Old West Cap-N-Ball Sixguns

According to Hollywood movies the bad guy numero uno, Yakima Canutt, packed a Remington 1858 cap-n-ball sixgun that he twirled with expertise and dropped back into a holster that was threaded on a belt that did not carry cartridge loops. The revolver, the belt, the holster, all was from the proper era.

Now, the good guy, the hero, in this case the Duke himself, John Wayne, in one of his many westerns but someone forgot to tell him as he was packing a Colt Single Action and a belt full of .45 Colt cartridges, neither of which arrived on the scene until 1873. In spite of what the prop departments provide in many Western movies, neither the War with Mexico nor the Civil War were fought with Colt Single Action Army revolvers. During the Civil War especially many good men on both sides fell to .36 or .44 round balls from front loading Colt and Remington sixguns, and to a lesser degree, such revolvers as Leech & Rigdon, Spiller & Burr, Dance Brothers, Whitney, and LeMat.

The peak time of both the gunfighter and the large cattle drives was during the era in which the cap-n-ball sixgun was a king. This was four years before Smith & Wesson and eight years before the Colt Single Action arrived. This was the period directly after the Civil War.

That most notorious pistolero Wild Bill Hickok still carried a pair of cap-n-ball sixguns when he was shot from behind in 1876. He certainly could have laid his hands upon the Colt Single Action Army .45 or a Smith & Wesson .44, however he still preferred round ball loaded percussion six-guns.

From 1836 until 1869, the only big bore sixguns available were cap-n-ball revolvers. And although Smith & Wesson brought forth the first big bore single action sixgun in 1869, soon to be followed by the Colt and Remington, everyone did not rush down to their local gun store to trade in a perfectly good and trustworthy six-gun for one of the newfangled cartridge guns. Many stayed with their cap-n-ball sixguns, while others simply had their Remington and Colt revolvers converted to brass cartridges.

The Cartridge Conversions: Between the short time of the advent of the 1869 Smith & Wesson .44 and the Colt Single Action Army of 1873, both Colt and Remington cap-n-ball sixguns were converted to cartridge firing revolvers. Even with the advent of the Colt, Remington, and various Smith & Wesson single actions, many sixgunners opted to go the less expensive route of converting their tried and true cap-n-ball sixguns to cartridge guns.

Cowboy Replica Cap-N-Ball Sixguns:
M 1851 Navy Revolver – Brown Grip
M 1851 Navy Revolver – White Grip
M 1860 Army Revolver – Blued
M 1860 Army Revolver – Grey
M 1860 French ”Le Mat” Revolver

If you have any specific questions about our Old-Western Cowboy Era Replica Cap-N-Ball Sixguns, Pistols and Revolvers click here to contact us.