THE TRANTER DOUBLE ACTION

Could a technologically advanced English double-action revolver have changed the history of the Old West? Samuel Colt’s patents, extraordinary salesmanship skill and efficient, modern (for the time) manufacturing methods allowed his single-action percussion revolvers to dominate the American market through the cap-and-ball era. Aside from their varying size, the massive .44-caliber Model 1847 and Dragoons, diminutive .32-caliber Model 1849 Pocket, .36-caliber Model 1851 Navy, .44-caliber Model 1860 Army and .36-caliber 1861 Navy were all basically the same gun. Samuel Colt died in 1862, but his designs lived on, being successfully adapted to metallic cartridges after the Civil War to continue Colt’s dominance in the domestic market through the rest of the 19th century. Overseas Competition While Colt’s pistols were good, they were already slipping into technological obsolescence in the 1850s as other…