[2banana]

Surprised he didn’t have a long gun and fully check out his side arm before heading into wolf county.

[marktwain]

Almost certainly, the revolver worked fine until his last trip from the cabin. The mainspring probably broke while in the field.

It would explain why the cartridges were in his pocket, and not in the revolver.

Any knowledgeable person would unload the revolver when attempting to determine why it would not fire.