Colt Square Back Trigger Guards

Enlighten me.

I am seriously wondering why a square back trigger guard was used on the Colt Walker, the Colt Whitneyville Hartford Dragoons, the 1st and 2nd model Colt Dragoons, and the 1st and 2nd model 1851 Navy Revolvers, before evolving to a round or oval trigger guard.

Don't get me wrong: I love the look of the squareback, have ordered a squareback TG for my Pietta 1851 Navy, and have owned 2 Ruger Super Blackhawks with that squareback guard. No shooting problems encountered by me.

As far as my research has gone, no other manufacturer has offered a squareback TG on any pistol or rifle in that era.

Did Samuel Colt just have an aesthetic design fancy in mind? Did Bill Ruger have the same idea?

Opinions, please.

Jim

I guess Sam Colt just thought they looked cool. And Ruger just copied it from there.

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Maybe, but there must have been a reason for it other than "cool".

Though there is a practical side to them. When cocking a cap and ball revolver it's good practice to flip the barrel to point it in the air when cocking back the hammer. This ensures that the spent cap falls down off the back of the revolver instead of down into the action, jamming the gun.

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The better practice might be to turn the revolver sideways to the right and then re-cock the pistol, allowing the spent cap to fall away from the frame.

And the squareback trigger guard just gives your middle finger a nice place to push against to flip the gun up.

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I'll take that into consideration. I never had a problem with the Ruger SBH and that makes sense insofar as my experience with the SBH and the polite roll of the gun when firing heavy .44 Mag loads. Maybe this is off-topic, maybe not.

Though I doubt that was Colt's intention when he designed the thing.

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There had to be some reason for Samuel Colt to do this.