The quintessential image of the gunslinger, with a pair of nickel-plated sixguns hanging about his waist, able to take the 10-gallon hat off his opponent with a hipshot from 100 yards, might just be slightly exaggerated. Even if Hollywood did stretch the truth a bit—OK, maybe a lot—one small fact does remain: The centerfire cartridge surely made the handgun not only much easier to reload, but it also made it much more reliable.
If you’ve spent any amount of time with a cap-and-ball pistol, you understand the pitfalls associated with the design. Fouling—both leading in the barrel and the corrosive mixture of burnt powder and lubricant—is a real issue, and you might spend more time scrubbing than shooting. Caps can fall off their nipples at the most inappropriate time, not to mention the good old fail-to-fire for reasons few could explain. Yes, they’re fun as a nostalgic gun, but man, I wouldn’t want to have to depend on one for a defensive weapon … at least not in comparison to the centerfire stuff.
Imagine the rejoicing in 1873 when
