copyright William Marion 2008
Black Powder Revolver
The Online Magazine and Resource for Black Powder Revolvers
January 2007 Edition
Page 3
If you are looking for an almost textbook approach to shooting black powder (muzzle-loading) pistols, Derek Fuller’s book is for you. By textbook, I mean a science textbook. The first chapter covers the usual history and an introduction to competitive black powder shooting, but from there on, the remainder of the book is packed with very useful technical information. There are a few ballistics charts and graphs, but I found the detailed drawing of various parts of the revolver action and the notes on what to look for fascinating. For example, there is a diagram showing the pawl or hand and spring for an 1858 Remington that details the degree of slope front to back and side to side. This may not sound that important, but if you have ever built a revolver from a kit, this would be a very handy thing to see an example of and may save you a lot of time. I can’t count the number of hours I’ve spent filing and grinding on hammers. Another great diagram shows an 1858 cylinder and points out where to look for wear on the edges of the ratchet. It also suggests where to look to on the cylinder to determine if the hand is not correctly shaped. While the book is packed with great illustrations, I’ll just mention one more. In chapter two, there is a “patch post-mortem” to determine if your patches are correctly sized. Great stuff.
This book is a few years old, being published in 2002, but I have yet to find another book with as much good solid technical and practical information. It is available from Amazon through one of their partners for around $20. One note, Fuller is English, so you may need to translate a few words from the Kings English. This book is a definite 6 cylinders.
The Definitive Guide to Shooting Muzzle-Loading Pistols
By Derek Fuller
