[marktwain]

I have purchases a couple of French 1973 Ordinance revolvers as well. They are excellent double action revolvers, solid frame, very strong, but they fire a rather wimpy, difficult to find cartridge with a heeled bullet. The design was way ahead of its time. Hard to understand why they went with such an under-powered load. (Roughly a 170 gr bullet at about 450 fps). They had to use a wad to take up space in the case, to limit the black powder used!

Later, they produced a load for their navy (same revolver)which was reasonable, about a 200 gr .45 caliber bullet at about 700 fps. As a bureaucracy, when the navy stocks ran low... They discontinued the decent navy cartridge...

They are extremely well built revolvers, but they are slow to reload. I had a chance to grab another of those for a $1000 a few weeks ago... probably should have, but they are a specialty item.

[karbine]

The 1873 Ordnance Revolver is another of my favorites. I had 2, sold one. I wound up trimming down 44 Mag cases and reworking the rims to reload that pathetic 11mm French cartridge. I tried some 44 bullets, but mostly just shoot round balls that I tap in with a soft mallet. Again, Trail Boss is the perfect powder—very, very low density and you can fill about any case and push a bullet in without danger of over pressure. Wanted a pair of those ‘73’s and leather shoulder’s like in the movie Mummy. I also have an 1886 Lebel rifle to go with it. SR4759 was the perfect powder for the Lebel, but it was discontinued and now I’m searching the world for it.