Howdy
I just competed in the 2020 Reloading Challenge, Colt vs S&W Top Break.
This was a local event, staged in my own basement.
The competitors, on the left, weighing 2 pounds 11 ounces unloaded, a Smith and Wesson New Model Number Three, manufactured in 1882, refinished at the factory in 1965.
On the right, weighing 2 pounds 8 ounces unloaded, a Second Generation Colt Single Action Army, manufactured around 1968.
The staging of the guns. Pay no attention to the S&W book here, it was just serving as a stand for the timing device, my Hamilton self winding watch with sweep second hand. No bias in the test, even though the S&W book is there.
Even though I am showing 5 empty cases in this photo, during the trials each revolver was loaded with 5 empty cases, hammer down on the last one that would have been fired. The ammo to be loaded was staged randomly on the table, pretty much as seen here. Why 5 rounds and not 6, because everybody knows these revolvers were only safe to load with 5 rounds, with the hammer down on an empty chamber and that is the way I always shoot them. The ammunition for the S&W was 44 Russian dummy rounds, no powder or primer, but loaded with the same 200 grain round nosed bullets that I normally load for 44 Russian.
The ammunition for the Colt was five dummy 45 Colt rounds. No primers or powder, the same 250 grain round nosed bullets that I normally shoot. The brass happens to be nickel plated, but that is the dummy 45 Colt rounds I had lying about. The nickel plating made no difference in the trials. Regular spent 45 Colt brass was used for the unloading portion of the trials.
The scenario: This test mimicked how fast I could empty and reload each revolver if I was in a gunfight. Consequently there was no firing, no cocking hammers, no pulling triggers. Just empty and reload. Each trial started with the revolvers positioned as shown, each with five pieces of spent brass in the cylinder. When the sweep hand of the watch reached zero I grabbed each revolver, emptied it as fast as possible, and reloaded five rounds as fast as I could.
With the Colt I grabbed it, opened the loading gate, put the hammer at half cock, emptied each chamber, then grabbed the ammo off the table and reloaded. Reloading the Colt was done the normal way of loading one, skipping one, loading four more, closing the loading gate, bringing the hammer to full cock and letting it down on an empty chamber.
With the S&W I grabbed the gun, opened the latch and rotated the barrel down, automatically ejecting all five empties, then grabbed the rounds off the table and loaded all five as quickly as possible, taking a moment to line up the empty chamber with the bore as I always do, then closing the action.
In hindsight if I had been in a real gunfight I probably would have loaded six in each revolver, but that is hindsight, that is not what I did.
With each revolver, the most time consuming part was grabbing the rounds off the table and putting them in the chambers. There was always a little fumbling around with both guns. The rounds were lying randomly on the table, not lined up but pointing randomly, so there was always a little bit of fumbling with each revolver getting the rounds in the chambers.
Here is what you have been waiting for, the results:
Colt, best time to empty and reload: 18 seconds.
S&W best time to empty and reload: 9 seconds.
Clearly the S&W had the advantage because the cylinder could be completely emptied in one stroke of rotating the barrel, which automatically dumped all five empties. In practice as I was rotating the barrel I swung the revolver around so the barrel was more or less pointing at the ceiling and all the empties were assisted by gravity to fall out.
With the Colt I gave the ejector rod a smart stroke for each chamber, emptying all five empties into my hand, then I dropped them on the table. I was reminded of some of the guys in CAS who would show up at the unloading table and point their revolvers skyward while banging the grip on the table to shake the empties out. I used to have fun asking them if they knew what the ejector rod was for. None of that in this trial, each empty received a smart whack from the ejector rod to send it flying out of the chamber.
In truth, the S&W did not seem to have much of an advantage in reloading even though the rear of the cylinder was open and ready to receive the fresh rounds. Sometimes I grabbed two at a time, sometimes just one. There was always enough juggling of rounds going on that it took longer to reload than if I had been using some sort of speed loader. Which did not exist in 1882. For those not familiar with it this is what a S&W Top Break looks like just before all the empties are ejected. After the ejector pops down the rear of the cylinder is completely exposed for loading.
This is what a chamber of the Colt looks like ready to receive a round. Yes, there is an advantage in loading large calibers over small calibers. The 45 Colt chambers are very large, and with the hammer at half cock each chamber is perfectly lined up with the loading gate.
I was not holding the ammo for the Colt like this, this was the only way I could hold the revolver and ammo with one hand while taking pictures with the other hand. But this gives a good idea how a 45 Colt cartridge with a round nose will pretty much find its own way into a chamber just using gravity. In truth, there were several times I lost a few tenths of a second because I had to jiggle a round a little bit to get it to drop into the chamber.
There you have it, the 2020 Colt vs S&W Top Break Reloading Challenge.
All results are final, there will be no arguing with the judge, who happened to be the only contestant.
But I still want a Webley Mark VI in 455 Webley!
