Firing a Revolver
by: Kerry Barlow

Firing and shooting an antique firearm is not much different then todays handguns. The handguns create a great deal of smoke and flames when being fired due to the nature of black powder. Certainly more precautions must be taken when firing them and the soldier of the time would know and be trained to be aware of them. Anyone attempting to fire any weapon should also have guidance and training before attempting such a thing on there own. The black powder era handguns could be fired easily with 1 hand, especially the .44 caliber Colts and Remingtons. Black powder does not explode as quickly as modern powder causing more of a very fast push then a sudden kick and explosion. The Walker Colt, Dragoons and Harpers ferry horse pistols certainly would have a pretty good feeling of power with them, simply due to the nature and size of there powder charges and chamber size.

All of the civil war era firearms I have researched are of the single action variety. This means that the hammer of the gun must be pulled back to full cock position putting tension on the hammer spring before the gun is ready to be fired. The soldier would pull the hammer back to full cock position,inside the gun the cylinder will rotate into position,bringing the next live chamber into line with the hammer. The trigger will be brought into firing position and in the case of the Patterson Colt the trigger will fall out of the frame of the gun being now available to the finger. Sighting in on his target the soldier would then gently pull the trigger firing the weapon. Much flames and sparks and smoke would eject from the end of the barrel and hopefully the ball would exit as well. Even more hopefully the ball would actually hit the target it was aimed at. The black powder handguns were VERY accurate even by todays standards and certainly were a contributing factor in deciding the wars outcome. If the ball did not hit its target it was never a fault of the handgun but a fault of the soldier. Most likely those soldiers that missed to many times were not around to talk about it.

Accuracy in the range of 12 balls inside a 2 inch circle at 25 yards is not uncommon for these fire arms. I know I would not want to be on the receiving end of an ANTIQUE firearm.

The Harpers ferry horse pistol, Walker Colt and Dragoons pack a mighty hefty punch which even today would be considered of Magnum capability.

Modern handguns use what is called double action, with these modern guns simply pulling on the trigger will pull the hammer back, compress the spring, and any further trigger pull will fire the modern weapon.