ranahan/loading cap&ball lesson

AdamsQuailHunter

ranahan:Thanks for becoming the teacher and giving a cap&ball lesson. Both my grandfathers passed away before I was old enough to learn to use firearms and hunt. My grandmothers - Southern ladies - born in the early 1880's took on the job of teaching me. Apparently neither of them knew about about resting the hammer between the chambers. I was taught to rest the hammer on an empty chamber. I made a mistake and failed to do so and rested the hammer on a live chamber. A limb swung back off the team we were using, hit the hammer of the holstered revolver, and it went BOOOOOM. I got a peach switch used on me when we got home. I never made that mistake again. I also never knew about the feature you mentioned.I got my two remaining cap&ball revolvers out and tried it. IT WORKS!!!! Thank you for the lesson. I will always be able to completely charge and cap all 6 chambers in the future, knowing I can do so safely.

v35

Colt percussions were designed for all chambers to be loaded. So as not to rely on the safety notch, they had pins between nipples to engage the slot in the hammer face and Remington revolvers had a slot in the cylinder between nipples to drop the hammer face into. Similarly, the SAA cartridge Colt can be carried reasonably safe with the hammer forward and the firing pin between cartridge rims of adjacent chambers. None of this can be relied on with worn,loose, beat up relics or people not familiar with these revolvers.

ledbelly52734

Ranahan-Quailhunter///perc.rev.---The Starr has/had notches between the nipples, also.