining parts of mechanisms are as tightly-precisely fitted as those OEM to each revolver.

While it is unlikely original cap lock revolvers would incorporate such precision, I anticipate all that was required was that the revolver fired safely with each cylinder.

Hope this helps.

 

[shovelhead]

I may be in the minority but I think this multiple cylinder business is largely a "reenactors thing". I haven't come up with much as far as the practice being common.
Now what do I mean???????????
Let's say that after years of looking someone comes up with a documented source on a spare cylinder being used. The book "I Rode with Quantrill" has one such reference- Frank James picking up a spare Colt Navy cylinder from a dead Yankee. BUT....
Does that mean it's "Regular" for everybody to start carrying spare cylinders. From what I have learned the far more common practice was to carry a spare revolver- one sees photos of folks with four or more revolvers.
There's one more thing that I'm not sure is, or is not, an issue but if there are slight differences between cylinders- the timing on the gun may be impacted somewhat by changing cylinders.

 

Mind you, this is my take on the thought. With lead flying every which way. There is no way, in "L", I am going to take the time to knock out a wedge pin. Pull the barrel, remove the first cylinder, fish out a fresh one, while depositing the old cylinder in my coat pocket. then, fit the fresh cylinder on to the frame, then fit the barrel back on the frame, aligning it with the cylinder and frame pins, knock the wedge pin back into place. And that's while hugging the ground. Think of trying all that while mounted!

Now, with the newer Remingtons, it a lot easier, but still leaves you with slim odds of not getting shot.

No, I would say the movie "Josey Wales" was closer to the truth. Multiple guns versus multiple cylinders.

CP

 

[wulf]

Claypipe,Naphlali and Shovelhead...re-read Uncle Pis's entry...all of it...interesting...

 

Claypipe,Naphlali and Shovelhead...re-read Uncle Pis's entry...all of it...interesting...

Don't recall any from the percussion era, but have seen several of snaphaunce, wheellock and flint ignition.

CP

 

[wulf]

The cylinders were all on the same shaft...lined
up front to back on a revolver,as many as three.
The first cylinder was fired and the second one
fired through one of the chambers till it was
empty then the last cylinder was fired through
the one chamber already being used till it too
was empty....so if it was a six shot only five
were used on the first two the third cylinder
could have six shots....very interesting book.

 

[nilo52]

I use a spare cylinder with my Uberti Colt 3rd. Mod. Dragoon every time I go shooting. All I do is push out the wedge with my thumb, breakdown the pistol, swap out the empty one and push the wedge back in. It really take very little time to do this. In a "real" gunfight I would probibly go for the "Chicago Reload" method and use another revoler. The spare cylinder I bought "fits" just fine and never needed any adjustment made to it. This could be due to high quality machining, or, just dumb luck ! nilo52

 

[Zonie]

As the old saying goes, "there's nothing new under the sun.", but looking thru my Flayderman's Guide I only see one multiple cylinder pistol.

This gun is the Elgar & Smith 9 shot revolver/Volley gun/Pepperbox.

It has three barrels attached together and to the pistols frame.
It has three, three shot cylinders with the chambers located in a triangular pattern that matches the three barrels.
Each of the three shot cylinders has one percussion cap which fires all three chambers in a cylinder simultaneously.

Once the shooter has fired his 3 shot cylinder he rotates the next three shot cylinder to align with the three barrels and he is ready for his next shot.

The only other multiple loaded chamber guns shown do not have multiple cylinders. Rather, they have very long cylinders and the chambers are double loaded. That is, each chamber is loaded with powder, ball, powder, ball.
This in effect makes a 5 chamber gun like the John Walch Double Hammer Pocket revolver a 10 shot gun.
Another double loaded pistol is the John Walch Navy Model 12 shot Revolver which had 6 chambers.

I have seen photos and drawings of multiple cylinder Flintlock pistols but they were very rare and seem to be a one of one production.