Pepper box revolvers

Horstheld Antique handguns ^ | none | none listed

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

MARIETTE This specimen with 18 barrels is one of the most impressive and also one of the rarest. The screw-barrels are made from Damascus steel and are kept in the white as fashionable at the time. The ebony grips are deeply engraved.

Extremely rare and in fine condition.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

George Bemis . . . wore in his belt an old original "Allen" revolver, such as irreverent people called a "pepper-box." Simply drawing the trigger back, cocked and fired the pistol. As the trigger came back, the hammer would begin to rise and the barrel to turn over, and presently down would drop the hammer, and away would speed the ball. To aim along the turning barrel and hit the thing aimed at was a feat which was probably never done with an "Allen" in the world. But George's was a reliable weapon, nevertheless, because, as one of the stage-drivers afterward said, "If she didn't get what she went after, she would fetch something else." And so she did. She went after a deuce of spades nailed against a tree, once, and fetched a mule standing about thirty yards to the left of it. Bemis did not want the mule; but the owner came out with a double-barreled shotgun and persuaded him to buy it, anyhow. It was a cheerful weapon--the "Allen." Sometimes all its six barrels would go off at once, and then there was no safe place in all the region round about, but behind it. MARK TWAIN

[bad company]

MARIETTE This specimen with 18 barrels is one of the most impressive and also one of the rarest. The screw-barrels are made from Damascus steel.....

18 barrels made from Damascus steel that may all go off at the same time. No thanks.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

http://www.horstheld.com/0-makers-M.htm

Do you remember the old toy cap pistols that used a roll of caps?

This old cap and ball revolver used a roll of caps and looks like a toy.

[Grut]

This old cap and ball revolver used a roll of caps and looks like a toy.

The Maynard tape primer probably became 'the cap gun' after self-contained metallic cartridges became the rule, but at the time it was a pretty useful gadget.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1707369/posts

Did you see this thread about the air rifle used on the Lewis and Clark expedition?

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

COOL OLD GUNS PING!

[backhoe]

 

 

 

I recall the old Museum of Historical Arms in Miami selling some specimens of these- via the mail- in the Sixties.

[neverdem]

Thanks for the ping. All I know about Damascus steel is that it usually comes with a lot of eye-catching engraving. I'm not a metallurgist. Can it handle smokeless powder?

[Grut]

Can it handle smokeless powder?

Nope. And because it has a lot of microscopic voids in it, it tends to rot internally with corrosion from Black Powder residue. An unfamiliar damascus-barreled weapon should never be fired, even with Black Powder, without first being x-rayed for flaws.

At least, that's what I've heard.

[King Prout]

cordite (smokeless powder) is actually less powerful than well-corned black powder.

[neverdem]

What makes black powder "well-corned"? Is that treated with alcohol and put through a sieve? I plead ignorance on the composition of smokeless powder, other than what I just read at Wikipedia. I was under the impression that smokeless powder burned faster than black powder, thus making it more powerful. Am I wrong?

[King Prout]

iirc, per unit volume, black powder produces more heat and more gas than does cordite.

cordite's advantages are smokelessness, stability, less hydroscopic, and a faster and more reliable burn.

[PoorMuttly]

Just a few days ago a friend mentioned a form of Damascus steel which is very, very strong...from the transition days to smokeless-approved steel. I'll ask him for details when we speak again. I had asked him about the "Smokeless" stamp on the barrel of a 1950 Ithaca side by side shotgun I just bought from a friend, to rescue it from being dragged and dropped by his slouching young son.

Chain-fires must have truly been colorful events back in the day. I had a hang-fire with a cap-and-ball revolver once, and just held on until the other chamber fired....but chain-fire.....gulp. All at once is not a nice place to be. Hard on the paw.

[archy]

All I know about Damascus steel is that it usually comes with a lot of eye-catching engraving. I'm not a metallurgist. Can it handle smokeless powder?

NO! IT CANNOT. More info on Damascus or *watered* steel *here* for you.

They're not even really safe with the black powder charges for which they were originally intended, since the hygroscopic fouling residue from black powder is presented with thousands of recesses and internal pits in which it can worsen, further weakening a pressure tube already minimal in strength.

Some have been successful relining larger bore Damascus guns with modern steel tubes as sub-caliber barrel liners, reducing 10-gage guns to 12-gage, 12-gage or 16-gage to 20-gage, and so forth. The result is heavy and still of dubious strength, depending on the original breech, the quality of the liner and the skill of the gunsmith performing the conversion. I don't much care for the idea, though it can bring otherwise unusable family relics into the realm of potentially usable pieces.

[archy]

This old cap and ball revolver used a roll of caps and looks like a toy.

The Maynard tape primer probably became 'the cap gun' after self-contained metallic cartridges became the rule, but at the time it was a pretty useful gadget.

I've observed an 1842 Harper's Ferry musket that was converted to the Maynard tape priming system, then turned into a *play rifle* for the kiddies [a 10-pound, 5-foot-long musket *toy*?] by the fairly simple method of ramming a ball down the muzzle until it seated at the breech, then another, another, and so on....

The action and priming tape feed was left intact, and likely made a more satisfying crack than the more subtle *pop* of taperoll capgun caps, which nowadays would have to be used with hearing protectors and safety goggles included.

The old musket shot pretty fair after I pulled all that lead out of its barrel. And the only deer I took with it was killed with one of those pulled .69 round balls.