Revolver

See also: Revolver (homonymy)

The revolver is a simple weapon in which the loads are stored in a barrel, i.e. in a bored rotary cylinder of several Chambre S aligning turn-with-turn with the gun and the system of percussion.

History

The revolver is a Handgun appeared in its contemporary form at the 19th century, it is the handgun Cow-boy of the Western S or the accessory essential to the morbid play of the Russian roulette. It constituted a considerable progress at one time when the weapons took care by the mouth after each shooting, a model drawing several successive blows without handling was to thus be equipped with several guns. The Firepower of the revolver is identical to that of the one of these multiple gun guns but its obstruction much lower and its speed of recharging will condemn them when it profited fully from the invention of the metal cartridge.

The majority of the revolvers ensure the recharging of the weapon during the operation of preparation the shooting, therefore the fact of arming the weapon involves a rotation of the barrel which presents a new room, therefore ammunition, in the axis of the gun.

In 1855, an American of the name of Rollin White, had the idea to drill the barrel of the revolvers right through, thus authorizing the loading by the back. The firm Colt, first approached for the commercial exploitation, judged it without interest. Its competitor Smith & Wesson bought into 1856 the rights in order to exploit the only type of barrel likely to function with its news cartridges. During the expiry of the patent Colt (1857) concerning the invention of the barrel, Smith & Wesson profited, so of an exclusiveness on the barrels drilled right through and this until 1869. To circumvent this patent of many arms manufacturers, for example Slocum, sought other systems. Its design capacity was often reduced of a cartridge because it was of use to leave vacuum the room aligned with the gun in order to avoid an accidental percussion in the event of fall, at least until the invention of the " dog rebondissant" who, instead of resting on the starter, retrogresses a little after percussion and remains there, in a position prohibiting an accidental percussion, until new pressure of the gunner on the Queue of relaxation (invented in 1866 by Purdey (?) or, in 1876 on the Moncie revolver (?)).

The Platine S of the first revolvers were Simple action, the gunner was to thus arm with the hand before each shooting. Platinums Double action, to which a pressure on the relaxation at the same time allows all to arm the dog and to make turn the barrel before starting the shooting, appeared about 1850. That increased the rate of shooting of the revolvers but the pressure to be exerted on the relaxation being stronger, that reduced the precision. For this reason the revolvers doubles action generally also function in Simple action. The system triples action makes it possible by a first pressure on the relaxation to put the dog at armed and by an additional pressure to slacken the dog for the percussion

For the same period, some rifles used the system with barrel of the revolver, but the position of shooting specific to the weapons of shoulder dangerously brought the face closer to the barrel thus of its projections to extreme gases and potential burstings.

Like Handgun, the revolver a long time could put forward better a reliability than the Pistolet. Its very simple mechanism is not stopped and in the event of defective cartridge, it is enough to again press the relaxation to align a full room and to draw another cartridge. This advantage is less determining today because the modern industrial processes improve the reliability of the Pistolet S and the Munition S, but it always makes it possible to draw all the loadings from ammunition whereas the mechanism of a semi-automatic gun could not be put moving by a cartridge generating only little retreat.

Capacity of the barrel

The majority of the revolvers make it possible to draw six blows, from where the slang designation of six blows . Certain revolvers of very strong gauge count only five of them, of the weapons of very small size can contain only three of them to preserve an obstruction minimal. Some modern revolvers allow seven blows, certain revolvers at the 19th century were equipped with a large barrel of sixteen even twenty blows, sometimes at the price of a clever architecture authorizing two rows of rooms. In general, more the capacity of the barrel and/or the gauge will be low, more the barrel will be small. Contrary, more the capacity and/or the gauge will be large plus the diameter of the barrel will be important.

Uses of the revolver

The most current Munition S in the revolvers are the .38 Special and the .357 Magnum. One also finds revolvers confined in .44 Magnum immortalized by Clint Eastwood in films of the Inspector Harry . The revolvers of the police force are generally charged into .38 Special or .357 Magnum at most. The .357 Magnum being a lengthened cartridge of .38 Special, many revolvers .357 Magnum can draw the two cartridges indifferently. The antiterrorist units such GIGN use at the time of the revolvers for their power and their reliability. Equipped with glasses, certain hunters use powerful revolvers in the place of a rifle.

The simplicity of the revoler allows robust constructions sometimes used to draw from the Munition S of very large Caliber: the .454 Casull, the .500 Winchester, the .444 Marlin. They are generally revolvers Simple action, appreciated in the competitions of Tir to the metal silhouette even if the advent of the Pistolet Desert Eagle produced by the Israeli company IMI improved the maximum possibilities of the guns of series. Smith & Wesson still pushed back the limit with their .500 S&W Magnum.

With ammunition of equal power, the retreat of a revolver is more brutal than that of a gun owing to the fact that nothing " amorti" push of the ammunition contrary to the cylinder head of a gun which ensures the distribution of the retreat on an amount of time a little longer.

The Titane is sometimes employed for modern revolvers, either for certain parts or for the unit of its construction such as for example in the Taurus 415T. Titanium makes it possible to reduce the Arme considerably what makes it less tiring to carry but which on the other hand results in a more important retreat.

Other uses of the principle of the revolver

The Mitrailleuse Gatling at the 19th century functioned on a principle very similar to that of the revolver. More recently, the South-African navigation company Armscor took again the principle of the revolver for the Striker, rifle tactical including/understanding twelve Munition S of hunting of gauge 12 and for its Lance-grenade of 40 millimetres MGL-MK1 with six blows.

Principal revolvers

    • Webley

See too

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