1869 English trials of breech loading revolvers

[Brutus]

I was cruising through the internet and stumbled upon this very old report comparing two very early BP cartridge firing handguns, at researchpress dot co dot uk.

http://www.researchpress.co.uk/firearms/smallarmtrials/adamscolt02.htm

One was an 1860 Colt modified for what I presume to the 44 Colt, and the other, was a British revolver in 450 Adams.
In the penetration test at 30 and 60 yards the Adams cartridge won out. But one of the Colt catridges (loaded by Messres. Eley Brothers) was found devoid of powder!

I thought the popular opinion amongst most of us was that the Adams was pretty anemic compared to many others.
Or was it that the 44 Colt was so bad? Was this just a poorly run exercise?

Opinions?

 

[bp2626]

Interesting piece of history, thanks for sharing.

I don't know a lot about the 450 Adams but from a quick Google it seems that using the standard load of the day for each cartridge (black powder, 225 gr bullet), the 450 Adams has a very slight edge in both velocity and found-pound energy over the .44 Colt.

 

[Skinny 1950]

In the introduction to the trials it was mentioned that the Colt cartridge was loaded from the front of the chambers rather than the back so I have no idea of what cartridge they were testing.
I was digging around on that site and there are a lot of interesting accounts of what was going on way back then, including a description of Colt's London factory...great reading.

 

[green]

The Colt used in the trials was in 44 Thuer calibre. This was a metal CF conical shaped ctg which loaded from the front of the cylinder. It was made to evade the S&W patent on bored through chambers in revolvers. It had a very short life.