Re: [DL] The Munchkin Twins

["Allan Seyberth (darious@darious.com)" <darious@plato.nmia.com>]

> 
> Hi,
> 
> The link you sent was for contemporary (modern day) speed loaders. Since 
> there is no historical information on this site it doesn't answer my 
> question. A quick Google search doesn't result in any information 
> concerning the history of the speed loader. I guess it's off to the library.


The were no speed loaders per se in the Old West.  What the author was 
attempting to convey was the action of completely swapping the cylinders 
of the pistols - removing the old cylinder and putting in a fully loaded 
one.

This was mostly done with cap and ball pistols, for obvious reasons. 
Unfortunately,  the few western era cartridge pistols that I have seen  
and/or handled were not designed to allow someone to easily swap out the 
cylinder.

For this reason, and for the reason that speedloaders just don't feel very 
mythic western to me, I don't use them in my game unless it's a facet of 
mad science.

I will state that I don't know the mechanical details of the break open 
pistols.  

Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com