Curious about the Rigdon-Ansley revolver

[SimmerinLightning]

I stumbled across something on the interweb about the Confederate revolver. The outward appearance is that of a straight copy of the Colt 1851, except that it has 12 bolt notches or cylinder stops, whatever you choose to call them. I haven't been able to find much information as to the reason.  I don't think it is a 12 shot revolver because, as far as I can tell from the photos, it only has 6 nipples. Are the extra stops nothing more than safety notches? It wouldn't make sense to me to think you had to cock and dry fire after every round, so I'm assuming that the extra notches are just skipped over during normal function...

And I wasn't sure whether to post this here or under STORM...

[Cliff Fendley]

Following for someone who knows more but I always thought they are just safety notches, skipped during normal firing.

[St. George]

Safety notches.

Read Albaugh's book - 'Confederate Revolvers' - and 'Flayderman's Guide' on antique firearms.

Scouts Out!

[Mogorilla]

Is that the same set up as the Manhattan cap and balls?   Seems lik I remember them having 12 notches as well

[Coffinmaker]

MoGo .....

Nah.  The actual "Manhattan" conversion was a thin steel plate that covered the nipples and isolated the Caps from the Hammer Channel.  The extra notches in a 12 stop cylinder were to allow loading 6 and then "locking" the cylinder between chambers.  Normally, the extra locking slots correspond with the Half Cock.  Same principal is used on the R&D type conversion cylinders that have only 5 chambers.

[SimmerinLightning]

Thanks for the information. I'm going to have to track down that book.