By Mike Nesbitt | Contributing Editor
Every now and then something new crosses our paths, and for me this new one is making itself feel right at home.
It is a Cimarron Model P single action revolver with a 4 ¾-inch barrel in .44 Special caliber. That might sound rather repetitive when compared to other guns that I have but this one is certainly different. And, to enjoy a redundancy just a bit, those differences certainly do make the difference.
But this is a story about more than just one new belt gun, it’s actually a story about two belt guns. Those two guns are almost twins; they’re both Cimarron Model P revolvers in .44 Special caliber. One of them is mine and that’s the one I’ll be telling you about the most. The other is Jerry Johnson’s and his differs from mine only by having a 5 ½-inch barrel, ¾-inch longer than mine. We won’t be making any comparisons about those barrel lengths but we will be watching the performance of both of those guns.
Both of our Cimarron Model P sixguns are the “3-click” versions which do not have a quarter-cock notch. That is very fine with me, I never use the quarter-cock on my guns. If, for some reason, I ever wanted to load my single action with all six cartridges, I’d lower the hammer all the way down with the firing pin resting between two cartridge rims. That way there is no primer below the firing pin and being between two cartridge rims does a good job of locking the cylinder so it cannot turn. Older percussion revolvers were safely carried with all of the chambers loaded in a very similar way. The Colts had “safety pins” between the chambers which fit into a notch on the lower part of the hammer’s face. Remington percussion revolvers were a little better; they had a notch in the cylinder between the nipples that the hammer could engage when fully forward. Safety must always be a top consideration and, with that in mind, I almost always carry a single action with only five cartridges in the cylinder and the hammer resting down on the empty chamber.
For my gun, the ammunition usually consumed consists of black powder loads, now using 18 grains of Swiss 2Fg powder under a 245-grain bullet, all contained in Starline .44 Russian cases. Lately I’ve been using a card wad, punched from empty milk cartons, between the powder and the base of the bullet, with good results. Those good results include having the gun very easy to clean after some shooting has been done. Jerry was still looking for a good black powder load for his .44 and we’ll focus on that in just a little bit.
Good Reproductions
First, some comments about the Model P single actions from Cimarron. Those are rather specific copies of the Colt Single Action Army revolvers. They are offered with the 7 ½, 5 ½ , or 4 ¾ -inch barrel lengths, in either the pre-1896-style Old Model with the with the cylinder base pin screw located in the front of the frame, or the post-1896 pre-war frame, where the cylinder base pin retaining screw is found on the side of the frame, in front of the cylinder.
The Model P six-guns are available barreled and chambered for .32-20, .38-40, .38 Special/.357 Magnum, .44 Special, .44-40, .45 Colt or .45 ACP/.45 Colt with dual cylinders. Options in the finish include Standard Blue, Charcoal Blue or Original Finish. Cimarron’s Model P is the sixgun of the West!
Authenticity is appreciated for my guns so I dug into the background of the old Colts in .44 Russian, mainly because that is the cartridge I’ll be using the most. Of course, the .44 Special didn’t appear until 1906 but the .44 Russian had been available since 1872 and that made me wonder if or when Colt had added it to their Single Action’s list of calibers.
Colt Single Actions in .44 Special were rather few in first-generation guns. Only 506 were made. Some of the old Colts were made in .44 Russian caliber before the .44 Special was introduced. I consulted the book The 36 Calibers of the Colt Single Action Army by David Brown but that almost deepened the mystery.
Smith & Wesson had tried to get the name of the .44 Russian changed to the .44 Smith & Wesson, which it certainly is. But the book lists the .44 S&W, .44 S&W Russian, and the .44 Russian all as separate calibers when, to most all of us, they are the same cartridge. What I was actually looking for was a date of introduction for the .44 Russian in the old Colt SA and I didn’t find that. What was listed was a date of shipment for the .44 Smith & Wesson Russian and the .44 Russian revolvers that the author had lettered from the Colt company and both of those guns were sent out in 1893.
So, the date of introduction for the .44 Russian cartridge in the Colt Single Action must remain rather cloudy for the time being. By adding the numbers up for the .44 S&W, .44 Russian, and the .44 S&W Russian, as given in that interesting book, less than 200 of the standard frame Single Actions (not counting the Bisley Models) were made for this otherwise popular .44 caliber.
Best Shooting
The best shooting was done by Jerry Johnson, with his Cimarron Model P in .44 Special. We met at the pistol range and he had brought at least five batches of five rounds, all with different loads. His shooting was from the bench, held down with both hands, to see which load shot the best. And in between those loads, he’d clean the gun so that each load would have the same “start.” Also, he was using .44 Special cases. But none of his loads really satisfied him.
I passed by his bench and suggested that he try five of my loads, in the .44 Russian cases. Just after that, I put five rounds down on his bench, my .44 Russian loads of course, and then went to do my own shooting, leaving him to shoot as he pleased. A few minutes later Jerry came to where I was and got my attention. He asked, “What load did you say that was?” Then he showed me the target, with all shots tearing one big hole at 6 o’clock in the X-ring. (That’s probably right where he was holding.) Now Jerry is getting some .44 Russian dies as well as some brass.
My own shooting with the 4 ¾-inch gun was delayed a little bit. That was because I was giving attention to the Bisley Model which you have already been told about. The Bisley, which is in .44-40 caliber, accepts the .44 Special cylinder from this Model P very well, as long as the base pin bushing are also traded. That’s where I got the .44 Special cylinder for shooting with the Bisley and the front sight was cut down to get that nice gun hitting where it needed to be.
Later, with the .44 Special cylinder returned to its “rightful owner,” more work with this Model P was done. At first I expected this gun to hit low, so I started on my targets while holding high, at or near the top of the black. To my surprise and obvious delight, that’s right where the gun was hitting.
Another target was posted, the typical pistol-target our club uses, posted at 10 yards. My shooting was done offhand with a two-hand hold. This was done on a Wednesday morning, when several of our black powder shooters converge on the range, so a number of shooters were watching. Taking a dead-on hold with the .44 Model P, I fired five shots. Then the range was called “cold” and I went forward to look at the target.
The group was very pleasing, all 10s and 10-Xs. So, I went back to the firing line to prepare for shooting another five shots at this target, even though my partners warned me that I’d probably ruin a good group. They were almost right, in the second cylinder full of five shots, one bullet did creep out into the 9-ring at 4 o’clock. But I’ll quickly call that my fault and for my new belt gun, this Model P in .44 Special quickly got the job.
Shooting the .44 Russian black powder loads in a revolver is a real pleasure. There is plenty of boom, blast, and recoil to keep any six-gunner happy and yet the gun is comfortable and control-able at the same time. The black powder loads have plenty of power for what I want. I did have some thoughts about fitting a pair of ivory-like grips to this gun, just to make it a little more “John Wayne,” but the one-piece wooden grips with the Cimarron medallion are too comfortable to replace.
Needs Leather!
A belt gun obviously needs a holster and belt, and my holster came from Buffalo Arms Company in Idaho. It was made by the Oklahoma Leather Company and they mark their holsters with their name plus “I.T.” for “Indian Territory.” The holster I selected is called the “Single Loop Mexican” style and it is priced at just $32.59. Buffalo Arms has several of Oklahoma’s holsters in stock, in a number of various styles and for longer barrel lengths and I find them very easy to recommend. Look on the Buffalo Arms website at buffaloarms.com.
For a belt, I’ll either wear this holster on a web belt which has loops for rifle cartridges or on a leather money belt which I’ve had for years. And I do have one web belt that has cartridge loops for both .44 revolver loads and for .50-70 cartridges, designed to carry both kinds of ammunition. We’ll have to see what I select when the time comes to pack this .44 revolver on the trail.
That’s when I’ll team up with Jerry Johnson again and we have some trail shootin’ coming, so I’d better be making bullets and getting some reloading done.
But Jerry and I have both used our Model P revolvers in at least one black powder match. That was in an after-match at our recent Old West Centerfires shoot which was held on the first Saturday in August. Again, we fired ten shots at a bullseye pistol target, offhand, from ten yards. Jerry won that match with a score of 99-3X and he was using black powder loads in .44 Special cases. (We will have to wonder what he would have scored if he had used his loads in .44 Russian cases.) While I did fire in that same match, that was when I though my gun would be hitting low, so my shots went too high to compete with Jerry. His target held a very nice score.
