I don't think cylinder changes were that common an occurrence. I have read one account of a Confederate soldier picking up a cylinder he found from a damaged Colt Navy but that's it. One shouldn't infer that he was going to keep it loaded for a rapid cylinder change, maybe he just wanted it for an extra part. I can do a cylinder change on a Colt Navy is about 20 seconds but one has to remember that combustible ammunition was also available and that may have worked out better from a tactical standpoint- you could load a round while you still had capped and loaded chambers. In any event I personally haven't run across any accounts of some shootist or soldier's life's belongings including a bunch of spare cylinders. Nor have I read any accounts of a shoot out involving a cylinder change. I think the practice of carrying extra revolvers was more common and one sees photos of Confederate cavalry men with four or six revolvers.
So....if you're just dying to have a lot of fire power- buy a few more revolvers-
. Nothing wrong with that
