Re: [DL] LeMat weapons

[Jayg <jayg@penn.com>]

Hello,

 > I've been trying to sort out some weights of weapons for my game just
 > to give the players a better idea of the guns they are using.

I will give some insight to some of the weapons and how weildy they are.

I have live fired all the pistol types listed below.


> Peacemaker weighs in at around 1.25 Kg (2lbs 13oz)


The 1873 Colt SSA is one of the most comfortable and easy to shoot 
revolvers to fire that I have ever come across.  Barrels above 5.5" tend 
to be a bit barrel heavy but it is not bad.  The weight listed above is 
about correct.  But depending on the barrel it will add or reduce 
weight.  I perfer to shoot the "gunfighter special" of 4 5/8" barrels. 
The ballance of them is excellent I might add.  This pistol is very easy 
to shoot one handed due to the angle of the hammer.  Only people with 
small hands would have any real problem cocking and firing this with one 
hand.

The ammo I was using is accurate to what they would have been using in 
1873.  About 30 to 35 grains of blackpowder in a brass case rather than 
copper.  (copper casings tended to bind up in cylinders and lever 
actions when they got the least little bit of corrosion on them.  Recoil 
is noticable but not too bad.


> LeMat Pistol is around 1.55 Kg (3lbs 7oz); 6.75" Barrel, 13" Overall
> length


Beauty of a pistol, pain in the a$$ to load and maintain.  it is fairly 
heavy but well ballanced.  This is a precussion pistol so no cased ammo, 
  so it takes a fair bit to load up.  Recoil from the pistol rounds is 
minimal due to the weight of the gun, the shotgun can be quite sharp 
depending on the load. (I have given myself a few sore wrists firing 
this pistol).  Firing this one handed is very difficult.  The hammer 
spring is very heavy and almost always needs to be modified to allow one 
hand cocking and firing.  One other down side to this pistol is that the 
recoil sometimes knocks the loading lever free.  This will cause the 
rammer to slide into the cylinder cause the gun not to advance 
cylinders.  If the Cylinder is not well lubed it will bind on you when 
firing to once the gun begins to get dirty from the blackpowder grime, 
thus making it harder to cock and fire.


> Colt Walker is about 2.05Kg (4lbs 9oz), 9" Barrel, 16" Overall length 


The Walker is a HEAVY bugger. This is also a precussion pistol. Normal 
load you have almost no recoil due to the weight of the pistol.  You can 
pack more powder in the cylinder of this pistol because it was designed 
to use 50 grains of blackpowder.  When loading with 50 grains there is a 
sizeable recoil.  The long barrel of this gun makes it very unbalanced 
and almost impossible to shoot one handed.  Also the hammer on this 
pistol (and colt dragoons, navy's and army's)were dubbed thumb busters 
due to the angle of the hammer spur.


> I would say that the LeMat is big in comparison to normal pistols of
> the 1876 era - however is overshadowed by the earlier big "Dragoon" and
> "Walker" pistols.


You are correct the LeMat is very bulky compaired to Peacemaker's, 
Schofield's, and Remingtons.
-- 
Jay

We've secretly replaced the USS Enterprise's dilithium crystals with new 
Folgers crystals.  Let's watch!