MovieChat Forums > Seraphim Falls (2007) Discussion > Bullets? What bullets -- here's one for...

Bullets? What bullets -- here's one for the Purists.

posted 15 years ago by david-sneath
6 replies | jump to latest

This film hangs on the availabilty of bullets (or not, as the case may be), but Western purists will have noticed that all the pistols are cap and ball weapons, with integral hinged ram-rods in place. Why on earth are the protagonists feeding shells into these things, which is impossible anyway, and non-sensically these shells being stolen by travellers who seem equally as ill-informed? Wrong guns, wrong calibre, wrong year. Colt's Peacemaker range with thumbed-in shells wouldn't arrive for three years yet (1873). And they weren't that common for a lot longer.

[–] yourfun88 15 years ago

Smith&Wesson started making cartridge revolvers before the war. Many other companies started to convert cap and ball revolvers to cartridge after the war. I agree that they played it up a bit too much, but it was not as bad as you think.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] intrepidjournalist 14 years ago

They were Colt cartridge conversion revolvers, appearing to be .44 caliber. When Carver realizes that the missionaries stole their ammo, he rolls the cylinder, peering thru the loading gate. A cap and ball revolver has neither bored-thru cylinder nor loading gate.

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[–] froghunter 14 years ago

more info on the guns:
http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Seraphim_Falls

[–] Captain_Augustus_McCrae 14 years ago

Apart from the thousands of factory cartridge conversions by Colt and Remington, there were many frontier gunsmiths of varying levels of skill who performed conversions on C&B revolvers between 1865 and the 1880's. Cartridge conversions are old news in the firearms community. OP, your posting is an epic fail.

"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's living!!!"
Augustus McCrae

[–] lizard666666 14 years ago

That is correct. There was an abundance of .44 Henry ammo made during and after the Civil War. The Henry was a repeating rifle and precursor of the Winchester rifle shown so often in Western movies. Many .44 pistols that were originally cap and ball (especially the Colt 1860 Army model) were converted for the .44 Henry cartridge just as shown in the movie. In fact, there is are a couple of companies that offer conversion units for modern day replica cap and ball pistols designed for use with cartridges loaded with black powder or a suitable substitute. Also, it's kind of dangerous using black powder blanks in a cap and ball gun as the flash back from where the barrel meets the cylinder can cause the other chambers to fire which is known as chain fire...a never to be forgotten experience.