I read about half of page one of this zombie thread and skim,Ed over the rest, so apologies if I'm being repetitious. But here's my take on things:
- Cap and ball revolvers remained popular long after cartridge revolvers appeared, because all you needed was a source of lead, a mould, black powder and caps. With the exception of the mould it's all pretty generic and much easier to obtain in the much less settled west than one of many cartridge possibilities. Consequently cap and ball revolvers were both cheaper to acquire and cheaper to feed.
- The same was true to a great extent with cartridge rifles like the 1873 Sharps and 1885 Winchester High Wall. I've been using the same couple hundred 45-70 cartridges for over 20 years in my Sharps. I wash them in soapy water and then press the bullet in by hand after loading the case with powder and wad. They've never seen a sizing die. That reduces the things needed to feed it to primers, powder, lead, a bullet mold and a small hand press to prime the case.
- Money was tight. Most folks if they needed a gun were going to opt for a shotgun as it could serve to put meat on the table in terms of birds, small game and medium sized game, and usually do it with just one shot. It was also a viable self defense weapon. It's not as sexy as the vision of people John Wayning around the west with a Winchester lever gun and a Colt revolver, but it's how it was.
(As an aside that Winchester John Wayne is swinging is almost always an 1892 Winchester, even in movies set prior to 1892, because they were readily available when the movies were shot.)
- If more range than a shotgun provided was required a rifle was the go to choice, not a revolver. The .38-40, .44-40, and .32-20 were all developed as black powder rifle cartridges for the 1873 Winchester. The fact that they saw use in revolvers was secondary.
- Revolvers designed to use those cartridges (Colt 1877, S&W New Model 3, Remington 1875 and 1890, etc) were predicated on the probability of a prospective buyer already owning a rifle chambered for that cartridge and wanting to keep the logistics simple with a single cartridge that would work in both.
- People today think "Colt .45" when that really only applied to the 1873 Colt Single Action Army revolver which was developed for the US Army as was the .45 Colt cartridge. The .45 Colt was a straight wall case designed to maximize powder capacity and performance with a small rim for head space purposes only. The small rim allowed for a smaller cylinder diameter.
However the small rim and straight case walls of the .45 Colt meant it was totally unsuited to use in a lever action rifle (or single shot rifle for that matter) during the black powder era as it lacked the typical slight bottle neck to seal the chamber sooner to prevent gas coming back into the action, the tapered body to reduce extraction force required and a large, heavy rim to prevent an extractor from tearing off the rim. As it was Colt put a .007" taper in the chamber to help reduce extraction forces even with the rod ejector design.
As a result of the unsuitability of the .45 Colt in a rifle or carbine the 1877 Colt Frontier was chambered in .44-40, as well as .38-40 and .32-20. This capitalized on the popularity of the Winchester 1873 rifle and later the Winchester 1892 rifle, both of which were chambered for those rounds. In short the 1873 SAA and it's .45 Colt cartridge were primarily military items, while the 1877 Colt in .44-40 and .38-40 was intended for and much more common in the civilian market, and in civilian use.
The S&W Schofield is a good example of the problems with the black powder .45 Colt Cartridge. It just wasn't suitable to use with a star ejector. S&W consequently developed a short version of the cartridge for use in the military model, and that shorter round became standard as it also worked in the SAA.
In contrast the S&W Model 3 worked fine with the .44-40. The Remington 1875 was developed for the same military trials as the 1873 Colt, and was chambered for .44 Remington, .44-40 and .45 Colt at various times. But it's significant that the follow on 1890 Remington was only chambered in .44-40.
- There were also a number of cartridge conversions for cap and ball revolvers, offered in various degrees of complexity and cost. In revolvers like the 1860 Army and 1958 Remington they were practical, if in some cases slower to eject the fired cartridges.
- In more settled areas a smaller pocket pistol (Derringer, Protector palm pistol, etc) was a lot more,likely to be carried than a full sized revolver.
——
In short, there was a lot of variety and in terms of numbers it would have been:
1) Shotguns;
2) Rifles and carbines;
3) cap and ball revolvers and conversions; and then
4) cartridge revolvers and pistols.
- Cap and ball revolvers remained popular long after cartridge revolvers appeared, because all you needed was a source of lead, a mould, black powder and caps. With the exception of the mould it's all pretty generic and much easier to obtain in the much less settled west than one of many cartridge possibilities. Consequently cap and ball revolvers were both cheaper to acquire and cheaper to feed.
- The same was true to a great extent with cartridge rifles like the 1873 Sharps and 1885 Winchester High Wall. I've been using the same couple hundred 45-70 cartridges for over 20 years in my Sharps. I wash them in soapy water and then press the bullet in by hand after loading the case with powder and wad. They've never seen a sizing die. That reduces the things needed to feed it to primers, powder, lead, a bullet mold and a small hand press to prime the case.
- Money was tight. Most folks if they needed a gun were going to opt for a shotgun as it could serve to put meat on the table in terms of birds, small game and medium sized game, and usually do it with just one shot. It was also a viable self defense weapon. It's not as sexy as the vision of people John Wayning around the west with a Winchester lever gun and a Colt revolver, but it's how it was.
(As an aside that Winchester John Wayne is swinging is almost always an 1892 Winchester, even in movies set prior to 1892, because they were readily available when the movies were shot.)
- If more range than a shotgun provided was required a rifle was the go to choice, not a revolver. The .38-40, .44-40, and .32-20 were all developed as black powder rifle cartridges for the 1873 Winchester. The fact that they saw use in revolvers was secondary.
- Revolvers designed to use those cartridges (Colt 1877, S&W New Model 3, Remington 1875 and 1890, etc) were predicated on the probability of a prospective buyer already owning a rifle chambered for that cartridge and wanting to keep the logistics simple with a single cartridge that would work in both.
- People today think "Colt .45" when that really only applied to the 1873 Colt Single Action Army revolver which was developed for the US Army as was the .45 Colt cartridge. The .45 Colt was a straight wall case designed to maximize powder capacity and performance with a small rim for head space purposes only. The small rim allowed for a smaller cylinder diameter.
However the small rim and straight case walls of the .45 Colt meant it was totally unsuited to use in a lever action rifle (or single shot rifle for that matter) during the black powder era as it lacked the typical slight bottle neck to seal the chamber sooner to prevent gas coming back into the action, the tapered body to reduce extraction force required and a large, heavy rim to prevent an extractor from tearing off the rim. As it was Colt put a .007" taper in the chamber to help reduce extraction forces even with the rod ejector design.
As a result of the unsuitability of the .45 Colt in a rifle or carbine the 1877 Colt Frontier was chambered in .44-40, as well as .38-40 and .32-20. This capitalized on the popularity of the Winchester 1873 rifle and later the Winchester 1892 rifle, both of which were chambered for those rounds. In short the 1873 SAA and it's .45 Colt cartridge were primarily military items, while the 1877 Colt in .44-40 and .38-40 was intended for and much more common in the civilian market, and in civilian use.
The S&W Schofield is a good example of the problems with the black powder .45 Colt Cartridge. It just wasn't suitable to use with a star ejector. S&W consequently developed a short version of the cartridge for use in the military model, and that shorter round became standard as it also worked in the SAA.
In contrast the S&W Model 3 worked fine with the .44-40. The Remington 1875 was developed for the same military trials as the 1873 Colt, and was chambered for .44 Remington, .44-40 and .45 Colt at various times. But it's significant that the follow on 1890 Remington was only chambered in .44-40.
- There were also a number of cartridge conversions for cap and ball revolvers, offered in various degrees of complexity and cost. In revolvers like the 1860 Army and 1958 Remington they were practical, if in some cases slower to eject the fired cartridges.
- In more settled areas a smaller pocket pistol (Derringer, Protector palm pistol, etc) was a lot more,likely to be carried than a full sized revolver.
——
In short, there was a lot of variety and in terms of numbers it would have been:
1) Shotguns;
2) Rifles and carbines;
3) cap and ball revolvers and conversions; and then
4) cartridge revolvers and pistols.
