The first rifle made in Sam Colt’s Paterson NJ factory was the 1837 “ring lever” rifle. These were rather fragile and underpowered and while they were used successfully in the First Seminole War, they needed improvement. Colt set about doing this with his 1839 pattern, which was more robust and more powerful. It had six chambers of .525”, with much greater powder capacity than the first Colt revolving rifles. A total of about 950 were made before the Paterson company failed in 1842, and nearly 700 of those were military sales. The US War Department bought 360 (including this example), the Republic of Texas bought 300, and the State of Rhode Island bought 46 – the rest were sold to private companies or individuals. Despite its improvements, though, the 1839 revolving rifle was still not a mature design and was not successful enough to keep Colt in business.
Colt 1837 Ring-Lever Rifle:
Colt 1847 Walker Revolver:
Victory goes to those who persevere… And, Sam Colt surely knew how to persevere.
So did the shooters burn their support hands, wear gloves, or put the support hands under their buttstocks? Any historical accounts?
with the risk of chain fire yo did NOT put your support hand forward of the cyl.; if you wanted that keep that hand in good shape .
A draw back of this type of rifle .
“(…)historical account(…)”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_model_1839_carbine mentions that In 1841, Captain Edwin Vose Sumner conducted field trials with the Colt model 1839 carbine and the Jenks carbine at Carlisle Barracks… so maybe something might be learned from report if it was created, preserved and could be unearthed.
“(…)wear gloves(…)”
I am wondering if said piece was not anyway part of uniform? Is anybody able to summon expert at 1840s Texan Army uniforms?
“(…)burn(…)”
If you wish to use 2-handed separated-loaded revolving weapon, but does not like burn then use ROTO 12 CS https://americanguncraft.com/product/roto-12-cs-chain-saw-shotgun-no-ffl-required-copy/
Stuart Reid’s ‘The Texas Army 1836-1845’ does not show troopers wearing gloves. Besides which it is highly dubious that officers could enforce such a regulation on contrarian siht-kicked cedar choppers like the Texans were and remain. President Sam Houston once received the French ambassador stark naked. It was an August day there in Austin
According to William B. Edwards in Civil War Guns (Stackpole 1962- PDF free at archive.org), the “chainfire” danger with Colt revolving long arms was and is over-rated. If the chambers were loaded correctly, with a “plug” of wax or grease over top of the bullet, the chainfire potential from the front of the cylinder was eliminated.
The real danger of chainfire was at the rear of the cylinder. Using the wrong size of percussion cap (especially a musket cap, which was too large for the nipple) could allow primer sparking to literally “jump” from the chamber cap to the next one, which would ignite and set off the one next in sequence, and so on.
The solution there was to use the correct size caps.
Of course the real solution would have been the bored-through cylinder chambered for rimmed metallic cartridges (rimfire or centerfire), but let’s not get into that mare’s nest.
clear ether
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Your post does not show the danger necessarily overrated. It simply relocates it from front to rear of cylinder. In any case, grease or wax at cylinder minimize the danger. It does not eliminate it. Shooter then as now omit precautions. With Mexicans onrushing, even more so.
The real problem with revolving rifles using a large charge of black powder is that its like having a large firecracker go off 4 inches in front of your nose. See “Shooting the Remington Type Revolving Carbine” in Spring 2024 #125 Black Powder Cartridge News. Its the same problem weather your using the percussion cylinder of the metallic cartridge cylinder.
A Bracer a kin to what an archer would wear on the forearm is all you would really need. Some even have metal or bone plates on the leather as well for more protection.
Even with bone or metal you’re going to get a nasty bruise. Enough to ruin your aim. You will almost certainly there after develop a spastic flinch each time you pull the trigger.