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A clear and accurate depiction of an "old west" tactical reload...

Years ago Dean Grinnell wrote of a guy that carried a Ruger Single Six rimfire .22 that kept the magnum cylinder loaded in his shirt pocket for a "speed reload". Sure enough, the guy bent over, the cylinder fell out of his pocket and the resulting discharge of the .22 Magnum pierced his heart, killing him.
 
Winchester67 said:
Years ago Dean Grinnell wrote of a guy that carried a Ruger Single Six rimfire .22 that kept the magnum cylinder loaded in his shirt pocket for a "speed reload". Sure enough, the guy bent over, the cylinder fell out of his pocket and the resulting discharge of the .22 Magnum pierced his heart, killing him.
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Yep. That's the huge danger of having a loaded cylinder outside of the revolver itself. For the cap-and-ball cylinders, the carrier could omit the caps until it was secure in the revolver. But.... There goes the speed advantage bye-bye, at least partially.
 
Yeah I think the real speed reload in the Single Action days (Cap & Ball or Cartridge) was a second or third gun NOT swopping cylinders. Im pretty sure Jessie James was reported to carry up to six guns

I went through a Doc Holliday period a couple years ago. I always carried at least two guns and sometimes three. Usually a 5 1/2 inch strong side and a 3 inch Sherriff's model in a period-ish shoulder holster. On days when I wanted more Id also carry a 38 break top in a vest pocket or in a SOB rig. Im also a huge fan of the chopped 1860s Avenging Angle revolvers

The SAAs were loaded with only five rounds (load one, skip one, load the other four..so when you lowered the hammer it was on an empty chamber) My SAAs and C&B conversions are all 45Colt, not an early period "correct" round but still cool
 
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RedGoat said:
That sounds logical enough... On my "modern" single actions, however, wrestling to get the cylinder re-aligned with the cylinder pin so that the pin will engage is sometimes quite challenging. On the Colt cap-and-ball revolvers, the cylinder pin stays attached to the frame (or is it to the barrel assembly?), so that it's a fairly easy matter to align the cylinder and drop/push it onto the arbor. I'm betting that the old-timers, whichever system they owned, simply practiced and practiced until they "got good" at it, whichever system it was.

Oh darn! Look at that! I just now re-watched the beginning of this clip. That's a Remington (has the top strap) Eastwood has in that scene, not a Colt! And there are a few frames that show (albeit not too clearly) the butt end of the removed cylinder. From those few frames, it appears that it contains brass cartridges, not percussion caps.

I can see exactly what you mean by "simply pull the pin / push the pin". It is almost identical to dropping / reinserting the cylinder on a Colt SAA or a Ruger Blackhawk. Eastwood makes it look easy without even looking down, but I'm guessing that if he messed up they simply did a re-take.
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Exactly. On a Colt you had to loosen the screw holding the wedge, knock out the wedge, pull off the barrel half of the frame and there ya go. Remington was much like a modern SA design. Not especially fast, but a good bit quicker than loading a cylinder and a ton faster than swapping cylinders on a Colt .
 
PieterCoetzee said:
Yeah I think the real speed reload in the Single Action days (Cap & Ball or Cartridge) was a second or third gun NOT swopping cylinders.
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That pretty well holds true even today with all our fancy speedloaders. Going to a second gun is just plain faster than reloading. Can you imagine how fast Jerry Miculek could put 21 hits on target with THREE 686 Plus revolvers on his belt?

PieterCoetzee said:
I went through a Doc Holliday period a couple years ago. I always carried at least two guns and sometimes three.
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I guess that I'm still in my Doc Holliday period if routinely packing a pair of 1911s plus my pocket snub counts. Same thought process applies as with revolvers. If one 1911 goes down hard, it's faster to get to work with the second than to waste time getting the first up and going again.
 
PieterCoetzee said:
Hahaha I moved fro Doc Holliday to John Rourke with two 3 in 1911s in a double shoulder holster. Its heafty but somehow comforting
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Shoulder holster with two guns ( vs gun & mags on offside ) IS a thing . I haven't used it yet , but a do have a rig set up for that .

And this mitigates my above post about keeping pants up w/ multiple guns .
 
Biggfoot44 said:
Shoulder holster with two guns ( vs gun & mags on offside ) IS a thing . I haven't used it yet , but a do have a rig set up for that .

And this mitigates my above post about keeping pants up w/ multiple guns .
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I wont say I carry it everyday but often. It balances well
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