I read your article on the Starr Civil War revolvers with interest, but you seem to be implying the Starr isn't safe to shoot.  You wrote "... vigorously rotating cylinder in rapid fire isn't completely reliable."  What are you talking about?

Dear Jason

    Good question needing a little background first.

    All revolvers stop the cylinder from turning by having a small part called a "bolt" project out of the frame to find a shallow hole or slot in the cylinder.  When the bolt is in the slot, the cylinder stops turning and is held in line with the barrel for shooting.  In both the original Colts and Remingtons (with a few exceptions for each) the bolt is spring loaded, the bolt is straight sided, and the slot in the cylinder is straight sided with a small ramp in the cylinder encouraging the bolt to drop into place.  Or at least be positioned to stop the cylinder.  The straight sided bolt against a straight sided cylinder stop is very effective at stopping the cylinder from rotating.

    But many 19th century revolvers didn't use such spring loaded straight sided bolts and straight sided slots in the cylinders.  Instead, they used an "A" cross section bolt in a "V" stop slot in the cylinder and pushed the bolt into place without a spring.  It seems to work in the factory with well fitted parts.

    But putting a lot of oomph and vigor into cocking the gun (such as at an energetic moment in a battle or re-enactment), and the rapidly rotating cylinder can zoom right on past the right place, or the stop bolt can jump back out of the cylinder slot when the inclined side of the bolt bounces on the inclined side of the cylinder stop.  This can happen with every 19th century revolver tried except the traditional Colts and Remingtons.   If the cylinder stops where the hammer can still find the percussion cap or cartridge primer, but where the bullet will strike the back end of the barrel instead of centering on the barrel, firing the gun can get exciting, or worse.  Even here, the soft lead bullet is more likely to shave itself on the barrel with the remains wandering down the barrel inaccurately.  But no guarantee it wont damage the gun, or a bystander.  Firing blanks at re-enactments without a bullet doesn't raise the same issues.

    About the turn of the century, nearly all the small makers were out of the revolver business leaving Colt and Smith and Wesson dominating the market.  All of the models by then had a flat sided bolt powered by a spring and a flat sided cylinder stop with a little ramp allowing the bolt to get in place to stop the rotating cylinder.

    Does this make the Starr unsafe?  Not necessarily.  With fair wear and tare, a vintage original Starr (or other 19th century revolver) when cocked hard can send the cylinder flying past the correct point.  Hand fitting of parts helps.  An older gun have worn parts seems to aggravate the problem.

    It's a fine balance having one mechanism that will carry a slowly rotating cylinder far enough, and stop a an overly aggressive cylinder.

    The useful caution here is to be aware of the condition.  Without stressing and damaging an old or new Starr, try a strong vigorous cocking of the hammer and see what the cylinder does.  Do this only enough to satisfy yourself how things work, but making a regular habit of it will aggressively wear parts that may not be able to stand up to it.

    If vigorously cocking your revolver sends the cylinder too far, then get it tuned, or limit its exuberant use to blank firing at re-enactments, or carry a different model.

    Enjoy yourself; safely.

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