What raised my question on the price of frontier firearms is our town is having a celebration of our town's history. A professional group of western lawmen and outlaws reenactors is part of the celebration. The manager of this group handguns are a original colt .36 Navy model converted to .38 and a MERWIN-HUBERT .44/40. Conversing with him I discovered that cowboys carried Colt and Remington C&B revolver converted to self contained cartridges as on a cowboy's wages a Colt SAA was expensive.

Jimmy

There are books which have been written entirely on the numerous ingenious ways that the early C&B revolvers (not limited to Colt and Remington) were converted to fire various metallic cartridges. There are even collectors specializing in C&B conversions. And not all were conversions - some were made that way.

It's Merwin Hulbert, not Merwin-Hubert

A little apples and oranges here. The reason for the conversions of C&B revolvers versus the Rollin White patent has nothing to do with the price of frontier firearms, not in a direct sense, anyway.