New Pietta 58 Remington problem

I've heard that during the Civil War, the whole "reloading with spare cylinder" thing was a myth, and the Remington New Model Army would have been reloaded with paper cartridges just like any other cap and ball revolver during the conflict. Any truth in this?
 
Pretty true. I have never heard of the practice of carrying pre-loaded cylinders or selling spare cylinders, and it'd be pretty damn tricky to do on horseback, unlike, eg. grabbing the other pistol.

i looked at the gun again this time with my glasses on. still looks pretty sweet to me. it takes me around 10 minutes to swap cylinders so i can live without a spare for now. clint eastwood made it look so easy.

so i'll keep the gun. now i just need the el nino rains to stop so i can shoot it!
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When I bought my first NMA, it took me and the guys at the gun store 10 minutes to put it back in. Now it takes me a couple of seconds to put it back in.

Put the hammer on half-cock (or just lightly pull it) and then spin it to the right while pushing it out or in. Turning the cylinder guides the hand in the slots at the back of the cylinder and it goes smoothly. Once you learn the "Remington handshake" it's pretty easy to do.

Once you get around to making it work with both cylinders. what Hawg said - file a tiny bit off the top of the bolt.
 
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what Hawg said - file a tiny bit off the top of the bolt.
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The hand, not the bolt. There is no evidence of spare cylinders being carried during the war. There is ample evidence of carrying multiple revolvers. But some folks just have to believe it and will argue about it til the cows come home.
 
Yer changing cylinders while riding a horse seems like it would be a chore most folks wouldn't want to do, but carrying a couple more revolvers in their belt would be..
 
changing cylinders while riding a horse seems like it would be a chore most folks wouldn't want to do
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It would be difficult on a horse that's walking. Doing it on a galloping horse would be next to impossible and add the fear and adrenaline rush of being under fire. There would have been dropped cylinders being found on every major battlefield but there's not. However there are hundreds of pictures similar to this one.

 
spare cylinder problems fixed

i finally made it out to the range last week and thought i would provide an update on the issues i was having last month. it was fun to finally get to shoot the gun and the fix ended up being a lot easier than i anticipated.

i managed to get 24 shots with almost no trouble at all. some cap fragments now and then got stuck and i just shook them out. also cleaned up the cylinder a bit every 6 after 12 shots. other than that, pulled the trigger 24 times and went boom 24 times with no troubles. nice! better than i expected.

by the end of the shooting session i noticed it was much easier to install the good cylinder. i wasn't clint eastwood smooth but it was down to under a minute. later i thought i should try the troublesome cylinder and now it also works just fine! cocks, half cocks, locks, unlocks, etc. i guess a little bit of shooting pounded down the hand just enough that everything is good now.

by the way, this was my first time ever shooting a black powder gun. i was a little nervous the first time i loaded it up. to make life easy i was using pyrodex pellets. it's a lot less intimidating for a total novice. remington #10 caps, pyrodex pellets, cabela wads, and hornady .454 balls. worked very well!
 
Think I agree with noelf2

Most photos were with borrowed guns though. And is that guy a double amputee?
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Many of the pictures I saw taken while in the service, were with the biggest or baddest or most weapons the guy could find, to impress the girl back home I guess. Doubt it was any different back then.

There wouldn't have been enough pistols for everyone to carry multiples, and how would they all have found the materials to make or aquire the various caliber balls? Wasn't everything in short supply? You wouldn't carry a battlefield pickup very long after it was empty.
 
Pretty sure the manufacturing standards were such that balls for one pistol of a paricular caliber were good in the other, too. Remember, mostly they used paper cartridges back then. Wouldn't have worked if manufacturing tolerances were that shoddy.
 
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