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Pistol on TV show "Dead Man's Gun"


FunnyRunner

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the pistol used on "Dead man's Gun" is a Smith & Wesson Schofield. And yes there are modern reproductions of this gun made by Uberti. Smith & Wesson made some themselves few years ago, you see one for sale every now and then.

 

There have been a couple of Uberti Schofields on the wire recently. Somewhere on the classified I still have one up for sale, it was put on there a little over a week ago. And i believe there are one or two other right now.

 

Nothing good or bad about the gun, just protaryed as a gun "cursed" and bring bad luck or death to whoever happens to be in posession of it.

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How does it stack up against other pistols of the era?

Any pro's or con's on shooting it?

Thanks!

 

The big advantage of the Schofield was the quick reloading. With the flip of the latch, the pistol broke open automatically ejecting all of the rounds. 6 new rounds could be inserted, the pistol closed, and it was ready for action. This is much quicker than opening the loading gate, manually knocking each round out with the ejector one at a time, and reloading one at a time.

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The pros are the easy reloading and the "cool" factor in having something a little different. I understand that Jesse James carried one as well as several other famous outlaws.

 

The con is that it is a big pistol and if you don't have big hands, it's hard to reach the hammer with you thumb making it hard to shoot duelist or gunfighter. If you shoot traditional style, you can't "slip hammer" by holding down the trigger and just thumbing the hammer. The trigger must be released and reset for each shot, kind of like a semi-auto vs a full auto.

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The big advantage of the Schofield was the quick reloading. With the flip of the latch, the pistol broke open automatically ejecting all of the rounds. 6 new rounds could be inserted, the pistol closed, and it was ready for action. This is much quicker than opening the loading gate, manually knocking each round out with the ejector one at a time, and reloading one at a time.

The big disadvantage of the Schofield is the reloading. If you're on horse back and have just had a cavalry charge through the hostiles, firing one or two rounds, and are going to reload before the next charge, you will find that the gun drops all the live rounds on the ground as well, wasting ammo in the middle of combat. One of the reasons the Colt Peacemaker was chosen over the S&W pistol during the Army trials.

 

I like the gun - but it has tactical issues that don't apply too much in the game, but mattered back then.

 

Shadow Catcher

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Guest Tennessee Stud, SASS# 43634 Life

What's good/bad about this particular pistol?

Thanks for your assistance.

 

 

Well... for one dang thang as the "Dead Man's Gun"...

 

That pistol didn't seem to work out good for the owner worth a dam!

 

It'd be safe to chalk that up as a "bad".

 

ts

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Actually the revolver could be opened without dumping the live rounds out but you have to pick the spent cartridges out buy hand.

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. One of the reasons the Colt Peacemaker was chosen over the S&W pistol during the Army trials.

 

Shadow Catcher

Sorry, but that was Not one of the reasons the US Cavalry ultimately chose the Colt over the Schofield after making the Schofield the cavalry pistol in 1875-78 after winning the Army Trials over Colt.

Main reason was cartridges..logistical nightmare for Armorers..The 1/10th inch shorter 45 S&W cartridge would chamber fine in the 45 Colt, but of course due to the shorter cylinder of the Schofield, the 45 Colt cartridge would not chamber in the Schofield(S&W surmised that the 45 Colt cartridge was proprietary to Colt, and due to vanity, S&W would not produce the Schofield in 45 colt..Only in 45 S&W)....Also, the Schofield was primarily originally chosen over the Colt because Maj Schofield's brother was a General officer and in charge of Firearms trials and procurement and of course awarded his brother the contract for 3 years( Major Schofiled ultimately wound up commiting suicide with a Schofield pistol).The Schofield also cost the Army less than the Colt.

But never due to the loading or unloading capabilities of the Schofield action, except that the Schofield was infinitely faster and easier to load and unload on horseback than the Colt ,,Back during the 1875 trials, a skillled shooter could load, shoot, unload and reload on horseback, up to 7 plus times in the time it took to load, fire,unload and reload a Colt...this is fact from the trial records of the period.Believe it or not.For a mounted cavalryman, the Schofield was much easier to load and unload on horseback than the Colt.Had the Schofield been chambered in 45 Colt, might have been a different story entirely.Dan Wesson was jealous of Colt and would not allow chambering his pistols in 45 Colt.

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.........(S&W surmised that the 45 Colt cartridge was proprietary to Colt, and due to vanity, S&W would not produce the Schofield in 45 colt..Only in 45 S&W)......Dan Wesson was jealous of Colt and would not allow chambering his pistols in 45 Colt.

Probably not. The Schofield was basically a variant of S&W's No. 3 revolver, which was introduced 1869-1870, before the .45 Colt even existed. It had been designed around S&W's .44-100 cartridge, later to be known as the .44 American, which was shorter than the yet-to-come .45 Colt..

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Sorry, but that was Not one of the reasons the US Cavalry ultimately chose the Colt over the Schofield after making the Schofield the cavalry pistol in 1875-78 after winning the Army Trials over Colt.

Main reason was cartridges..logistical nightmare for Armorers..The 1/10th inch shorter 45 S&W cartridge would chamber fine in the 45 Colt, but of course due to the shorter cylinder of the Schofield, the 45 Colt cartridge would not chamber in the Schofield(S&W surmised that the 45 Colt cartridge was proprietary to Colt, and due to vanity, S&W would not produce the Schofield in 45 colt..Only in 45 S&W)....Also, the Schofield was primarily originally chosen over the Colt because Maj Schofield's brother was a General officer and in charge of Firearms trials and procurement and of course awarded his brother the contract for 3 years( Major Schofiled ultimately wound up commiting suicide with a Schofield pistol).The Schofield also cost the Army less than the Colt.

But never due to the loading or unloading capabilities of the Schofield action, except that the Schofield was infinitely faster and easier to load and unload on horseback than the Colt ,,Back during the 1875 trials, a skillled shooter could load, shoot, unload and reload on horseback, up to 7 plus times in the time it took to load, fire,unload and reload a Colt...this is fact from the trial records of the period.Believe it or not.For a mounted cavalryman, the Schofield was much easier to load and unload on horseback than the Colt.Had the Schofield been chambered in 45 Colt, might have been a different story entirely.Dan Wesson was jealous of Colt and would not allow chambering his pistols in 45 Colt.

Okay - be that way - there you go just letting the facts get in the way of a good tale . . . Jeeze - next you'll be telling us we're wrong to call it a Long Colt :lol:

 

SC

 

p.s. - I still prefer the peacemaker to that S&W thingie . . .

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Well... for one dang thang as the "Dead Man's Gun"...

 

That pistol didn't seem to work out good for the owner worth a dam!

 

 

 

Hard to say, actually. It always seems to get someone killed, but often not the owner. In fact, there are lots of episodes where it actually helps the owner. I can think of a couple of episodes where it didn't seem to do much of anything. The episode with Henry Winkler as a hangman, it not only refused to kill the owner, it then saved his life.

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What calibers is it available in?

Thanks for the info. Most interesting !

Uberti offers it in .38 .44 .45 .44 russian

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The pros are the easy reloading and the "cool" factor in having something a little different. I understand that Jesse James carried one as well as several other famous outlaws.

 

Was it not Double action aswell?

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I shot a friends Scholfield in a match once. My problem with it was that I shot "traditional" back when that was a class, meaning I held the revolver in both hands and operated the hammer with my weak thumb. The ball of my weak thumb would occasionally drag across the Scholfield's latch, breaking the gun open. I think I could have solved the problem with practice, but I never owned one and was merely trying it out as a novelty.

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The original S&W Schofields had a gas ring on the cylinder. The reproductions do not and there fore the gun becomes fouled and jambs when shooting BP. Many a person has tried but so far it's a no go for BP shooters

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Was it not Double action aswell?

 

No. Single action.

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