Cartirdge Revolver Types

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

Okay, for simplicity of defintion, and limiting to cartidge fireing single actions only...

 

1. Loading Gate Type (Colt, Ruger, various conversions, Remmingtons, Nagant)

2. Top Break (Scofield, S&W Model 3 varients)

3. Merwin & Hulbert. (A rather unique design)

4. Cylinder Swappers (Various conversions done without a loading gate, such as 58 Remmie, Ruger Old Army)

 

Is there anything else that fits into these basic categories, or another type with a unique (re)loading system?

 

Mostly, I am asking out of curiosity and a desire to know more about old timey guns.

 

 

Corrollary question...

 

How about a side match where you have to do 10 shots with 1 revolver, "catagorized" by the 4 types listed above.

[John Boy]

How about a side match where you have to do 10 shots with 1 revolver, "catagorized" by the 4 types listed above.

Got a bad case of Cabin Fever?

[Bad Hand]

The original S&Ws were bottom breaks, hinged at the top. Then there was the Moore "Teat fired", the cartridge loaded from the front, and a "teat" stuck out the hole in the back of the cylinder. Bound to be more.

[Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283]

Howdy

 

Although the revolvers that broke at the top were usually called Top Breaks, the Smiths that broke at the bottom were usually called Tip Ups. At least that is what modern collectors call them. A friend has a 32 rimfire Tip Up. Strangest thing about it is the bolt is up at the top of the frame, right under where the hammer strikes. Every other revolver I have ever seen has the bolt down under the cylinder in the lower part of the frame.

 

Tip Up revolvers

[Rye Miles #13621]

How about the pinfire ammo, those revolvers were a completly different design. I have a couple of old pinfire rounds, I think they're .44's.

[SGT. QUINCANNON, SASS #32999]

There was also the Thuer conversion system for C&B Colts. To avoid the infringement of Smith & Wesson's Rollin White's patent (revolver cylinders bored through, and loaded from the rear), Colt came up with a cartridge conversion system that used a slightly tapered rimless centerfire cartridge that loaded into the front of the C&B revolver's altered cylinder. It didn't sell very well, as I understand, compared to S&W revolvers, and Colt C&B revolvers that were non-factory conversions to cartridges.

[Captain Woodrow Cahill, SASS # 54363]

The Enfield MkI I think takes honors for peculiarity. Loaded through a side gate, but ejected empties by sliding the cylinder forward when the hinged action was opened.

[merimac]

Don't know what their called but what about the side load with no gate.Just a opening

[Gold Canyon Kid #43974]

I always thought a derringer was a single action device?? Cock the hammer, pull the trigger, and do it again. Just not a six shooter.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Dardick .22 and .38 revolvers. Look 'em up and stand by to be underwhelmed.

[Oddnews SASS# 24779]

Dardick .22 and .38 revolvers. Look 'em up and stand by to be underwhelmed.

 

OK, but the Dardicks were double-action-only (and I really can't picture Jesse James with one, either <grin>)

[Marshal Harry O'Callahan]

John Walter's superb book "The Guns That Won The West" is the most comprehensive and lists not only brands and models but production data.

 

For top-breaks, don't forget Forehand & Wadsworth-another major manufacturer now mostly forgotten that came out of the Allen pepperbox makers, Marlin, Harrington & Richardson, Hopkins & Allen, Iver Johnson, Merwin, Hulbert later on, Webleys, and lots of European revolvers.

 

For the cylinder slides down the cylinder pin/arbor, it's not just Merwin Hulbert & Co.'s, but French Gallant-Sommerville revolvers used from 1870-1890's and I think some of Moore's 1860's revolvers might have used it as well.

 

Cylinder swapping goes way back to the Texas Rangers and was common practice by the time of the Civil War even to the point of home-made bandoleers for spare preloaded cylinders. Hopkins & Allen offered a medium frame .38 pocket pistol, cartridge, with easy swap out cylinders by the mid-1870's, see Charles Carder's history of Hopkins & Allen. It would be easy on the Merwin large frame design as well.

 

Bound to be more out there, I'm continually surprised, especially when you look at the European revolvers which were being exported here as well as arriving with the immigrants. The Germans, French, Belgians, Spanish, Italians, English, Russians, etc. all had high-tech revolvers of their own and considerably larger standing armies, police forces, navies, and colonial police than the U.S. did at the time (remember it's the French 1888 Lebel rifle that gets the first smokeless cartridges and the Germans had Mauser bolt-action rifles in their infantry before the 1873 Winchester came out.)

[Mack Hacker, #60477]

The there was the little Savage handgun that looked lihe a Ruger Bearcat, but was really a single shot. The cylinder and barrel rotated out as a single unit to allow you to load a 22 round into the chamber. I believe they retailed for about $10.

 

 

http://www.gunsamerica.com/992111054/Guns/...E_SHOT_22LR.htm

[Adirondack Jack, SASS #53440]

The there was the little Savage handgun that looked lihe a Ruger Bearcat, but was really a single shot. The cylinder and barrel rotated out as a single unit to allow you to load a 22 round into the chamber. I believe they retailed for about $10.

 

 

http://www.gunsamerica.com/992111054/Guns/...E_SHOT_22LR.htm

Ruger had one of those too. It wasn't a new idea, S&W made single shot top breaks as well, using the frame opf their revolvers and a barrel/chamber that was one piece.

 

Let's not forget the LeMat, and the twin row revolvers (French maybe), with one ring of chambers inside the other, and two barrels, in an over/under layout.

[Mack Hacker, #60477]

Ruger had one of those too. It wasn't a new idea, S&W made single shot top breaks as well, using the frame opf their revolvers and a barrel/chamber that was one piece.

 

maybe), with one ring of chambers inside the other, and two barrels, in an over/under layout.

 

The Ruger Hawkeye had a tilt out cylinder, but the barrel stayed in place. It was also a goofball caliber 256, I believe.

[Doc Coles SASS 1188]

Don't forget the Webley Fosbery, semiautomatic revolver (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webley-Fosbery_Automatic_Revolver), which uses recoil to rotate the cylinder and cock the hammer. A more modern version of this is an Italian design called the Mateba Autorevolver (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mateba_Autorevolver), which is automatic, like the Webley Fosbery, but has the barrel on the bottom of the cylinder to bring the bore axis lower and reduce muzzle flip. One of the ugliest guns I have ever seen.

 

On the the Moore Revolver (http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/showthread.php?t=49928) the barrel and cylinder pivot as a unit to the right, exposing the chambers to allow loading and ejection. This was actually a good system, the only short coming being the lack of a fixed ejector.

 

Many are familiar with the Nagant, where the cylinder and a portion of the breach face (for lack of a better term) move forward to create a gas seal between the barrel and the cylinder.

 

I once saw a very low production gun that had separate chambers linked together on a chain in a closed loop. The gun looked kind of like an automatic (the chain hanging down inside the grip) but in fact it operated like a revolver, with each of the 12 or so chambers (links?) being rotated in turn into alignment with the barrel and fired. Very odd and interesting gun, can't recall the name at the moment.

 

Lots of ingenuity out there.