Why do Colt Navy Revolvers hit high?

My copy of “Percussion Revolvers” by Cumpston and Bates was presented to me by Cathal o’Hagan.  A great research source book and a good friend

Why Do Colt Navy Revolvers Hit High?

The Revolving belt pistol of Naval calibre produced by Samuel Colt in 1851.  “belt” distinguishes it from earlier “horse” pistols that were so big they were carried in holsters on either side of the cavalry horse’s neck

Back in the seventies Richard Nixon fired his speechwriter who quietly finished the speech he was currently working on and left town.  A couple of days later Tricky Dicky stood before a Teamsters’ Union convention and made a speech as follows:

“Ya’ll wanna know what I’m gonna do about inflation?  Waal I’m gonna tell ya”.

“Ya’ll wanna know what I’m gonna do about non-union labour?  I’m gonna tell ya”.

“Ya’ll wanna know what I’m gonna do about Vietnam?  Waal I’m gonna tell ya”.

He turned a page of his script and saw a blank sheet with just one line.  “Yer on yer own now Boss!”  And that’s why Tricky Dicky trusted no-one!

Why Do Colt Revolvers Hit High?  Waal I’m a gonna tell ya ‘cos I know stuff.

The controversial Hickok-Tutt gunfight in which Hickok was observer killing his former crony Tutt with a single ball from a Colt Navy revolver at 75 yards

Back in 1865 life was simpler and a bit shorter and As Elmer Keith famously said “a man carried his law with him” and the Colt Navy was the law.  As Steve Earle put it:  “My very first pistol was a cap-and-ball Colt.  Shoot fast as lightnin’ but it loads mighty slow.  Getcha into trouble but it can’t get ya out”.  About then James Butler Hickok, also known as “Wild Bill” was famous for his work across the frontier as a drover, wagon master, soldier, spy, scout, lawman, gunfighter, gambler, showman, womaniser and actor.  Davis Tutt was also a gambler and he and Hickok, once friends, now hated each other.  Some say Hickok fathered an illegitimate child by Tutt’s sister.  Also Tutt had been paying a great deal of attention to Wild Bill's lady friend, Susanna Moore.  Eventually Hickok refused to play cards with Tutt who retaliated by coaching Hickok’s poker opponents and even loaning them money.  He even accused Hickok of welshing on a debt over a horse trade and took his most prized possession - his Waltham repeater gold pocket watch, and announced that he would keep the watch as collateral until Hickok paid  $35.  Hickok warned him not to show off the watch as he intended to “redeem” it and of course that is what Tutt did in the town square of Springfield, Missouri.  Hickok, gravely insulted by the implication that he didn’t pay his debts, cleaned and loaded his Colt Navy pistols and went looking for Tutt.  They faced each other and at a distance of about 75 yards, Hickok stopped, facing Tutt, and called out, "Dave, here I am." He cocked his pistol, holstered it on his hip, and gave a final warning.  "Don't you come across here with that watch."  Tutt did not reply, but stood with his hand on his pistol.  Both men faced each other sideways in the duelling position and hesitated briefly.  Then Tutt reached for his pistol.  Hickok drew his gun and steadied it on his opposite forearm.  The two men fired a single shot each at essentially the same time, according to the reports.  Tutt missed, but Hickok's bullet struck Tutt in the left side between the fifth and seventh ribs. Tutt called out, "Boys, I'm killed," ran onto the porch of the local courthouse and back to the street, where he collapsed and died.  A trial ensued and Hickok was deemed to have acted honourably and was acquitted.  Although there was some talk of lynching it was probably half hearted considering Hickok had two excellent Colt navy revolvers and the name of killing his opponents with a single shot at 75 yards.


And that is why Samuel Colt factory zeroed all his Navy and Army revolvers at 75 yards.


Honest.

The simple formula for calculating sight adjustment which can be applied to the front or rear sights

Ok maybe it was because the original US Navy specifications for a belt revolver called for a 50 yard zero.  The pistol hit approximately 12 inches high at 25 yards.  Either way the saying was you “aim for the belt buckle” if you want to kill someone.  Hickock enjoyed a short homicidal career and was murdered in 1876 in Deadwood, Dakota by a disgruntled poker player called Jack McCall at the age of 39.  McCall shot him from behind with a Colt .45 calibre Single Action Army revolver.  He was holding aces and eights when he died which has ever since been called “The dead man’s hand”.  He is buried beside calamity Jane in Mount Moriah cemetery, Deadwood, where by tradition the US flag flies 24 hours a day as opposed to the usual sunrise to sunset.

The stubby foresight bead on the Colt Navy which is responsible for its 75 yard zero and which many shooters replace with a taller one to bring the bullet down to the point of aim at 25 yards

Between 1847 and 1850 Samuel Colt designed the single action revolver mechanism that is still with us today.  The result was the “Revolving belt pistol of Naval calibre” which he displayed at the London exhibition of 1851.  The .36 calibre Colt became a celebrity and US factories produced a quarter million of them between 1850 and 1873 when the Colt .45 took centre stage with the .45 Colt metallic cartridge.  Travellers to Texas in the 1850’s remarked that “every man and boy carried at least one Colt Navy revolver” and one commented that “Texas is paradise for men, boys and dogs but hell on women and horses”.  Shooters quickly realised that the Colt Navy hit high to 75 yards or so and finding that a nuisance, quickly resorted to replacing the foresight with a taller one to lower the point of impact.  A less favoured alternative was filing down the V notch in the hammer spur which formed the backsight.  Replacing the foresight was simple enough – the original bead was extracted and a longer one inserted.  Gunsmiths probably kept supplies of brass foresights in stock.  Today it falls to the shooter himself to carry out this modification as gunsmiths are scarce and rarely even see Colt Navy revolvers.  How much higher should the replacement be?  The solution is essentially a mathematical one and there is a formula for it which is found in most publications.  He adjustment is the error (12 inches high) multiplied by the sight radius (distance from the foresight to the backsight) divided by the range which we will say is 25 yards.  The result is .123 inches or 3.12 millimetres added to the existing foresight.  It makes sense to install a post slightly longer than this since as any engineer will remind you; “you can take it off but you can’t put it back”.  Extracting the old foresight proved fiddly because, on the model in question, the bead was too small to grip with a pliers or drill with a standard bit.  The solution was to use a miniature Dremel with a little bit and it popped out after what seemed a long time and a lot of grinding.  The replacement was seated with a drop of super glue, ground to a pointed shape and tested.  Strangely, for these situations, it was a case of right first time and the gun shot to point of aim at 25 yards, or nearly so, because Colt Navy accuracy can be erratic.  It is sensitive to a number of factors such as, powder type and burning rate, bullet weight and construction, lead hardness, wad type and so on.  This particular gun liked 23 grains of black powder, a thick felt wad and a ball made of soft lead.  Thus provided it shot 5 inch groups at 25 yards rested which in fairness is about as good as most modern pistols apart from target models with carefully developed loads and bullets.  The balls retrieved from the backstop were not flattened and the gun was not producing the 700 feet per second which is the velocity published in the definitive book on the subject, “Percussion Revolvers” by Cumpston and Bates.  One wonders whether Wild Bill Hickok’s famous 75 yard shot wasn’t just pure luck or bad luck if you favour Tutt’s perspective.

The modified front sight.  In this case it is a ballistic tip plug from a modern bullet that happened to be at hand and functioned perfectly as a foresight.  It will be replaced with a brass post of the same height.

Interesting photo of the instant before ignition.  The percussion cap has exploded but the main charge hasn’t yet ignited.  This was done in poor light by holding a smartphone in the left hand while the gun was fired with the right.

The ignition of the main charge produces a spectacular shower of sparks from the percussion cap and a flare from the main charge of 23 grains of black powder

An 80 grain .36 ball prior to seating on the charge.  Travelling at speeds from 700 to 1,000 feet per second it produced 100 to 200 foot pounds of kinetic energy which although potentially lethal, was more likely to produce infected wounds and slow death in those pre-penicillin days.

Wild Bill Hickok’s Colt Navy revolvers which legend has it were presented to him by a grateful politician whom he escorted on a successful hunt.  They were raffled to pay his funeral expenses.