#gun reference

What’s the difference between a pistol and a handgun? Some people use the terms interchangeably, but others use pistol to refer to semi-automatic handguns, whereas a revolver is a repeating handgun with a revolving cylinder. Pretty much all revolvers have six chambers in the cylinder, hence the term six-shooter.

This chambered cylinder allows a user to fire multiple times without reloading, unlike for example the P53 that Goody might have used during the Civil War, which would have required the user to load each bullet individually. Here’s a labeled diagram of a revolver (source):

So each time the user cocks the hammer, the cylinder revolves, which sets up the next chamber and round with the hammer and barrel. As a side-note, notice also the “barrel/cylinder gap,” which means that these are pretty loud and cannot be effectively suppressed (”silencer”), since this gap creates a loud “report,” whereas a suppressor can only suppress noise stemming from the muzzle.

Anyways, moving on to the actual specific guns.

IMFDB states that Red Harvest uses a Colt 1871-72 Open Top Revolver at some point in the movie (so does Emma). This is also referred to as the Colt Model 1871-72, or the Colt Open Top. This was the first Colt revolver made for metallic cartridges. It has an elongated grip, a 7.5″ barrel, and is chambered in .44 rimfire. (Sidebar: caliber refers to the internal diameter of the barrel, or the diameter of the projectile it fires. In the US, a caliber is generally given in inches, such that 1.0=1 inch. Some common handgun calibers are: .22, .25, .38, .45. A .45 caliber gun can be referred to as a .45 or a .45 cal, and when spoken out loud, the decimal point is dropped.)

There’s not a ton of information about the Open Top that I could find, probably because this was really just a transition model between the Colt 1860 Army (popular Union gun) and the Colt Single Action Army. The Open Top was given to the US Army for testing in 1872, but the Army rejected it, which led to the design of the Colt Single Action Army.

(source) Apparently “Open Top” refers to the gun’s lack of a topstrap, which is a bridge of metal running along the top of the main frame from the rear sight (near the hammer) to the threaded portion of the frame that accepts the barrel. (link) On the older models, revolvers of the cap-and-ball era (like the Colt 1860 Army), a top strap was frequently omitted, as was the case here. But you need a topstrap to support more powerful cartridges, and pretty much every revolver has one now. You can see the difference here: the revolver on top is the Colt Single Action Army (with topstrap), and the one on the bottom is the Open Top (no topstrap). If you look right above the cylinder of both, you can see the difference between a topstrap and an open top. The hammer spur is also much higher on the Open Top and is angled differently than on the Colt Single Action Army.

Anyways, onwards to the real star of this post, the Colt Single Action Army, also known as the Single Action Army, SAA, Model P, Peacemaker, M1873, Colt .45, etc. Amusingly, this is also the official State Firearm of Arizona. The only thing that surprises me about this is that only two states have official firearms, and Texas is not the other one (Utah is).

There’s an ad from 1877 (also the first known instance where the famous nickname “Peacemaker” was used) that prices the gun at $17. (link) “During the 1870s, a brand new Colt Peacemaker cost approximately $17.50 (or about $330 today). That was the equivalent of a month’s wages for most.” (link)

The Peacemaker came in three barrel lengths: 4.75″ (Civilian/Gunfighter/Quick-Draw model), 5.5″ (Artillery model), and 7.5″ (Cavalry model). IMFDB says that Vasquez, Faraday, Sam, and Billy all carry this gun. It can be dual-wielded.

This was an extremely popular gun in the West, liked for its accuracy, power, and reliability, and lots of famous outlaws carried it. IMFDB specifies that Vasquez and Sam carry the nickel Artillery model, but it doesn’t say anything about what model Faraday and Billy carry. Presumably neither of them have the Cavalry model, but I am not at all expert enough on this to know the difference between the other two, although it might make sense to say that Billy carries the Quick-Draw model.

“Single Action” refers to the trigger: A single-action (SA) trigger performs the single action of releasing the hammer each time the trigger is pulled, which means that the hammer must then be cocked separately.

The term wasn’t used until the mid-1800s, as everything was single-action under double-action triggers were invented. Double-action refers to a gun trigger mechanism that both cocks and releases the hammer with a trigger pull. (link) The Peacemaker requires a thumb to cock the hammer before firing. Alternatively, you can do what, I think, Faraday does in the movie and fan the hammer–you hold down the trigger and hit the hammer with the heel of you hand, creating something like a semi-automatic fire. Although this was used a lot in fast draw competitions, this could be pretty hard on the gun, so it seems like it wasn’t used in practice often–more of a movie device than a historical practice.

Another note: “[L]ike most other revolvers at the time, [the Peacemaker] did not have any safety mechanism. Instead, its users often carried it with only five of six chambers loaded. The weapon’s hammer would then be dropped on the empty chamber to prevent accidental discharges if the gun were dropped.” (link) This is wild and makes me anxious just thinking about it.

Also interesting–the Peacemaker is a fixed-cylinder design, as opposed to front loading, top break, tip up (this looks wild, sort of… DeLorean door-like), or swing out. What this means is that the cylinder stays in place, even when you’re going in to reload it–instead, you shift the loading gate in order to access the chambers. “The loading gate on the original Colt designs is on the right side, which was done to facilitate loading while on horseback; with the revolver held in the left hand with the reins of the horse, the cartridges can be ejected and loaded with the right hand.” (link)