Back on the subject of research for Elizabeth’s Flight. My hero is the sheriff but around 1870 to 1880 what weapons would a sheriff use? Naturally I thought of the Colt Peacemaker or Colt 45.
You see them being used in old films with the user pulling back the hammer each time the gun is fired to move the cartridge round into the firing position. However, I researched and checked to find that actually at that time the Colt Navy (first issued in 1851) was still widely used. Many famous Western characters such as Wild Bill Hickok and Doc. Holliday used the Colt Navy which was the first revolver light enough to be carried in a holster. Although it had a revolving cylinder it did not use cartridges like the later Colt 45 and used powder and ball with each cylinder requiring careful loading. I watched an amazing video on the internet where a modern expert loaded a cylinder for firing…what a laborious process. The consequence was users often carried two or more revolvers…one in a holster and one or more tucked into belts. Some even carried pre-loaded spare cylinders. Of course there were some conversions that allowed the Colt Navy to use cartridges.