I am a fan of old black and white television Western series/ shows. Tonight I watched "Laramie", season 2, episode 12, 1960, on the Western Channel. Now I know it is television and all, and a lot of the shows should be taken with a pound of salt.
Tonight's show I found interesting. Other than the time lines being a bit off, the story was pretty good.
Tonight's installment included two Colt 1860 Army models with extended barrels... almost 18-20" total length. They were said to be "percussion" and fired a round ball. I noticed when the light hit the sides of the barrels just right, the joint or seam where the barrels were extended showed. I think there was also a small rear sight probably around mid barrel. These guns were "dueling pistols".
One scene showed the hero 'loading' his revolver using a powder flask, maybe a wad and of course the round ball. It all looked pretty good. And then I noticed he had loaded everything on the wrong side of the barrel, left side instead of the right side. There was no way he could have rotated the loaded cylinder past the forcing cone on the barrel, to bring the charged chamber under the loading lever. But being the hero he was, he just pressed the ram down into the empty chamber directly below the ram, and continued loading.
Well, the duel takes place and the hero declines to shoot his adversary. Probably a good thing too.
