12mm pinfire

by A K Church, Sunday, March 10, 2024, 09:16 (257 days ago)

A decent number of pinfire revolvers came into the US and Confederate States during the Civil War. Both sides were quite willing to buy about anything which could shoot. Either to issue to troops, or to keep the other guys from getting it.

I've never seen much, really anything, concrete on pinfire revolver ballistics. I've read somewhere they weren't well liked in North America, because, in effect, they didn't "shoot hard". This compared to percussion revolvers, despite the much greater ease of reloading. I don't think I'm going out on much of a limb to say in 1861-65, percussion revolvers were the gold standard.

The Union used Colt, Remington, Whitney and Starr revolvers, primarily. The Confederates mostly used native copies of Colts, and never really had enough.

Pinfire cartridges were loaded in the US. Again, I have no hard facts, but apparently not for very long.

Anyway:

Got to look at 1 unfired round of 12mm pinfire. Copper case, lead bullet quite whiskery from oxidation.

Headstamp was maybe "C S" in italics, best I could read it. The striking thing was that it had a hole punched in the case side about 180 degrees opposite the firing pin, just forward of the case head. In that was inserted a percussion cap. It was neatly done, I think factory work.

(1) The ignition system used the chamber wall as the primer anvil.

(2) Imagine how low the pressure had to be for that to work.

Pinfires are strange.