When do you NOT shoot a percussion revolver?

[jmoore]

The grey color looks unusual to me.

Post- "Naval jelly" "finish". After that sort of abuse, it might as well get some range time- collectors will run in the other direction!

[browningautorifle]

But they were nice though, at least they actually exist. Around my neck of the woods, we don't even see those much. Very scarce...

[WarPig1976]

Was neat to see a heads up comparison. If I could travel back in time and was given a choice I'd pick the Remington. Full frame,better sight picture,more accurate and the nipple design.

It'd be neat to know what a guy looked for back then standing at the counter of a general store deciding which pistol to buy with his hard earned money..

[browningautorifle]

I've heard about that discussion...some liked a weapon with more heft, some a light handy gun. Most wanted the best knock down they could get. More heft would be the Remington, lighter would be the open top Colt. Later it would be closer with the full frame Colts...and of course everyone went to .45 Colt, the .44 magnum of the time.

[Patrick Chadwick]

I compete in international BP and muzzleloader competitions. An original percussion revolver is on my wish list, but fetches 4-figures if it is usable for a competition. Yes, plenty of people do shoot originals (look up the MLAIC).
http://www.mlaic.org/
And, of course, the Hungarian representative on this august body is Németh Balázs, a well-known figure on the ML-scene and the guy from the Hungarian website (don't worry about the language - look at the pictures!)

Having been able to try out enough replicas of these old six-shooters, and talked to those who are fortunate enough to shoot originals, the verdict is quite clear. A Remington beats an open-top Colt. The best is a Remington with the blade foresight. The cone foresight is preferred by some, as is the Rogers & Spencer. But solid frame beats open-top, that's just simple mechanical stability, and name-nostalgia doesn't change it.

So, if it was in my area (geographically and financially!) and the internals were OK, then I would happily go for the Remington with the collector-deterrent finish! The problem is, that the internals are usually pretty loose, ratchets worn etc. So if you want a shooter you may need to replace the tatty springs and screws by new components diligently tailored to fit the gun. The original components go into a clearly labelled box to be sold with the gun (if you ever sell it).

You guys have been privileged to see a couple of originals demonstrated by someone who really knows his stuff. And you may assume that the internals on his guns are really good! Bluing doesn't shoot - good bores and tight mechanics in the hands of an expert do!

[Patrick Chadwick]

When do you NOT shoot a percussion revolver?

To answer the original question:

1) You do not shoot it if it is not in proper, safe working order.

2) You do not shoot it if it is (as a collector friend has) something like a mint Adams double-action only (no hammer spur) revolver in the silk-lined original case with all the accessories and a finish that is perfect. Looks just about unfired - it's been sitting in that case for 150 years! A revolver that even I, with my practical it's-there-to-be-used attitude only handled with cotton gloves. That sort of revolver is indeed too good to be used. So if it were given to me in some fantasy world, I would sell it to get a couple or three competition guns and still have enough money left over to feed them for the rest of my life!

[jmoore]

To answer the original question:

1) You do not shoot it if it is not in proper, safe working order.

2) You do not shoot it if it is (as a collector friend has) something like a mint Adams double-action only (no hammer spur) revolver in the silk-lined original case with all the accessories and a finish that is perfect. Looks just about unfired - it's been sitting in that case for 150 years! A revolver that even I, with my practical it's-there-to-be-used attitude only handled with cotton gloves. That sort of revolver is indeed too good to be used. So if it were given to me in some fantasy world, I would sell it to get a couple or three competition guns and still have enough money left over to feed them for the rest of my life!

As for point #1, I finally sold with some regret an Adams .50 cal. five shot DA revolver with the cocking aid spur that projected through the triggerguard only because the frame was about half broken through the rear junction of topstrap and recoil face. The frame was bent enough that the cylinder had about 0.030" (may have been more) fore and aft play! Fully intended to shoot it, but the repair was just too daunting. Plus, all but one spring was broken...

[Patrick Chadwick]

only because the frame was about half broken through the rear junction of topstrap and recoil face. The frame was bent enough that the cylinder had about 0.030" (may have been more) fore and aft play!

Frame straightened - I would tackle that.
but...
Frame welded or silver-soldered - that would kill the collector value, as being an irreversible alteration. And one would still have an "iffy" feeling about the strength of the result.

I think you made the right decision.

[Aragorn243]

Sorry to be so cryptic with this but a close friend had this for many years and found it and ask me to get some information on it and whether it could be fired. From the best I can tell, it is fully functional but I know almost nothing about revolvers. I took it apart as far as removing the barrel and cylinder. The barrel has some pitting in it but the rifling is strong. The cylinder chambers have some minor pitting in them but the cylinder has the unhealthy looking grey cast to it. There is minor pitting on some of the surface parts as you can see in the photos. The brass looks great, the grips look pretty good. The end of the muzzle and the front sight are a little worn down (rounded). The gun was produced in 1863 but does not appear to be a military contract piece. I told him the standard "I don't recommend firing originals" but he'd like to be thorough.

I'm not overly concerned with the barrel, maybe the cylinder, not from pitting but from the color. It looks to have had rust ground off of it or something thus the gouges. Some of the engraving remains but the serial number is extremely faint. It is enough there that I believe it matches the rest of the gun. The gun is not all matching, the loading leaver is a replacement. Other than that, numbers match as far as I've taken it apart. The screw holding the wedge looks newer/new but would have been replaced many years ago. My other concern is the wedge. It does not seem to be especially tight and if it is not tapped in place hard there is some slight movement of the front frame. Tapped in solid, it seems ok. There is some slight travel in the cylinder but I have no way to measure. The gun has very little if any original finish on it that I can tell but does have a patina which is marked from a previous cleaning. I have no idea when this was done and neither does my friend.















Let me know what you think.

[Patrick Chadwick]

That looks like something I would investigate very closely, to see if I could make a shooter out of it, while hoping that the collectors would pass by on the other side. If the ratchet is usable, then screws and springs are all "doable". The wedge, however, is the absolute key piece for these revolvers. To a certain extent, one can even fine tune the position of the barrel section, and thus the cylinder end play, by manipulating the wedge. But if it does not fit snugly, which means needing a very firm pressure or a tap with a plastic hammer to seat it right home, then the open-top mechanism is a very wobbly affair. The screw is there to stop it coming loose and getting lost, not to tighten up a slack wedge!

It is not easy to tell from photos, but the greyish look to the cylinder could be the result of leaving it in rust-remover for too long. Commercial rust-remover, as sold for D-I-Y car repairers, is more or less weak phosphoric acid. I wanted to clean an old screw-cutting die once, that had a lot of surface rust from bad storage, although the cutting edges seemed OK. I put it in a plastic cup with a good shot of rust-remover, watered down to cover the die completely, and promptly forgot about it for a couple of weeks.

When I finally took it out and cleaned it, it had developed that grey look, having been in effect weakly parkerized. That may have been what happened here, in which case collectors will run a mile, but the thing will still work!