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Gunthorp
Volume
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Gunthorp Firearms
[Safety] [Pistols] [Rifles] [Shotguns] [Black Powder] [Pneumatic]
Firearm Safety? I know, I know, enough already. You've heard this over and over from a bazillion different people, books, and magazines. You don't think you need to read about it again. Right? Consider this. There are over a million of us who carry firearms for protection now, and we don't want to read about you in the news after your accident or stolen gun gives politicians more grist for the gun control mill. It's not paranoia, maybe it's just me, but I'm always looking for new meanings to the concept of safety. Who knows, maybe you'll get a new slant on something if you click on the safety page above.
Pictured above is the 1851 Colt Navy percussion revolver. A percussion cap placed on a nipple behind each cylinder chamber proved to be a much more dependable ignition system than the flintlock, and by the 1830's most of the older guns had been converted.
The Philadelphia Derringer, a pocket sized percussion single shot, was made infamous with Lincoln's assassination.
Attempts at creating a multiple firing device had used multiple barrels, either joined together firing simultaneously, like the duck's foot on the left, or rotating to fire one after another, like the pepper box on the right.
Colt's 1836 design used a single barrel to save weight and rotated the cylinder by cocking the hammer. The 1851 Navy was generally 36 caliber, light , well balanced, and a favorite of both the North and South during the Civil War. The steel framed version of the North is much stronger than the Confederate brass frame. It was said that many church bells across the South were melted down for the cause. After the war, it became the staple of the frontier. One of the six cylinders was left empty under the hammer, but a pair of Colt Navy pistols on a settler's hips really opened up the west. Even after the rise of self contained metallic cartridges in the 1870's, these were still the favored dress of the 'Prince of Pistoleros', "Wild Bill" Hickock.
The fully functional replica of this historical legend is available for purchase in the black powder section.
[Safety] [Pistols] [Rifles] [Shotguns] [Black Powder] [Pneumatic]