American Handgunner Frontier Firepower

An array of Duke’s black powder handloads for Frontier cartridges.
From left: .38 Long Colt, .44 S&W American, .44 S&W Russian,
.44 American, .44 WCF (.44-40), .45 S&W Schofield and .45 Colt.

Firepower of Old West revolvers is one of the most misrepresented historical aspects of that era. No doubt most of the nonsense comes from Hollywood or, to a lesser degree, western novels. Bad guys get thrown about when struck by good guys’ revolver bullets. Even horses take dramatic spills.

Truth is, it just wasn’t so — at least not with holster size revolvers. In the beginning of the revolver era, sixguns were huge. The fabled 1847 Walker Colt at 4½ lbs. weighed about as much as the famous American M1 .30 Carbine. It was never meant for belt carry by troops — horses bore the weight in saddle holsters. However, Walkers with their .44 pure lead 148-grain balls over 60 grains of black powder did approach the power of a modern .357 Magnum.

Duke shooting a Colt Model 1861 .36 cap and ball. A mere 25-grain
powder charge made that much smoke.

The “Belt Pistol” Era

By 1850 Colt finally brought out a revolver actually called a “belt pistol” meaning it was supposed to be worn on one’s person. Today, that one is known as the Model 1851 or the Navy Colt. Its caliber was called .36 but ball size was 0.375" because back then a weapon’s caliber was rated by the barrel’s bore, not its groove diameter. A 0.375" round ball weighs about 80 grains and a 25-grain blackpowder charge from a ’51 Navy or its successor, the Model 1861 could push it to about 900 to 1,000 fps. Black powder quality varied immensely in those days. That’s about equal to one of today’s .380 autos. Jesse James took a body hit from a .36 caliber revolver fighting as a guerilla in the Civil War and carried the ball until his death in 1882.

Even the hidebound U.S. Army thought .36 revolvers were a bit weak and therefore decided to switch to .44s when Colt managed to make one light enough for belt carry. That was the Model 1860, which was rivaled by Remington’s Model 1858 in popularity during Civil War combat. Their 148-grain 0.457" round balls might hit 800 fps, which would give them just a mite more striking power than one of today’s 148-grain .38 Special wadcutter target loads.

Duke has handloaded black powder cartridges for these reproductions.

Cartridge Power

The above cap and ball revolvers reigned supreme among fighting men in the Old West until the advent of metallic cartridge revolvers circa 1870. Did the new self-contained cartridges dramatically increase revolver firepower? They did in regard to speedy reloading, but not so much in terms of knockdown power.

Take, for instance, the .36 caliber Colts. Many of those were “converted” to fire .38 Colt rimfire and centerfire cartridges. In the 1990s I had one of Colt’s 2nd Generation Model 1861s converted to duplicate the very valuable originals. With a 130-grain heel-type bullet over 18 grains of black powder, it would barely break 700 fps. When the “long” .38 Colt version came along with a 145-grain bullet, it did break 700 fps by just a bit. When I fired those loads into a fence post on my property, the bullets’ bases were sticking out.

Handgun power did begin to progress. S&W developed .44 American and .44 Russian in 1871 and 1872, respectively. Colt’s .44 Colt also came in 1871. These rounds collectively carried bullets from about 210 to 255 grains, but none of them exceeded 750 fps from the 7½” to 8″ barrels of their various sixguns. In other words, they about equaled the hitting power of a modern .44 Special round with the traditional loading of a 246-grain round nose bullet at about 750 fps.

Many six-gunny folks today think Colt and the U.S. Government finally got on the ball in 1873 with the new Colt “Strap Pistol” (topstrap) and .45 Colt cartridge. It’s often touted about its load was 40 grains of black powder and 255-grain bullets. No. Not really. In January 1874 the .45 Colt was loaded by Frankford Arsenal with 250-grain bullets and 30 grains of powder. This load hit about 775 fps from the SAA’s 7½” barrel. By 1875, the U.S. Army also accepted S&W’s Model #3 Schofield .45 revolver. Its shorter cartridge only carried 28 grains of black powder with 230-grain bullets for 725 fps.

Finally, in 1878, Colt adapted their big single action to .44 WCF (.44-40) and got real power from a sixgun. The rounds did carry 40-grain powder charges with 200-grain bullets and velocity from 7½” barrels most certainly broke 900 fps.

Think about this: At the famous fight at the OK Corral most everyone had either a .45 Colt, .44-40 or perhaps even an S&W .44 Russian revolver. Not one combatant was put out of action with a single hit, except from Doc Holliday’s shotgun.

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