cowboys often had to hone their shooting experience and use their weapons, because if you thought grazing cows was a safe job in the days of the Wild West, then you are wrong. Cowboys were very often attacked by Indians, bandits, as well as criminal groups engaged in racketeering and attempts to take away private property.
So why did the cowboys and many gunfighters load only five rounds, not six, and leave one empty chamber in the drum of their revolvers?
Standard revolvers of the 19th century usually had a drum with 6 chambers, where cartridges were inserted and, after rotating the drum around its axis, were fed to the barrel for firing.
Of course, for gunsmiths, only six-shot revolvers did not exist, in those days there were many other designs that made it possible to use drum-cylinders of different volumes. For example, it is also known about a 21-round double-barreled revolver of the Lefosche system with alternating firing from the upper and lower barrel. However, most of the easily recognizable and classic revolvers had only six-shooters.
Yes, the same revolvers, which were most often used by real cowboys back in the century before last, were usually six-shooters.
The main reason why experienced shooters never fully loaded their six-shooter revolvers is that in the 1800s revolvers had very simple and primitive triggers, with a complete lack of any safety device, and in order to fire them, a cowboy needs was to load the revolver, cock the hammer, and then release it by pulling the trigger. In modern pistols, the striker is supported by a small spring so that the striker cannot accidentally hit the primer, and in old revolvers this function did not exist. The striker in classic revolvers was fully integrated with the trigger. And although thanks to this design the weapon was easy to manufacture and use, there was a very dangerous flaw in it – such a revolver could involuntarily fire, for example, if a cowboy was just riding a horse and bumped into some kind of bump or abruptly went into a gallop. Since even with the hammer uncocked, the striker rested directly on the primer and, with a strong concussion, could lead to an accidental shot.
By the way, there is another legend that says that a cowboy kept a rolled-up banknote in an empty drum chamber so that after his death he could pay the undertaker. This is, of course, a bike, because it would be foolish to give up an additional free sixth slot during some hot shootout, when the cowboy did not need to keep the safety lock, but the highest and most effective rate of fire was required. In addition, this banknote would probably have burned out or damaged inside the drum of the revolver rather quickly.
