You could be right, Hawg. For one thing, notice the Colt or the old S&Ws have hammer notches that barely lift the firing pin off the cartridges. If those weren't intended as safety notches, I don't know what they were for. And if they were meant as safety notches, I'm sure some folks used them for that. Whether or not the safety was effective at all.
But frankly, those old guys were probably as cantankerous as we are today. Probably had about as many opinions and as many different ways to carry a revolver as you can think of.
The one way to carry a revolver that I don't believe in is the old story that gunfighters would roll up a $20 bill and put it in the empty chamber of their revolvers. That way, if they lost in a gunfight, there would be money to pay for a decent funeral. But can you imagine a rolled-up paper in that position being exposed to the blast of five blackpowder cartridges? Somehow, I don't think that $20 bill would be in much shape to buy much of anything after that treatment. You wanted something to flame away? There ya go, right up in smoke.
