TrailBoss & yup, I’ve had dies for years.
Just so you know, Trail Boss is not a Black Powder substitute. Despite the name it is a Smokeless powder with a relatively fast burn rate. Really not suitable for old guns that should only be fired with cartridges loaded with Black Powder. I would be leery of using Trail Boss in a revolver like that, the steel is probably not very strong.
If you don't want to deal with the muss and fuss of loading cartridges with real Black Powder, I suggest American Pioneer Powder (APP). Unlike real Black, you can use conventional hard cast bullets with regular modern hard bullet lube with APP.
I suspect the association with Hopkins & Allen didn't help Merwin's legacy due to H&A's reputation for inexpensive defensive guns.
This is pretty much what Art Phelps said in his book
The Story of Merwin Hulbert & Company Firearms. Phelps maintained that the association with Hopkins and Allen's less expensive revolvers is what kept Merwin Hulbert revolvers from being considered as high quality as Colt or Smith and Wesson.
I tend to disagree. A cursory inspection of the lockwork parts of a Merwin Hulbert shows the machining of the parts was not as high quality as the parts in a Smith and Wesson Top Break.
This photo shows the lockwork of my Pocket Army chambered for 44-40. This is the revolver pictured above in the photo of the book.
This photo shows the lockwork of a S&W Schofield. The machining of the parts is sharper and better defined than with the MH parts.
Then there is the 'myth' about Merwin Hulberts being the most precisely manufactured cartridge revolver of the 1870s and 1880s, as told by Phelps, because of the unique way the barrel and cylinder swiveled to be loaded and unloaded. Phelps fails to mention that Smith and Wesson held all the patents to make Top Break revolvers at that time, so Joseph Merwin had to come up with a completely different system than a Top Break to build the revolvers that carried his name. He also fails to mention that although a Merwin Hulbert can be unloaded just as swiftly as a S&W Top Break, it cannot be reloaded as quickly as a Top Break. The revolver needs to be closed up and reoaded one round at a time through a loading gate, not much different than a Colt. A MH cannot be reloaded when broken open.
In this photo empties have been dumped out of my Pocket Army.
This photo shows the extractor ring that engaged the rims of the cartridges and held them in place against the recoil shield when the barrel and cylinder were rotated and pulled forward.
A cartridge rim cannot be slid under the extractor ring when the revolver is broken open.
That is why there was a sliding loading gate. When the revolver had been closed up, rims could slide under the extractor ring. But they had to be loaded one at a time, not much different than a Colt. The difference being the loading gate on the MH slid down, and because of the position of the gate, in order to safely load only five rounds, the order would be load 2, skip one, load 3 more, as opposed to load 1, skip 1, load 4 more with a Colt.
Phelps also claimed that the precision of the mating parts of a Merwin Hulbert was better than anything else being made at the time. Hogwash. Smith and Wesson was completely capable of designing fixtures to build such a revolver if they had wanted to, they did not need to because they were producing Top Breaks which were quicker to unload and reload than a Merwin Hulbert.
Don't get me wrong, Merwin Hulberts were interesting revolvers and very unique. That is why I consider myself lucky enough to own 4 of them.
This pair of 3rd Model Frontier Armies required extensive modification by a now retired gunsmith to make them shootable, so they would not command a very high price in the collectors market.
This medium frame 38 is my newest (and most likely my last) MH acquisition
Anyway, shooting a Merwin Hulbert with Black Powder is always fun, and usually attracts a curious crowd when I shoot it at a Cowboy match.
First, I want to thank a those responsible fo much feedback!
