Task Force 16
Campaign Veteran
imported post
I just completed a little experiment today.
We've all heard the anti-gunners whine that "There'll be gunfights in the streets again, it will be the old "Wild Wild West all over again", right? Well, Idecided to prove a theory I have on that. I have a US Firearms "Rebel" .45 cal (Long Colt) SA six shooter w/5.5 inch barrel)that is a clone of the old Colt .45 patended back in 1877. For target practice I use the 225-250 grn Cowboy Rounds (CR) since they are cheaper. Now for those of you that don't know, the CR round is loaded with the same amount of powder as was used back in the era of the "old West". They have quite a bit of recoil, far more than what we see in the movies. Recently, I purchased a box of JHP with the intent of using them as a defensive carry round. I expected them to have more power since they were NOT CR's, but I was surprised as to just how much. The dang gun almost twisted out of my hand. :shock:The CR's are hard enough to hang on to, but this was too much. I also tried fanning off a few rounds with the CR's. Bad idea! I got the hide ripped in the heal of my hand by the bottom of the back strap of the handle, not to mention that I didn't get anywhere's close to the sillawette target I was shooting at that was only 15 ft away. :banghead:
I thought to myself........."There ain't no way that anyone could have done what we see in the movies". I can't remember seeing any recoil of the six shooters in the westerns I've seen. Lots of muzzle flash and smoke, but no recoil. AH, they were using blanks. So I set out to test my theory.
First I looked around for blank cartidges to no avail. Then it dawned on me I can make my own, by extracting the bullets from the ammo I had and replacing them with cotton wads. I started with a few of the CR's. Pulled the bullets, lieving the powder and stuffing a wad of cotten into the casing so the powder wouldn't fall out. Went outside for testing.
The discharges sounded like a toy capgun going off with absolutely no recoil, little if any muzzle flash or smoke. Well that surely wouldn't do for the movies, at least not visually. (Sound can be redubbed in editing )
Back to the workbench.
I tried the same test with one of the JHP cartidges, with no noticable difference.
OK, in order to replicate the visual effect (and maybe the sound) I tried increasing the powder load by pulling the projectile from three cardridges and pouring all the powder into one casing and applying the cotton wad.
Results:
LOUD bang close to that of the live ball JHP round.
Lots of muzzle flash - sort of like that chromed monster Dirty Harry carried.
Recoil: OK i wasn't prepared for the loud bang and I jumped, but the best I could tell, the recoil was about like that of shooting a Colt Frontier Scout .22 magnum.
Went back to the work bench and tried redoing a few cartridges with only 2x powder loads.
Results:
Sounded like a .38 going off.
muzzle flash and smoke looked more like the movies (black pwder would make more smoke)
Recoil - Felt like shooting .22LR, maybe a bit less.
Conclusion:
The movies don't match reality at all. (I think we all knew that already, right?) I can fan a .22 SA six shooter and control it well enough to place 5 out of 6 rounds somewhere in a torsue @ 30ft, but I don't believe I could every do it with this .45 I have. And after getting bit once already from such foolishness I'm not going to try, either.
The fact is, most of what we see donein the movies with handguns simply isn't possible, largely due to the recoil. And I doubt that folks were accustom to doing as much target practice as we do today.
Now, what I want to do make a video recording of the demonstration. Anyone in my area with handguns of the "Wild West" erawant to participate? I think such a video demonstration might dispell some of the myths about "shootouts in the streets" of the old "wild West".
BTW, I've noticed that the semi-autos used in movies/TV don't have realistic recoil either. Like.....almost none.
I just completed a little experiment today.
We've all heard the anti-gunners whine that "There'll be gunfights in the streets again, it will be the old "Wild Wild West all over again", right? Well, Idecided to prove a theory I have on that. I have a US Firearms "Rebel" .45 cal (Long Colt) SA six shooter w/5.5 inch barrel)that is a clone of the old Colt .45 patended back in 1877. For target practice I use the 225-250 grn Cowboy Rounds (CR) since they are cheaper. Now for those of you that don't know, the CR round is loaded with the same amount of powder as was used back in the era of the "old West". They have quite a bit of recoil, far more than what we see in the movies. Recently, I purchased a box of JHP with the intent of using them as a defensive carry round. I expected them to have more power since they were NOT CR's, but I was surprised as to just how much. The dang gun almost twisted out of my hand. :shock:The CR's are hard enough to hang on to, but this was too much. I also tried fanning off a few rounds with the CR's. Bad idea! I got the hide ripped in the heal of my hand by the bottom of the back strap of the handle, not to mention that I didn't get anywhere's close to the sillawette target I was shooting at that was only 15 ft away. :banghead:
I thought to myself........."There ain't no way that anyone could have done what we see in the movies". I can't remember seeing any recoil of the six shooters in the westerns I've seen. Lots of muzzle flash and smoke, but no recoil. AH, they were using blanks. So I set out to test my theory.
First I looked around for blank cartidges to no avail. Then it dawned on me I can make my own, by extracting the bullets from the ammo I had and replacing them with cotton wads. I started with a few of the CR's. Pulled the bullets, lieving the powder and stuffing a wad of cotten into the casing so the powder wouldn't fall out. Went outside for testing.
The discharges sounded like a toy capgun going off with absolutely no recoil, little if any muzzle flash or smoke. Well that surely wouldn't do for the movies, at least not visually. (Sound can be redubbed in editing )
Back to the workbench.
I tried the same test with one of the JHP cartidges, with no noticable difference.
OK, in order to replicate the visual effect (and maybe the sound) I tried increasing the powder load by pulling the projectile from three cardridges and pouring all the powder into one casing and applying the cotton wad.
Results:
LOUD bang close to that of the live ball JHP round.
Lots of muzzle flash - sort of like that chromed monster Dirty Harry carried.
Recoil: OK i wasn't prepared for the loud bang and I jumped, but the best I could tell, the recoil was about like that of shooting a Colt Frontier Scout .22 magnum.
Went back to the work bench and tried redoing a few cartridges with only 2x powder loads.
Results:
Sounded like a .38 going off.
muzzle flash and smoke looked more like the movies (black pwder would make more smoke)
Recoil - Felt like shooting .22LR, maybe a bit less.
Conclusion:
The movies don't match reality at all. (I think we all knew that already, right?) I can fan a .22 SA six shooter and control it well enough to place 5 out of 6 rounds somewhere in a torsue @ 30ft, but I don't believe I could every do it with this .45 I have. And after getting bit once already from such foolishness I'm not going to try, either.
The fact is, most of what we see donein the movies with handguns simply isn't possible, largely due to the recoil. And I doubt that folks were accustom to doing as much target practice as we do today.
Now, what I want to do make a video recording of the demonstration. Anyone in my area with handguns of the "Wild West" erawant to participate? I think such a video demonstration might dispell some of the myths about "shootouts in the streets" of the old "wild West".
BTW, I've noticed that the semi-autos used in movies/TV don't have realistic recoil either. Like.....almost none.
