dangers as basic cavalrymen.
Two current handloaded cartridges for 25-meter shooting with .450" caliber commercial lead round balls, a small cardboard wad and 13.8 grains of Swiss black powder No. 2.
If one translates these improvements into reality at the shooting range, given equal skill, the officer was quite advantaged comparatively to the private, a condition which was perhaps not much democratic but which did preserve the hierarchy.
This writer had the privilege to own and use, with original Gevelot commercial cartridges, a mint 1874 revolver in 1954. In single action, the trigger pull was perfectly clean at approximately 6 lbs. and, at 25 meters (28 yards), the gun was able to group all impacts in the 7 ring of the international “P50” target (7.87 inches diameter). Shooting double action (approximately 15 lbs. pull) at a row of five Olympic silhouettes at the same range, the gun was pleasant to use, with a oneinch trigger stroke, but much slower than a modern Colt or Smith & Wesson revolver. The recoil was negligible.
In the hands of modern competition shooters, off-hand scores are in the 90/100 range (4-inch diameter bull), using handloaded ammunition.
Inside the grip, the key which is activated to relax or bend the mainspring.
FRENCH SERVICE REVOLVERS: SPECIFICATIONS
French Service Model of 1873
Manufacturer: Manufacture d’Armes de Saint-Etienne
Year of manufacture for test specimen: 1876
Caliber: 11 mm (.44) French Revolver Model 1873
Cylinder capacity: 6 shots
Length overall: 9.68 inches
Total height: 5.75 inches (at stock ring pin axis)
Thickness: 1.77 inches (at cylinder)
Empty weight: 43.7 oz.
Loaded weight: 47.20 oz.
Barrel length on test specimen: 4.48 inches
Rear sight: fixed “V” notch .08 inch wide at top and .02 inch deep on frame
Front sight: bead type of .09 inch diameter on barrel
Height of rear sight top above the hand: 1.89 inches
Trigger pull: Single action: 8.8 lbs. / Double action: 15.4 lbs.
Safety devices: Double action: safety notch on hammer
Frame material: steel
Finish: polished white
Action type: double action Chamelot-Delvigne 1871/1873 system (patents
29664 dated 11/21/1871 - 31924 dated 02/15/1873
32848 dated 06/30/1873) - fixed firing pin
French Service Model of 1874
Manufacturer: Manufacture d’Armes de Saint-Etienne
Year of manufacture for test specimen: 1875
Caliber: 11 mm (.44) French Revolver Model 1873
Cylinder capacity: 6 shots
Length overall: 8.58 inches
Total height: 5.75 inches (at stock ring pin axis)
Thickness: 1.77 inches (at cylinder)
Empty weight: 35.6 oz.
Loaded weight: 39 oz.
Barrel length on test specimen: 4.33 inches
Rear sight: fixed “V” notch .11 inch wide at top and .04 inch deep, on frame
Front sight: bead type of .08 inch diameter on barrel
Height of rear sight top above the hand: 1.57 inches
Trigger pull: Single action: 7 lbs. / Double action: 16.3 lbs.
Safety devices: Double action: safety notch on hammer
Frame material: steel
Finish: blued with trigger and hammer light yellow heat treated
Action type: double action Chamelot-Delvigne 1871/1873 system (patent
29664 dated 11/21/1871 - 31924 dated 02/15/1873
32848 dated 06/30/1873) - fixed firing pin
PRODUCTION FIGURES AND COSTS
From 1875 to 1885, the total military production model was 31,920 guns, at a maximum price (approximately $12.64 USD) in 1875 and a minimum Francs, or $8.67 USD, in 1880.
In this connection, I had to pay 25,00 Euro exceptional sample in 1954, while it would least, 1500 Euro ($2175 USD) now. Remember, European values.
A less ambitious sample may cost,these 1200 Euro (approximately $1,740 USD).
The N-Frame S&W Revolver
BY PAUL SCARLATA
PHOTOS BY JAMES WALTERS AND BUTCH SIMPSON
Ever since I first became interested in firearms (no, I’m not going to tell you how long ago that was!) I have associated certain periods in history with particular firearms. For example, when I think of the Thirty Years War in Germany (1618-1648) the firearm that comes to mind is the matchlock musket. Nor can I discuss the American Revolution (1775-1781) without mentioning Daniel Morgan’s Virginians and their long Rifles. When the Napoleonic Wars (1804-1815) are the subject, I envision red coated infantry marching in formation with flintlock Brown Bess muskets, while the American Civil War (1861-1865) is exemplified by muzzleloading, Rifled muskets such as the M1861 Springfield. And I doubt there is a gun fancier in the world who does not connect the settling of America’s western frontier with the Winchester lever action carbine and Colt SAA revolver.
As a historian and gun collector, I find the period most interesting to be that thirty-year stretch between 1884 and 1914. During this time we saw the invention of smokeless gunpowder and small bore Rifle cartridges, the perfection of bolt action repeating Rifles, semiautomatic pistols and fully automatic firearms. From the groundbreaking 8mm Lebel cartridge and Mauser’s Gewehr 98 Rifle to the Colt 1911 pistol and Maxim machine gun, many of the greatest advances in firearms technoltechnology occurred during this three-decade time span.
But another firearm was perfected during this era that has garnered little of the attention lavished upon its contemporaries: the double action (DA) revolver. While DA revolvers were nothing new, having been around since the 1850s, in the 1890-1910 period the newly perfected swing-out cylinder unloading/reloading system was combined with improved DA trigger mechanisms to produce the modern revolver as we know it today.
