I was armed to the teeth with a pitiful little Smith & Wesson's seven-shooter, which carried a ball like a homopathic pill, and it took the whole seven to make a dose for an a - dult. But I thought it was grand. It appeared to me to be a dangerous weapon. It had only one fault--you could not hit anything with it. One of our 'conductors' practiced awhile on a cow with it, and as long as she stood still and behaved herself she was safe; but as soon as she went to moving about, and he got to shooting at other things, she came to grief.

............................

George Bemis . . . wore in his belt an old original "Allen" revolver, such as irreverent people called a "pepper-box." Simply drawing the trigger back, cocked and fired the pistol. As the trigger came back, the hammer would begin to rise and the barrel to turn over, and presently down would drop the hammer, and away would speed the ball. To aim along the turning barrel and hit the thing aimed at was a feat which was probably never done with an "Allen" in the world. But George's was a reliable weapon, nevertheless, because, as one of the stage-drivers afterward said, "If she didn't get what she went after, she would fetch something else." And so she did. She went after a deuce of spades nailed against a tree, once, and fetched a mule standing about thirty yards to the left of it. Bemis did not want the mule; but the owner came out with a double-barreled shotgun and persuaded him to buy it, anyhow. It was a cheerful weapon--the "Allen." Sometimes all its six barrels would go off at once, and then there was no safe place in all the region round about, but behind it.

- Mark Twain, Roughing It

I have carried a revolver; lots of us do, but they are the most innocent things in the world.

- Mark Twain, interview, Adelaide South Australian Register, 10/14/1895

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

EVERY time I read his account of the Allen pepperbox, it's still funny, and I've read it many times over the last half century.

Thanks Jim!

In uncle ronnie's yacht club and did not get to play with the guns (small or great) but I often chatted with the gunners & fire controlmen. They in turn graciously supplied me with spent .45 acp cases and rusty 1911 magazines and empty ammo cans up to and including 20x120mm as those were going to be dumped overboard anyway whilst underway.

One sunny day in the mediterranean ('87) the water was calm enough for small arms qualifications & training. There was a great mob mustered on the tiny flight deck....
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaman_SH-2_Seasprite
and I loitered forward of the flight deck in hopes that spent/used goodies would be surreptitiously passed to me.

First up to take on a man sized silhouette at 50' was the Captain and he took a classic slow fire stance with his left hand in its proper back pocket and delivered his five shots into a respectable small group despite the swells and listing. As per regulations at the time watchstanders 1911 magazines were downloaded 5 and security alert teams 6. All (but me) were impressed at the commander's marksmanship and murmoured butt-kissing sounds of approval

Next-up was a short/round deck ape. Suddenly there were three or four times more folk than the area allowed crowding around me under the firefighting foam cannon platform attached to the port side of the helo. hanger. When I asked why the rush of humanity forward of the flight deck the replies were something like this.....

"When BM3 ______ shoots, the only truely safe place is behind the target !"

True, we weren't behind the target by any measure but I got their point.

rusty M-14 magazines were not disposed of like the 1911s. I would have liked a few of those. The M-9 beretta had already been implemented in the three other branches and I think they had a surplus of 1911 magazines and most of those were blued. All of the M-14 magazines I saw were grey parkerized.