How does one reload this little beastie??? Does the Cylinder cover rotate down??? Or would you have to take the Cylinder off???
And it looks like you ejected the shells out of the cylinder by using ones fingers????
Howdy
Not duelist1954 but I can answer those questions.
You load a Merwin Hulbert from the rear through the sliding loading gate. You load in one cartridge at a time, not much different than a Colt SAA, except because of the location of the loading gate you load in two, skip one, then load three more, unlike a Colt where you load in one, skip one, and load four more. Like any revolver of this period, they should only be loaded with five rounds and the hammer should be down on an empty chamber.
To unload you set the hammer back a tiny bit to the 'safety cock' notch, then you push the knob in front of the triggerguard back towards the trigger. That releases the barrel/cylinder assembly. You grasp the cylinder and barrel and rotate them 90 degrees clockwise as seen from the rear, and then pull the barrel and cylinder straight forward. The barrel will retain the cylinder, it will come along for the ride. There is a stop that keeps the barrel and cylinder from coming off the cylinder pin.
When you pull the barrel and cylinder forward, the cartridges in the cylinder will be retained by a ring at the base of the frame. So as you pull the barrel and cylinder forward, the rounds in the chamber will be left behind. In theory, the empties will fall free while the bullets in any live rounds will still be in their chambers. The idea is you can close the gun up again and the live rounds will be retained and you only need to load fresh rounds through the loading gate.
That's the theory anyway. In practice I find that usually a couple of empties hang up under the retaining ring on the frame and do not fall free, they have to be flicked away with a finger. Frankly, although it is a very clever system, a Top Break revolver is actually simpler to operate. With a Top Break you load and unload while the gun is open. With the MH you cannot reload while the gun is open, the shells will not clear the retaining ring. So you must close the gun and reload one at a time through the loading gate, no faster really than a SAA.
But they are really cool to fool around with, particularly when you show up at the unloading table at a CAS match and get to explain what it is and how it works.
To remove the barrel and cylinder you push in the spring loaded latch on the side. This allows you to pull the barrel and cylinder straight off the cylinder pin. A tip though, be sure you do this with the barrel and cylinder upside down, preferably over a table. There is nothing retaining the cylinder to the barrel but a semi-circular hollow. Hold the barrel and cylinder right side up and the cylinder will fall out.
