Well boys, I just had some fun.
It turns out I can load a single action six shooter a lot faster than I thought.
I am quite familiar with single action revolvers, I shoot them all the time in CAS. Of course, there are no prizes for loading fast, and I can't remember the last time we had to do a reload on the clock.
So there's the setup, a 2nd Gen Colt (45 Colt) and five spent cases and five dummies without powder or primers. I started out with the gun 'loaded' with the five empty rounds in it, sitting on the table. The five dummy rounds were lined up on the table. Started the stopwatch, put her on half cock, popped out all the empties, then grabbed the dummies and fed them in the standard way, load one, skip one, load four more, full cock, lower the hammer, stop the stopwatch. I amazed myself, I was able to do it in about 17 seconds most of the time. Not really rushing, but not going slow and deliberate either. By the way, I would never do this with live rounds. I would be much slower and more deliberate.
Next for the 38. A nice K-38 Combat Masterpiece. Unfortunately I did not have any dummies with bullets, I had to make do with some A-Zoom snap caps. I started with five snap caps in the gun, the gun on the table. (yeah, there are six snap caps in the photo, but I only used five to keep the test a little bit more equal.) Started the stopwatch, grabbed the gun, ejected the snap caps, then placed them one at a time back in the chambers and closed the cylinder again. Average time around 12 seconds. If I had had dummies with bullets in them it would probably have gone a little bit faster, because the lightweight aluminum snap caps didn't want to drop into the cylinders as nicely as ammo with bullets would. Also it would probably have been faster if I had some 38 dummies lined up on the table ready to go.
Sorry, no video, you will just have to trust me, I was actually able to unload and reload the Colt in about 17 seconds a bunch of times. The big 250 grain bullets make the rounds slide into the chambers real nice and easy. The open loading gate makes a nice chute for the rounds to slide into, rather than trying to poke rounds into the chambers of the 38.
It would be really fun sometime to try the same test with a Top Break Smith and Wesson. These automatically eject the empties when you break them open. It usually requires a flick of the wrist so none of them fall under the ejector star, but that is pretty easy to learn. Then reload the chambers one at a time, then close it with the empty chamber lined up with the bore. Sorry, I don't have any 44 Russian dummies, maybe next time I load some I will make up a few dummies. I'll bet I could reload faster than the Colt.
By the way, pointing the muzzle up poke out the empties and down to feed is not the fastest way to reload a SAA. Everything is done with the gun pretty horizontal. Rotating the cylinder to line up each chamber with the loading gate is very easy, you just rotate the cylinder with the finger of one hand and back it slightly so the hand stops the cylinder on the ratchet teeth. The chamber is line up automatically. Yeah, I have been doing it for around 20 years, so I guess I have the technique down pretty good. Reminds me of when I first started shooting CAS. Guys would show up at the unloading table, put the hammer on half cock, open the loading gate, and tap the butt of the gun on the table to vibrate the empties out of the chambers. I would ask them what did they think that thing under the barrel was there for.