Cap & ball self defence

[Mik]

That's not fair, you have to ask him before he gets to shoot black powder. After a few rounds of cocking the hammer and making smoke, he'll think he's John Wayne!

[Geraldo]

This thread is like trying to explain to someone that using your leg as a sawhorse to cut lumber with a circular saw is a bad idea. Some people just have to groove their thigh with the saw blade before they get it.

[FLHTC]

I see these guys at the range with their new black rifles with 12lbs of accessories on them, brass everywhere and nary a hole in the black at 25 yards.

I can fill the black with 6 holes at 50 feet on a B-2 and am working on getting all six into the black on the B-16 and B-12 at their respective ranges. When I was younger, had better eyesight and wealthier, I'd shoot 3x5 cards 250x every week or so for years on end from my G23, mostly from 7 yards. There's no comparison, the sixgun is much better.

I think that's an extreme exaggeration and none of the examples you've given were with someone shooting back at you. It's easy to say what we can do when we're at the rifle range.

[swathdiver]

Maybe so but we've all seen plenty of dash cam videos on the tv with the good guys and bad guys shooting within feet of each other and nobody gets hit. Curiously, in the county south of me, I've seen a large number of deputies with sixguns (or 5 or 7) lately. I wonder how well they shoot?

[Mik]

Maybe so but we've all seen plenty of dash cam videos on the tv with the good guys and bad guys shooting within feet of each other and nobody gets hit. Curiously, in the county south of me, I've seen a large number of deputies with sixguns (or 5 or 7) lately. I wonder how well they shoot?

I would guess the shooting and missing is more of a factor of the stress and "pucker" factor than the action type of the handgun involved. I'm not sure we can conclude the hit percentages would be any better with a single action wheel gun.

However, based on what we know about the mechanics of each weapon, we can conclude the bad guy with an auto would be able to fire between 12 and 18 rounds for every 5 or 6 fired by the good guy with a revolver.

[rodwha]

Unless you have two!

[Hatiwolf]

Now you have me thinking about it! The wife already wants to know who farted when im cleaning my bps in the sink after range time ... id imagine that would make the dog cough all night if you had to use it. My only fear is the extreme humidity in houston finding its way under the cap over time and thats why I dont. Hell a single shot bp would be fine for home defense unless you encountered a group of raging ninjas in your bedroom at 3 am. Ive got friends that scoff at the fact that I use a revolver as my protection gun of choice. If you cant do the job in 1, then you might as well turn the gun sideways and yell "booka booka, foo" as it will have the same effect.

[texaswoodworker]

Many years ago, I fired a Colt Walker inside a house. (Was trying to kill a fly. Don't ask.) Couldn't hear a damn thing but bells for nearly two weeks. Conversation was out of the question.

Ok, you cannot post something like that and not fill us in on the details!

[rodwha]

I want to know myself!

Not to say none are, but it seems that it would really have to be a determined attacker to not want to run knowing a gun is being brought into play, much less shot. Drugs have a way of messing with people's thought process I suppose, and many who'd break in are very likely to be high on something...

[waksupi]

Ok, you cannot post something like that and not fill us in on the details!

Well, I was living in an old farm house with a few other people. The building was slated to be torn down, as the land was being added to a state park in the near future. So, no one, including the owner cared what happened to it.
I heard a shot in the living room one afternoon, and one of the guys was shooting at flies on the ceiling with a .22 revolver. It looked like fun, so I capped my Walker, to give it a try.
Well, I can tell you, when you fire a Walker in a small room, the walls of the building expand, sucking your ear drums right along with it. Things are amazingly quiet and peaceful for a considerable time following. Except for a ringing in my ears. That was probably the same time that I began saying "What?" when replying to people.
I never did know if I hit the fly.

[BruceB]

When we were "commissioning" a new indoor range in the Northwest Territories, a test of the ventilation system seemed to be a desirable idea.

I fired all six fully-charged chambers from my Walker Colt in the new facility (with hearing protection!)

It proved to be a highly effective test of the vent system, because we could SEE the air flow in all that smoke down to about knee level.