Video - Shooting the Double Action Revolvers of the Old West

[duelist1954]

n this video we'll look at the three most common double action revolvers of the old West:

The Colt 1877 - Lightning & Thunderer
The Colt 1878 - Omnipotent
The S&W Ist Model DA - Frontier Double Action

I know you can't shoot them in a SASS match, but there's a lot of real frontier history tied up in these guns.

I hope you like the video..let me know what I'm doing right and what I need to do better. I'm new at this, but taking it seriously...want to give Hickok45 a run for his money some day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqkoMyHzR9E

 

[swopjan]

good choice of topic, i've seen 1877's before but didn't realize they were double-actions. now i must have one. i have a few questions.

are there any modern replicas of the 1877 and 1878, and if so, are they more reliable and are they available with different grips?

why was the .44 Russian called the .44 Russian if it was proprietary of smith & wesson? isn't that an American company?

i've always wondered why DA and SA revolvers have different shapes. you talk about how the 1877 has delicate internal workings, and to me it looks more like a single-action shape. can you tell me why they're shaped differently?

 

[duelist1954]

Swopjan,

There are no true modern replicas of the 1877 or 1878, but there are some approximations built in single action mode using SAA lockwork

The 1877 single actions are available from companies like Cimarron

and the 1878 is available from USFA, called the Omnipotent

Since the grips are so distinctive, that is what the clone makers most closely copied.

The 1877 looks the most like a single action Colt...just baby sized, but inside it is completely different. The cylinder locking bolt comes out of the recoil shield to mate with notches in the rear face of the cylinder, rather than coming up from the bottom. That's why no bolt notches are present on the face of the cylinder. There is a really compley, compound leaf spring that tensions both the bolt stop and the hand. There is a separate sear so it can fire in DA mode. There are linkages from the trigger to the hammer...lots of stuff going on inside.

The Russians ordered tens of thousands of S&W pistols for their army. Originally they were chambered in .44 American (An S&W proprietary cartridge) as were the 3,00 test pistols bought from S&W by the US Army. The .44 American used a .45 caliber, outside lubed, heelbased bullet...very common in the early cartridge era..not a good design. The Russians insisted the round be redesigned with what we would consider a modern, inside lubed bullet. It was designated the .44 Russian because they were buying it.