One-armed revolver reloads (High Tech?)

[Sam Cade]

Ok, just to keep everyone on the same page here.

Once Black Barts smokewagon runs dry THIS is what he has to do:



The weapon MUST be placed in the LEFT hand, the loading gate is on the RIGHT side as is the ejector and must be worked with the RIGHT hand. THis is smart since all of the the fine manipulations of the weapon are done with the dominant hand.

Step One: With the weapon in the left hand, the weapon is placed on half-cock and the loading gate is opened.

Step Two: Fingers on the LEFT hand index the cylinder so that it is lined up with the ejector rod. (Unlike a modern single action revolver the cylinder of a SAA is free spinning and must be held in place)

Step Three: RIGHT hand knocks out the empty case, this sometimes requires considerable force.

Repeat Step Two and Three till dry.

Step Four: LEFT hand indexes an empty chamber with the loading gate while the RIGHT hand retrieves and inserts a cartridge. Muzzle of the weapon must be kept pointing DOWN so the heavy cartridges don't fall out of the chamber.

Repeat Step Four till loaded.


Its load one, skip one, load four if you are going to be packing it fwiw. THis puts an empty chamber under the hammer. Since a lowered hammer rests directly on the primer of a live cartridge a hard impact (like from being drug off of your horse by a werewolf) has a chance of setting it off.
..depending on how evil your GM is of course.

[Sam Cade]

Originally Posted by Comedian

If he were carrying in a strong side hip holster couldn't he use the outer edge of the holster?

Realistically, it had better be one stiff holster.




Schofield is the way to go for the one-armed, one pistol, gunman.

Hit the latch, open it against your hip. Stick the barrel in your belt and start furiously stuffing cartridges.

[Genesis]

Thanks for all your advice, guys - I think my player is leaning towards a custom-modified Colt with a swing-out barrel. I'll asses him some steep penalties for reloading, but he'll likely train a technique to get them down a little. At the end of the day I think he'll take a substantially longer time to reload than two-handed characters, but it won't be impossible during extended action sequences.

I'm actually quite proud of my player for considering the minutia of his character's disability - all my crew are GURPS newbies, but they've taken to the level of detail with gusto!

[pieclone]

I agree that a Number 3 "Schofield" would probably be much better as once you've opened the action you've got to take your hand off the grip to start inserting individual cartridges (iirc it automatically ejects the spent cartridges on opening the action). The way I see this working is tucking it into the belt/trousers and inserting the rounds. Trying to close the action would be best performed against the thigh.

The Colt 1873 would be an absolute nightmare with the "open gate, eject, insert, rotate" all having to be done with a single hand whilst you clamp it between your thighs.*

You're also missing out on the single-arm longarm possibilities.

A single arm double-barrel shotgun reload would also be possible. Break the action, drop to a knee (to rest the open action over the leg and prevent it moving whilst you are trying to insert cartridges under influence of adrenalin and enemy fire) and insert the shells from a bandoleer, whip the action closed and fight on.

A lever-action should be fairly easy - drop to a knee so you can grip the receiver between torso and thigh, load via the side gate, stand, do a "one-arm-bandit" reload and engage the enemy.

*I may have this totally wrong - my experience with 19thC single-action revolvers being entirely theoretical and my memory is not the best in the world.

[Comedian]

If it were me making the character my solution to this would be more guns, forget reloading. Once I run out I'm running away.

[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by Genesis

Thanks for all your advice, guys - I think my player is leaning towards a custom-modified Colt with a swing-out barrel.

For what it's worth, I've done some reading up on the Schofield. If Manco here can get it open, and if he can get one converted to .45, then that's probably the way to go.

I just don't know how easy it'll be to get open one-handed.

But, since he already has Weapon Bond, and has the Colt as Signature Gear, then he might want to get that converted to a swing-out.

Personally, if it was me playing it, I'd keep the Colt 'as is' and use it as my main revolver, then switch to a .45 Schofield when I ran out on the Colt.

He'll need to carry a backup any way. Maybe even more than one, if they're heading away from access to replacements. And if he does lose his Colt, even for a few days, he'd much rather have a Shofield.

That's keeping in mind that he wants to use the Colt. It should be close to as easy to reload with a custom holster if he can get it converted to a swing-out.

[Genesis]

Originally Posted by Sam Cade

Ejector rod is on the right side , in order to work it on your belt you would have to hold the pistol upside down in your right hand.

For what it's worth, the character's lost his right arm - he's a lefty by necessity, now.

[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by Genesis

For what it's worth, the character's lost his right arm - he's a lefty by necessity, now.

Well, at least he won't have to get the cylinder to swing out backwards.

[Sam Cade]

What year is the campaign set?

[Sam Cade]

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

Well, at least he won't have to get the cylinder to swing out backwards.

You hit the release with your RIGHT hand.
Cylinders swing out to the LEFT.
You reload with your LEFT hand and keep the cylinder from spinning with your RIGHT. (fingers through the frame)



Swing out cylinders didn't show up till...1890 or so I think anyway.