Quick question - 19th century revolver - audible 'click' when cocked?

BarbaraKE

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
739
Reaction score
132
Location
Upstate South Carolina
Actually I'm assuming that revolvers in the 1850's/1860's needed to be cocked. Is this right? If so, how loud would the 'click' be? Would it be audible several feet away? Did it need to be cocked before each shot?

Thanks in advance.
 

Histry Nerd

Moving Forward!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 18, 2006
Messages
294
Reaction score
84
Location
Texas. It's like a whole 'nother country.
Hey, Barbara -

This is off the top of my head, so I don't have dates or models for you, just some basic information on American guns (I don't know what kind of revolvers were in use in Europe during this period). But you can probably get more specific info with a quick Google search.

The short answer is yes. The click would have been audible several feet away, depending on the noise level of the surroundings. On a quiet day, you might be able to hear it from as far as twenty feet away unless the guy cocking it was trying to be stealthy. And the sound of a firearm being cocked is very distinctive--it doesn't sound like anything else.

The revolvers of the 1850s and '60s were mostly cap-and-ball type revolvers; six shots powder and ball were loaded into the front of the cylinder, with six mercury fulminate blasting caps stuck on nipples on the back. Each time the hammer fell, it would strike one of the caps, igniting the powder in one chamber and firing one ball. The user would then have to cock the hammer again before he could fire another shot.

Revolvers with self-contained metal cartridges (the type we see in Westerns) did not become common until the late 1860s or early 1870s, I believe.

Hope it helps.
HN
 

BarbaraKE

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
739
Reaction score
132
Location
Upstate South Carolina
Thank you so much. In the story (which is set in 1870), he's using the 'new' Smith & Wesson Model 3 (they had just been introduced). So - yes - he's using the metal cartridges.

I'm glad you can hear the click - that fits into my story better.

Rep point on its way!!
 

Mike Martyn

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 14, 2005
Messages
432
Reaction score
56
Location
Canada
I have what's called a gambler's pistol from around that era. (not a derringer) It's got two barrels, is about 7 inches long with no trigger guard and two triggers which fold into the body of the pistol. It looks to be about a 38 or so calibre. It wouldn't have been very accurate with a 4 inch barrel but a couple of 38 calbre from here to the other side of the green felt table would have been lethal.

The gambler would conceal it up his left sleeve and could reach in and cock both barrels with a thumb. Yes it makes a double click which you can hear about 10 ft. I know because I just tested it.

And like the previous poster said. The noise is distinctive and any fellow card player would have known instantly what it was, Perhaps the gambler coughed as he cocked it
 

Puma

Retired and loving it!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
7,340
Reaction score
1,535
Location
Central Ohio
But with most revolvers you can fire double action which means the cock and shoot comes from just pulling the trigger. Cocking it first is called single action. If the gun was capable of being shot double action, in an adversarial situation, I'd suspect the shooter wouldn't take the time to cock it first - just shoot. Puma
 

hammerklavier

It was a dark and stormy night
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 7, 2008
Messages
711
Reaction score
85
Location
NC
The early revolvers where single action, I assume yours must be, but I don't know exactly when double action came out.

Single action revolvers had to be cocked each time. In the movies you see guys getting fancy, cocking with one hand while shooting with the other in order to fire quickly. You probably couldn't aim very well that way.
 

jclarkdawe

Feeling lucky, Query?
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
10,297
Reaction score
3,859
Location
New Hampshire
For all you wanted to know about a Smith & Wesson Model 3 see S & W Model 3 Manual

This is an PDF download. Firing instructions are on pages 18 through 20.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe
 

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 13, 2008
Messages
9,239
Reaction score
2,316
Location
Oregon, USA
Barbara,

I couldn't view the S&W manual JClarkeDawe was kind enough to supply, but I'm sure it'll tell you the Smith Third Model (as is the case with their first and second models) was available in both single-action and double-action. The main way to identify which is which is a side view of the trigger.

The single-action trigger hugs quite close to the rear of the trigger guard. The double-action trigger hangs at the center of the guard, and you can see the mechanism which extends inside to turn the cylinder and cock the hammer.

In the more than you ever wanted to know department: I agree with your choice of the single-action model 3 for its chilling clicks and clacks while the thumb pulls the hammer back, powering the pawl to turn the cyclinder until a spring locks it in battery. The other dramatic noises are from the sear engaging the part of the trigger that's up in the clock works.

Somene mentioned this all happens too fast and right before the shot with double actions (although you can fire the double actions like a single action, the reason for the term "double").
 

BarbaraKE

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
739
Reaction score
132
Location
Upstate South Carolina
In my story, the main character actually gets several pair of S&W Model 3's a couple of months *before* they were introduced (in real life). (This is explained by a throw-away line where his 'connections' are mentioned.)

Jim, thanks for the PDF. I think I found that article at some point but wasn't positive it would apply to a revolver produced in 1870.

Going by everyone's comments, I'm going to assume that the revolver in my story is a single-action, meaning that the character has to cock it and then fire it (separate steps). This actually works out well so I'm happy.

(I realize this might have seemed like a petty question but I'm really fussy about getting details right.)

Thanks to all.
 

Puma

Retired and loving it!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
7,340
Reaction score
1,535
Location
Central Ohio
Barbara - It's nice to see someone trying to get it all right. No need to apologize at all! Puma
 

MaryMumsy

the original blond bombshell
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 18, 2008
Messages
3,396
Reaction score
829
Location
Scottsdale, Arizona
Check when smokeless gunpowder was invented too. Once source I read said in the early 1890s, which renders all film and TV Western shootouts inaccurate if true.

According to wikipedia, the first US patent for smokeless gunpowder was in 1890, although it was in production much earlier in Europe. I have a vague recollection of a program on the History Channel which indicated the smokeless powder was much more expensive than the previously common powder. In this particular program they were investigating the site of a shoot-out between a group of bad guys and a group of lawmen. The bad guys had smokeless powder which allowed their positions in the rocks to be hidden from the lawmen. The lawmen had the older type powder, and were defeated (at least for that day).

MM
 

Cav Guy

Living in the backstory
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 14, 2006
Messages
809
Reaction score
146
Location
Montana - About a century too late
Double action pistols didn't enter into service until the early 1860s, and weren't very popular with many as they were considered unreliable. There were only a few makers (Star being one).

Actually if you're close to a single-action revolver being cocked, you'll hear roughly three clicks: the last (and loudest) when the hammer locks back, the middle when the revolver reaches what's called half-cock (meaning that the cylinder can be rotated but the hammer won't fall under normal conditions), and the first when the cylinder is pushed into rotation when the hammer is first drawn back.

Smokeless powder didn't come into general use until around the turn of the century (1900). It was manufactured before that, but it was also more "explosive" than standard black powder and many older weapons couldn't handle it.

Metallic cartridges didn't come into common use for pistols until after the Civil War (1865 or so), although they did exist for rifles before that time. The Henry is the most famous (ancestor of the Winchester), but the Spencer also used metallic ammunition. If memory serves, Smith & Wesson came out with the first cartridge revolver...in no small part because they held the patent on a bored-through cylinder (as opposed to cap and ball revolvers which were closed off at the rear end).