Is it true that you can fire multiple shots from a percussion cap pistol if you don’t grease the lead when you load it into the cylinder? David Luthens Hutchinson, Minnesota You betcha; it’s called a chain fire. Percussion cap revolvers are loaded by pouring black powder into the cylinders, ramming lead balls onto the charges and then placing a cap on the cylinder nipples. The flash of the cylinder being fired can ignite residue powder around the cylinder openings, causing the others to go o

May 2004
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Rock Creek Killfest
- Is it true that you can fire multiple shots from a percussion cap pistol if you don’t grease the lead when you load it into the cylinder?
- Patton’s Peacemaker Blazes Again
- Mojave Drums
- Kirk Ratajesak
- All This Way for the Short Ride
- Custer Battlefield Museum
- Did Davy Really Die?
- Bird’s-eye View of 19th-century Mining
- Spittin’ Against the Wind
- Do any of the guns used in the gunfight near the O.K. Corral exist? If so, where are they?
- Did any Old West ranchers ever try to raise buffalo with their cattle?
- What is the name of the horse Teddy Roosevelt rode during the Battle of San Juan Hill?
- Why was John Johnson dug up in 1974 from the old soldiers home graveyard in Los Angeles, California, and reburied in Cody, Wyoming?
- Christina Hillius
- Vera and the Sultan
- Two Fingers, Straight Up
- Sings in Color