Cap and Ball?

[ZVP]

I like cartrige conversions but in Movies and TV you really see mostly conversions.
Nobody is seen pinching Caps...
I think it looks cool to watch someone (or do it yourself) load a C&B Revolver! Even Josie Wales used a conversion gun!
Nothing looks cooler than a fully loaded and capped revolver hanging in your holster! The colors blend great with Case hardening!
I've always viewed a quality C&B revolver as an Experts gun! Yea that sounds weird but it's true!

Shooting BP has always been that way for me!
The mechanicals of a revolver sound cool too!
Guess I'm hooked for real!
ZVP

 

[Armored farmer]

I'm with you. If I'm gonna shoot cartridges, I'll use my modern revolvers. I like cap 'n ball shootin', caps, balls, lube and all.
One thing I have learned though, is the long barrel revolvers are much easier to load with the long loading levers than the short barrel reproductions. I really like my short '51 Marshall and my short '58.....but those loading levers are reeeeeally short. Maybe old Sam Colt new what he was doin' when he made those long barrel revolvers???

 

[StrawHat]

Go back and watch some of the early Westerns with Tim McCoy, or any other of the early actors and many times you will see C&B revolves being loaded. And they were originals.

 

[DD4lifeusmc]

C&B vs conversions

They have to use conversions in the movies, for safety by using blank cartridges.
even our local shoot em dead re-enactment club here in cheyenne, won't allow a BP C&B.
Has to be modern cartridge so they can use blanks.
Even though a cap and 10 gr powder charge with a wad or two would create the same effect.
However, there is the fire hazard.

 

[Hellgate]

Another reason for conversions being used for blanks in the movies is reliability: when you've got all kinds of extras, lighting, movie stars in place, horses wrangled, trains moving etc. you can't risk a misfire that would spoil the expensively choreographed action scene.

 

[BCRider]

And as one you tube video about reloading C&B revolvers showed as a text panel;

"Now you can see why you don't see THIS in the movies." Along with the rest of the possible reasons mentioned already it's terribly boring to anyone not into the whole BP thing.

 

[Crawdad1]

Shooting BP has always been that way for me!
The mechanicals of a revolver sound cool too!
Guess I'm hooked for real!

They played such a huge role in our history especially the opening of the west. When most had a single shot rifle or shotgun it was the percussion revolver that provided the necessary fire power in those early years out on the frontier. The Texas rangers sure took a liking to them in their fight against the Commanches as did Kit Carson and Jedediah Smith would have treasured a Colt Paterson.

"In 1831, Smith was riding alone when a hunting party of Commanche Indians attacked him. Dazed and weakened by lack of water, Smith nonetheless managed to shoot one of the Commanche before he was overwhelmed and killed."

Regardless of how good a J. & S. Hawken rifle was it was still slow to reload and only a club when unloaded.

 

[swathdiver]

Well I ain't never pinched no caps, they either fit or they don't go on my sixgun.

I would argue that a lubed wad is not a fire hazard but is a projectile. Seen plenty enough poking out of the backing on our targets. However, there are other ways to make a safe blank for a cap and ball sixgun that makes a healthy boom with lots of smoke for the cameras.

The movie Arizona uses cap and ball and muzzleloaders faithfully. Good movie too.

 

[ZVP]

Ok too slow for movies.
BUT,
Perfect for fun in real life shooting!
The whole point is not to spray lead, rather to relax and enjoy every shot! Least it is for ne!!!
ZVP

 

[Crawdad1]

You have to put it in context also, we're use to reaching for another magazine to reload while during the time these percussion revolvers were being used, the vast majority of people were reaching for their powder horn or flask and their ramrod to reload. While all the feller did that had a revolver was to pull the hammer back and he was ready to go again.

 

[MAKster]

In a real life shoot out you would be dead before you could reload a cap and ball revolver so that is why they carried two revolvers. But I suspect the reason why you never see someone reloading a cap and ball revolver in a film is because that would take up two or three minutes of the movie and kill the action. The cap and ball revolvers were popular into the 1880s even though the Colt Peacemaker was developed in 1873. Firearms were much more expensive at that time in relation to peoples income compared to today. So people would not have replaced their existing pistol just because something new came along.

 

[Hellgate]

If a gunfighter did not carry a second revolver he most certainly carried a fighting knife.