Makin' 'Em Count

To a collector and shooter, there are many facets to the hobby. Besides survival guns, I've always had a certain fascination for the NON-typical type of firearms, as well.

There is a group I call "guns of the twilight zone", and there are the "charcoal burners."

The "twilight zone" guns are the World War I, II and Korea era weapons. When you handle an old Japanese Arisaka, for instance, you can't help but to wonder where it's been, and the stories it could tell you if it could talk.

The "coal burners" are the subject of this blog.

In firearms jargon, the "coal burners" are the black powder guns.

Prior to the invention of the modern day cartridge, the only way to load and fire a rifle or pistol was to measure and pour powder into a chamber, stuff a small patch or piece of wadding in after it, seat the lead ball, tamp it all down, and finally, slip a percussion cap over a chamber nipple and pull the hammer back.

When you squeezed the trigger, the hammer fell against the percussion cap, causing a flash which ignited the powder. The resulting "mimi-explosion" sent the lead ball, patch and all, down and out through the barrel and on it's way.

Then, you went through the whole sequence again for the next shot. It all took time, and when faced with a bear or indian, you had to be a superb marksman and make every shot count! If you didn't, you were in deep doo-doo!

With the coming of the original six-shot revolvers, you had up to six shots without having to reload, but when you DID, it took six times as long to do it! Some of the old gunfighters carried two and even three spare pre-loaded cylinders, which could be changed in a fraction of the time that would normally be required to reload the chambers individually.

Today of course, you walk into Wally World or someplace, buy a "box of fifty", and they are ready to go. Bullet, shellcase, powder, seated-primer. all in one neat little package, ready to fire when YOU are.

Early muzzle-loaders, (as they're called because that was the end of the gun you loaded) were smoothbore weapons, and not particularly accurate at a significant distance. This changed with what we know as "rifling",(spiral "land and grooves" cut into the bore of the barrel), which puts a spin on the projectile, like a quarterback throwing a football. Gives it much greater stability, and of course, accuracy.

When Colt came out in mass production with their 1873 single action "six-shooters" that fired the new "fully contained cartridges" that we know today, the days of the black powder guns would be numbered, although some of the more talented gunfighters still preferred them.

Wild Bill Hickock for example, wore a pair of Colt 36 caliber Navy percussion revolvers right up until his death.

It's 2008, and while LONG since outdated and replaced, the old cap & ball "coal burners" aren't dead. Some of the originals are still around, although seldom fired by collectors.

But nostalgia has spawned a renewed interest over the past few decades, and while there will probably never be a HIGH demand for them....there's been ENOUGH to attract shops to "tool-up" and produce these guns again. Primarily Italian manufacturers like Uberti.

Most people don't associate Italy with gun making, but it's a FACT that Beretta is the oldest arms manufacturer in the WORLD. The Italians know what they're doing, and because of the steel technology that exists today, I'd be inclined to think that TODAY'S "reproduction" black powder pistols might even be a little BETTER than some of the originals, although they'll never be as valuable.

If rifles are more to your taste, Connecticut Valley Arms (CVA) makes some good stuff too. I personally own a CVA black powder 50 caliber Hawken rifle that would easily pull down an elk.

Many black powder shooters are "purists" and shoot only FFFG black powder, which is very sooty, smells like rotten eggs and is a MESS to clean. A substitute powder known as Pyrodex is considerably cleaner, although it is still more work to clean the gun than, say, any modern gun with today's "smokeless cartridges."

But they ARE fun to shoot, and when you examine today's semi auto pistols, with their 15-round quickchange magazines, it really DOES give you an appreciation of our ancestors, and the quality of shooter they HAD to be, due to the excessive amount of time it took to reload.

All things equal though, their OPPONENTS were at the same disadvantage, (except for bears, cougars and those with bow & arrow)!

Today's newcomers to the black powder world can expect three major positives---------:

1. A new black powder gun (pistol or rifle), will NOT cost nearly as much as the guns we normally buy.

2. Although "antique in design" and slow to reload, they are still VERY FORMIDABLE (a Uberti 1847 Colt Walker with a 60-grain charge of Pyrodex puts out slightly MORE muzzle energy than a modern-day 44 Magnum!.......FACT.

3. The government considers them all to be "non-guns!" No gang member is going to shove one of these big "horse pistols" down inside his pants and carry a satchel full of reloading components he'd NEVER have time to use, even if he DID know how...............so the Feds aren't concerned at all about these guns ever being used to commit crimes..............not yet anyway.

But currently, what that means to YOU, is that there is NO paperwork required. You walk in, pay the cashier, and go out the door, which is as it SHOULD be with ANY of them, and WOULD be in a FREE country, If they'd lock the bad guys UP, instead of plea-bargaining them back out onto the streets every minute of the day, there wouldn't BE a crime problem. Try to convince a liberal of that.

As I said, most "coal burners" you will ever see, are too large to carry concealed, and are no threat to society at all.......except to a hoodlum breaking into your home in the middle of the night.

Now, I do not personally keep a muzzle-loader "at the ready" at night..............but.............if all I HAD was a black powder pistol, I'd have no qualms at all, using it for home defense. My 44 caliber Walker Colt is CONSIDERABLY more powerful than the 357 Magnum that is normally within my reach.

And I care NOT about "reload time"......it only takes ONE out of that old "cannon"!