--- how do we know that Sam Colt intended the backstrap to be a stop?
Boy that does have some folks worried...
Many years ago when I was still a teen I belonged to a club that had a Muzzle Loading Division. A part of that group included a smaller number that shot cap & ball revolvers. One of those members was an elderly gentleman who was the unofficial armorer that took care of the revolvers.
Now at this time there were no replica revolvers. It would be two decades or so before they came along. Therefore everyone shot 19th century revolvers, mostly original 1851 Navy, 1860 Army Colts, and New Model Remington’s. Fortunately at this time “shootable” guns had not reached the prices they command today, and Turner Kirkland’s Dixie Gun Works was offering both original and new parts that could be used to repair these guns.
The “armorer” knew what he was doing, because his grandfather and father both had worked at Colt’s; his father during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his grandfather before that. Apparently neither had been assemblers, but did know how things were done.
I am sure that low end Teen-Fuff
made a major pain-in-the-backside of himself poking his nose into everything and asking endless questions. Never the less I did learn a few things.
Later, and for many more years I had occasion to examine (and sometimes repair) many 19th century revolvers. Knowing what to look for, I did indeed look. So did Jim Keenen, who by the way also has a background that includes working on old Colts. Occasionally my eyeballs showed me that indeed the backstrap on an old cap & ball Colt had sometimes been altered in the manner that I’d learned about earlier, and I noticed it enough to convince me that it wasn’t unusual.
Now, on this forum we have a fair number of individuals that have tinkered with post-1960 reproductions of the early Colt’s and Remington’s,
but not many with in-depth experience ‘smithing the original guns. There may be others, but Jim is the only one I am aware of, and I note with interest that we agree on a number of things although we both came to the same conclusions independently.
I don’t give a hoot who believes me or not. I am a cantankerous old reprobate with an attitude to match.
Just for grins I am going to sit down one of these days and explain how these guns were built during the mid-19th century. So far as the Colt’s were concerned there was a good reason to use the backstrap to stop the backward rotation of the hammer. Because they did what they sometimes (but not always) did, we have a fair number of guns that are over 150 years old but are still pretty well timed and still have their original lockwork; while modern reproductions of the same guns made out of better steel become battered up and break internals within a few years. What surprises me is that no one can figure out why, even though the reason is obvious.
Now you guy are all in SERIOUS TOUBLE, ‘cuz you made me write this and my coffee got cold….
ha ha ha See....all I work on is Cap&ballers and I know them better than any pro gunsmith I've talked to. I can't say I'm right (just an opinion)since there's no documented tech reference to the backstraps being a stop(more than opinion) proving that is needed and is imperetive. I know if a cap&baller with it's inferior steel is set up to use the backstrap as a stop when the gun hits full cock then...it ain't gonna be working too long before it needs a longer hand or a new cylinder. That's just my opinion. I'm like that danged Old Biker, Buckskinner, Army Sgt., Cap&ball Kitchen table gunsmith, Dirt Rollin ,Duck Billed, Web Footed Platypus, Smoking Gun. I'm opinionated when it comes to my cap&ballers. It's not a hobby. It's a life style. 
:banghead:
