Revolvers as "5 beans in a can" with a $20 bill in the chamber

They used to call the old colt revolvers 6 beans in a can, but some says that it was really “5 beans in a can” . . .


Real 1800’s gunslingers

It’s been said that old west gunslingers frequently stuffed a folded $20 bill in the empty 6th chamber of the cylinder of their revolvers, to pay their funeral expenses when the inevitable finally happened.



But is it an urban myth that cowboys kept $20 bill in 6th revolver chamber for burial expenses?

Jim Keenan notes that this is a myth:

“But in fact, the old timers didn't do that, or put a $20 bill in one chamber for "buryin' money".

(Most never saw $20 all in one place; it would have been the equivalent of $800+ today, and cowboys made $.50 per day.)"