The British five shot "Adams" Percussion Revolver was subject to a 1851 patent and should be recognized as the FIRST SOLID FRAME REVOLVER and it is also claimed to be the first 'self-cocking' revolver by five years.
It went through progressive developments and manufacturing partnerships ending as the 'Beaumont-Adams' revolver .. I am no expert about these so will not detail the various iterations. - However these revolvers were bought by many British military officers and were used by the East India Company and in many conflicts such as the Crimean Wars, the Zulu Wars, and indeed in the American Civil War - while many were brought to New Zealand, seeing service with the rank & file in the many Maori wars - including the Battle of Gate Pa.
'Adams' Guns have been recovered from NZ Pa battle sites and were issued to the NZ Armed Constabulary ( "The traditionally unarmed NZ Police force"). - Indeed NZ Hero, Scout and officer Von Tempsky may have been killed in 1868 by a Hau Hau fighter using an Adams .456" (54 Bore) revolver.
- Why I'm talking about this revolver is that I've just been reading about a 16 year old boy who died (years ago) while experimenting with an museum example Adams that had not been used for some seventy-five years - but that was found by the early 1900s Coroners Court to have lain in a provincial museum display with two chambers charged and loaded for around three quarters of a century - since the end of the Taranaki settlers wars. (ref: The Gun In The Case).
Rule Number 1: Treat all guns as loaded.
Here's a Link to a good 'on-range' video about shooting these black powder Adams revolvers - from UK:
- and another video link to Rock Island Auctions site - where some history of four different iterations of Adams revolver's development is shown - all good stuff eh:
Marty K.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/24075745
No comments:
Post a Comment