Hi, I’m a first time poster on this forum although I have been conversing with user Martini Enfield previously.
Anyhow, I am currently engaged in a project that calls for a degree of historical accuracy. My question is whether anyone can produce a few examples of revolver pistols that used rimfire cartridges and was available between 1850 and 1870. My research has allowed me plenty of insight into percussion cap revolvers in this period but unfortunately information on rimfire weapons is harder to accrue. Information about these pistols or where I can find out about these pistols would be very much appreciated.
Well, the first rimfire cartridge, the .22 Flobert, came on the market around 1845, while Berdan and Boxer patented their respective centerfire primers in 1866, so it’s quite possible that there were revolvers chambered for some rimfire cartridge. According to Wikipedia, the successor to the .22 Flobert (the .22 Short) was developed for the first S&W revolver in 1857.
But really, if you want reliable facts about old cartridges, I’d really recommend the book “Cartridges of the world”. It’s almost universally accurate, although I’ve seen one or two minor errors there. And it’s just a little bit US-centric…
Another couple of links: The beginning of the S&W company 32 rimfire Smith and Wesson No. 2 (1861-1874)
The biggest drawback with any rimfire cartridge is that it can’t be reloaded. That translates to higher ammo costs and poorer availability of ammo compared to both percussion and centerfire guns. I’d guess that that would be a major drawback in places like the American frontier in the mid-1800s. So I’m not surprised that percussion revolvers were more popular than rimfire revolvers and that centerfire cartridges quickly took over the market after the invention of the centerfire primer
One avenue that might yield more useful results for you would be Pinfire cartridges, which were, it seems, generally lower-powered than cap & ball or centre-fire firearms (for the most part) and seemed to fill the niche for, well, handguns that weren’t big and powerful. The Lefaucheaux Model 1858 is probably the best known of these.
One of the other things you asked about in a PM was firearms during the Australian Gold-rush era. Rather than bore you (and everyone else) with a long post here on the subject, I found this useful site from the Museum of Victoria on “Firearms in Goldrush Victoria, 1850s”.
While people like to think of all the miners and prospectors carrying Colt and Adams or Webley percussion-cap revolvers, the reality is those things were quite expensive- some of the prices from then that I’ve turned up suggest a new Colt Model 1851 Navy sold (in the US) for around US$15-$20 in the 1860s, which works out at about AUD$200-$300 in modern currency when compared against the CPI (ie, a comparison of what other goods at the time cost), but closer to $2000 in “actual cost” when compared against what the average (ie unskilled) person actually earned back then. As a result, a lot of the miners were carrying (cheaper) single-shot flintlock and percussion-cap pistols, but there were indeed a lot of “modern” revolvers around as well.
It goes without saying that there were a great deal of muskets and percussion shotguns around at the time, too- they were important for hunting (no supermarkets there in the 1860s!). Most of the rifles that are still around nowadays (at least the one’s I’ve seen) are either the “Trade Pattern” (civilian sale) version of military rifles- 1853 Enfield Rifle-muskets, Snider-Enfield rifles, and so on- or quality hunting rifles and shotguns made by well-known firms that wouldn’t have been especially cheap but have survived to the modern day because they were well made and seen as worth hanging on to.
Good write-up, but just to nitpick: The OP asked for rimfire cartridge pistols available between 1850 and 1870. The T/C Contender was released in the late 1900s, and neither the .22 Long, LR or WMR or the .17 HMR were invented before 1870.
