Best-looking guns?

One notable story about the Maxim is that Reza Shah, Shah of Iran (r. 1925-1941), could easily carry the Maxim and had such proficiency using it that his comrades called him "Reza Maxim".

 

I wonder if these count for 'Gun aesthetics'.
HMS Warrior, Gun traces/trails (or whatever they're called? Mind's gone blank), ports & 'ready revolver' storage.
Those Victorians did not F about with the shiny bits. Function and form nicely covered,

 

One on the left looks like the hammer is already cocked...thats a "ready revolver!"

 

Likely half cocked. For weapons of that period, or at least some of them, that was a "safety" position. Can't tell for sure if they are cap and ball or cartridge guns. Can't see any caps on them if they are cap and ball. Of course it is a museum display. Could even be a mix. Note the rifles in a case in the background as well.

 

Those are all cap and ball guns. The later cartridge conversions were almost all done by gunsmiths and the change is readily apparent at a glance, though Colt may have issued a few experimental models before their Peacemaker (and other maker's cartridge guns) made the cap and ball largely obsolete.

Interestingly, the Colt Navy remained popular for many years after the brass cartridge guns made them obsolete to most people. The Navy had a certain balance and pointable quality that was superior to the heavier Peacemaker or other cartridge revolvers. There is no top strap over the cylinder and every factory Navy came with a long 7 1/2 inch barrel (those few you see with shorter barrels are gunsmith custom jobs done for somebody who wanted it that way). In effect, while the standard Navy (even with its long barrel) was still a very light weapon, it was just front heavy enough to point like an extended finger. People who thought of themselves as real gunmen, were still carrying Navy cap and balls twenty years later.

Another factoid: The "Navy" was never really a favored gun by the Navy, though it was originally made and marketed for Navy purchase. The Navy bought some, but so the army who bought far more of them, yet 90% + were purchased in the civilian market by those who favored the lighter 'Navy' pistol over the heavier 'Army' model.

 

That's made me laugh now.
I'd never noticed the cocked pistol on my carousel picture (few years old and I've used it a few times elsewhere) until I uploaded it yesterday, and thought as I did 'These people will comment on that. They are gun nerds'.
Well done,chaps. You can hold your heads up high as true followers of the shooting iron.

 

It does make me wonder a bit what the policy was as far as loading them. With cap and ball you don't want the gun to stay loaded too long especially in humid conditions. Were they loaded as part of "action stations" or exercised regularly or was ammo readily available and loaded as needed?

 

Actually, I see two on full cock, two on half-cock and the rest with the hammers down. The actual safety position for these revolvers was to lower the hammer between two caps. This could be done on these handguns but not on the later SAAs. Placing the lowered hammer between two caps was one heck of a lot safer than trusting to the half-cock notch.

 

It would appear the correct RN term for the pistol storage is a 'Crocus'.
A little digging says they were loaded when the ship went to action stations, but I've seen nothing I'd call authoritative to truly confirm that.

It might possibly be seen as unwise in 1860s British Naval service with a collective memory of the Spithead and other mutinies to leave such handy weapons lying around loaded for any old crewman to pick up.

 

Unless considerable effort is made to seal the cylinders humidity can leak into them which makes their performance rather questionable. The only easy way to unload them is to fire them. I'm not sure about that period but I seam to recall the RN had a rather limited allowance of gunpowder for use in training to the point where some captains paid for extra on their own.. Not sure where I read that though and have read a lot of fiction set in the age of sail so it could be completely off base.

 

I was taught to leave one cylinder empty with the hammer over it.

 

Well, lwd, if you had a Colt SAA "Peacemaker" in your hand, you'd have been taught exactly right. The metal in those old revolvers was soft by our standards and the sear half-cock notches on the hammer often broke letting the firing pin strike the primer. With the Peacemaker, which was a cartridge gun, leaving one cylinder empty was the only sane way to carry it. However, with the Colt cap and ball revolvers one could lower the hammer down between the caps and it was perfectly safe and you'd get to use all six chambers to boot!

 

I don't think you'd want to leave a cap n' ball gun loaded for any length of time. "Wild Bill" was said to shoot his pair of Navies every morning and then reload. Part of that was practice, but I think mostly it was because he didn't want to count on a gun that might have damp powder. Another bit of lost lore is that cap and ball revolvers normally had the bore end of the cylinder smeared with heavy axle grease after loading. That wasn't to keep the powder dry, it was to prevent a "chain fire." As each cylinder fired, there was flame and burning wad/debris thrown into the mouths of the adjacent cylinders and if you'd left a smear of powder between that wad/ball leading down to the charge (easy enough to do), it was possible for all five other cylinders to go off like a Nock Volley Gun.

 

Oh yes! I had a Navy replica back in the mid-70s. First time I fired it I didn't put a grease cap on the chambers. I only did that once! Then I picked up my revolver and my singed eyebrows and went to the super mart and bought a can of Crisco.

 

Today's Forgotten Weapons has a possible contender for 'Opposite of aesthetically pleasing' firearms:
Warner Infallible: An Optimistic Competitor to Savage and Colt

 

Close, but no cigar...It's the Sterling Armaments Company's copy of the MP-28, the Lanchester SMG.

Yes, it is a display gun.
Original British WWII Lanchester Display Sub Machine Gun ima-usa.com

 

I always liked the idea of a bayonet lug on an SMG