My Griswold and Gunnison

[duelist1954]

This is the full-length version of my Griswold and Gunnison revolver story. The G&G revolver was one of the guns that came out of the Confederate States attempts to jump-start a homegrown arms program during the Civil War. The Griswold was essentially a copy of the Colt 1851 Navy revolver, though it had some important differences like a brass frame and a Dragoon-style barrel configuration.

For this video I created my own version of the Griswold. I started with a .44 caliber, brass-framed Colt 1851 Navy replica, and changed barrel assemblies. Then I made it so it could be easily converted to look like the pseudo-Griswold that Cullen Bohannon's character carried during the first season of the television series, "Hell on Wheels".



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXe7swM5SjY

 

[duelist1954]

 

[Jim K]

Well, it's probably a lot better made than the originals, with much better material.

Jim

 

[SleazyRider]

Is it possible to know how many casualties during the Civil War were a direct result of revolvers and not rifle fire? Were revolvers that important to the war effort of either side?

 

[elhombreconnonombre]

Were not revolvers mostly used by mounted troops and officers, although enlisted infantry likely had them in their posession as well, perhaps not officially...quien sabe?

 

[Rojelio]

Here's one just like that made by Uberti in 1969.

 

[Hellgate]

Rojelio,
The gun you pictured was love at first sight for me back about 1968. I pined for one and eventually got a '61 Navy Uberti that is as tight now as the first day I got it.

 

[Rojelio]

Hellgate,

That's a sweet handling pistol. It's just as smoothe and tight as it was when it was new and the timing is perfect.

A friend left that one and a couple of more in my shop. He picked them up at a gunshow but he's not into black powder so I'll probably end up with them.

We're always swapping and trading stuff.

 

[Jim Watson]

Interesting project, repro of an inauthentic movie prop. But it shoots well.

Trivia: The revolvers used to be commonly known as Griswold and Griers. It seems that Ebenezer C. Grier was Mr Griswold's son in law and was the gun company lawyer. Even the Confederacy had paperwork.
I know a family of Griers, home in Eufaula, Alabama, about 150 miles from Griswoldville, Georgia (on modern roads.) I cannot get them interested in a family tree to see if they are related to Ebenezer and hence to Griswold.

 

[Jim K]

FWIW, most C.S. revolvers used brass frames because few southern makers had the capability to forge iron frames. Colt made percussion revolver frames by heating and bending billets of iron into an "L" shape (the workmen called them "shoes"), then finishing them using a combination of forging and machining. No southern factory had that kind of machinery, so they were forced to use brass, which could be easily cast close to the final shape, then finished by milling and drilling. One notable exception was the Dance revolver frame, which was sawed out of boiler plate - the reason Dance's have no frame bosses.

Jim

 

[Panzerschwein]

Awesome vid, love the channel!