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He could fire off 10 shots because he was ambidextrous. Revolvers are carried with the hammer down on an empty chamber lest they go off accidentally and put a b

He could fire off 10 shots because he was ambidextrous. Revolvers are carried with the hammer down on an empty chamber lest they go off accidentally and put a big hole in your leg

hoorayimhelping 8y ago
Yeah, the fact that he mentions shooting 6 shots is pretty iffy on this historical account. There are stories of him knowing he was about to go out to a gunfight and preparing his guns and bullets, so maybe he loaded up six shots and was very careful while transporting his pistols Here's a good video explaining why people would load post-Civil War single action revolvers with 5 shots instead of 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldHPNnsp-cs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldHPNnsp-cs.
- overcast 8y ago
  Wasn't aware they could accidental fire that easily! That sounds like a massive design defect.
  - tlholaday 8y ago
    > That sounds like a massive design defect. The trade-off is between unwanted firing and failure to fire when wanted. Which risk do you suppose your shootist customer would prefer?
  - neurobashing 8y ago
    Theres reasons. One, we just sorta didn’t know. In less than 100 years we went from single shot flintlock pistols to repeating revolvers; we were still figuring a lot of things, like safety, out. Modern revolver lockwork would take a few more decades. Even today, in a world of very high quality modern firearms, safety issues arise. The Sig 320 - now the M17 service pistol of the US Army - had a problem where if dropped just so, it could discharge. It was kind of a scandal; modern firearms are incredibly safe to handle, compared to even 30 years ago. Consider that in the 60s it was not unheard of for pistols to require the user to pull the trigger as part of operating the decocker mechanism. Insanity to modern eyes. Anyway, firearms at that point were kinda new. We didn’t know what “safe” really meant, we didn’t do things like drop tests, we lacked the material science to make carefully heat-treated components, we lacked the manufacturing ability to make the sorts of small, high quality components we use today ... it wasn’t a design defect as much as we didn’t have the science and understanding.
    - cladari 8y ago
      Modern revolvers don't have the "striking the hammer can discharge the round" because they now use a hammer bar. You can load all the chambers without fear of this happening. You may be surpised to learn that all modern revolvers require pulling the trigger and thumbing the hammer down, as do the very popular 1911 pistol and it's many clones. It should be noted that modern revolvers don't have a safety. A large majority of striker fired pistols don't have a traditional safety either.
rjf72 8y ago
Seems like speed, nerves, and aim would be a whole lot more important than how many bullets you could fire. Check out this [1] clip of the world fast draw championships. The neat thing to do is to go frame by frame. There's just a huge difference in how fast these guys, who presumably are near the top of the game, are firing. And that's when they're firing at a target they've probably done thousands of times - not some guy who's looking back at you with a gun. And in any case one solid hit on your opponent, and there's a pretty good chance whatever shots he manages to get off after that are probably not going to be the most most threatening / well aimed. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g11oE_nxWSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g11oE_nxWSU

He could fire off 10 shots because he was ambidextrous. Revolvers are carried with the hammer down on an empty chamber lest they go off accidentally and put a big hole in your leg

hoorayimhelping 8y ago

Yeah, the fact that he mentions shooting 6 shots is pretty iffy on this historical account. There are stories of him knowing he was about to go out to a gunfight and preparing his guns and bullets, so maybe he loaded up six shots and was very careful while transporting his pistols Here's a good video explaining why people would load post-Civil War single action revolvers with 5 shots instead of 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldHPNnsp-cs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldHPNnsp-cs.

overcast 8y ago
Wasn't aware they could accidental fire that easily! That sounds like a massive design defect.
- tlholaday 8y ago
  > That sounds like a massive design defect. The trade-off is between unwanted firing and failure to fire when wanted. Which risk do you suppose your shootist customer would prefer?
- neurobashing 8y ago
  Theres reasons. One, we just sorta didn’t know. In less than 100 years we went from single shot flintlock pistols to repeating revolvers; we were still figuring a lot of things, like safety, out. Modern revolver lockwork would take a few more decades. Even today, in a world of very high quality modern firearms, safety issues arise. The Sig 320 - now the M17 service pistol of the US Army - had a problem where if dropped just so, it could discharge. It was kind of a scandal; modern firearms are incredibly safe to handle, compared to even 30 years ago. Consider that in the 60s it was not unheard of for pistols to require the user to pull the trigger as part of operating the decocker mechanism. Insanity to modern eyes. Anyway, firearms at that point were kinda new. We didn’t know what “safe” really meant, we didn’t do things like drop tests, we lacked the material science to make carefully heat-treated components, we lacked the manufacturing ability to make the sorts of small, high quality components we use today ... it wasn’t a design defect as much as we didn’t have the science and understanding.
  - cladari 8y ago
    Modern revolvers don't have the "striking the hammer can discharge the round" because they now use a hammer bar. You can load all the chambers without fear of this happening. You may be surpised to learn that all modern revolvers require pulling the trigger and thumbing the hammer down, as do the very popular 1911 pistol and it's many clones. It should be noted that modern revolvers don't have a safety. A large majority of striker fired pistols don't have a traditional safety either.

rjf72 8y ago

Seems like speed, nerves, and aim would be a whole lot more important than how many bullets you could fire. Check out this [1] clip of the world fast draw championships. The neat thing to do is to go frame by frame. There's just a huge difference in how fast these guys, who presumably are near the top of the game, are firing. And that's when they're firing at a target they've probably done thousands of times - not some guy who's looking back at you with a gun. And in any case one solid hit on your opponent, and there's a pretty good chance whatever shots he manages to get off after that are probably not going to be the most most threatening / well aimed. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g11oE_nxWSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g11oE_nxWSU