Sam'l Colt and Left-Handed Rifling Twists

[Aguila Blanca]

I don't remember which manufacturer of 1911s this applies to (might be Colt, might be another, might be all of them), but I know I have read that the pistols with 5" barrels are rifled one direction and the Commander and Officer-length pistols have the opposite twist.

 

[CajunBass]

Since the saber was worn on the left side, for a right handed draw, revolvers were worn on the right side, butt forward to allow for drawing with either hand. To draw with the right, you simply twist your wrist around to grasp the butt.

Or at least that's what I've always heard.

 

[DixieTexian]

I was just thinking about the comment someone made on it keeping the barrel from unscrewing, but the original colt revolvers' barrels were held in by a wedge. There was no screw in barrel, I think.

 

[Tommygunn]

Yeah -- even the early conversions maintained the wedge.
The only exception would be the Roots revolver which had a topstrap. That would not have been a main battle weapon -- but maybe a small backup pistol carried in a boot.
There is an old picture of George Armstrong Custer, fresh out of Westpoint en route to the Civil War, holding one of these unusual handguns.

 

[230RN]

A right-handed twist combined with a right-handed barrel thread will tend to tighten the barrel in the receiver.

Look at a barrel and receiver from the rear. If it has a right handed thread, from your point of view behind the barrel, it would have to be turned counter-clockwise to tighten it. (Using a nut and bolt and looking at the bolt from the threaded side, not the head side, will help in visualizing this.)

OK. Now look at the bullet being spun up by a right-handed twist as it accelerates down the barrel.

If it has to be spun to the right (clockwise), the counter-torque on the barrel must be counter-clockwise (from your point of view behind the barrel), thereby tending to screw the barrel into the receiver.

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Apropos thereof sort of, I once rebarreled a 6.5mm Carcano action when I wanted to convert it to .357 Magnum. (A not very successful pursuit, BTW.)

To take out the old barrel, I relieved the stresses at the shoulder of the barrel where it mated to the receiver by cutting a relief cut in the barrel at that point in the lathe.

I strove mightily to unscrew that barrel, using wrench helpers and WD-40 and my strong, well-defined rippling biceps, all to no avail.

At one point, the very heavy workbench was lifted off the floor by my aforementioned strong, well-defined rippling biceps.

Finally I tried turning it counter-clockwise just to try to loosen it up.

Lo! Behold! Miracolo! Unscrewed came the barrel!

I then made up a little poem, which I hung over the workbench:

Breathes there a man with soul so dead,

Who never to himself has said,

After wrenching and twisting and turning red,

"Dammit to h3ll, that's a left-hand thread!"

Anybody remember the left-hand lug nuts on the Chrysler?[