Revolvers
When I was a youngster just learning to work on guns the gun writers were spitting out articles proclaiming the end of the revolver. They said the informed gun owners of today would no longer accept the failings of revolvers when they could have a modern automatic. I think most of those writers are dead now but the revolver is as healthy as ever in spite of being over 160 years old!
It’s no wonder when you look at what the revolver has going for it. Safety is a primary reason many handgun owners pick a revolver. While you and I might live and breath guns and spend all our hours getting better acquainted with guns a lot of folks only want a gun for an emergency and feel more comfortable with a revolver. With no place for a cartridge to hide and built in safety features like hammer blocks the modern revolver coupled with the fact that a revolver will never cock itself many new gun owners are more confidant they can handle a revolver safely.
Another reason they select a revolver is simplicity. This is not a small thing to many owners. When you listen to the stories of people that have been involved in a real shooting it becomes apparent that simple is better. These people didn’t have time or thinking power to spare to find a safety latch, search for a magazine or pull back a slide. They needed a safe gun that they could put out and get into action with one hand. This simplicity is also on the mind of casual shooters and people that purchase a gun for someone else that might not be of a “mechanical mind”.
Really it doesn’t matter why they picked a revolver, it’s your job to repair,refinish or improve so you have to know how it works and the job each part plays in the functioning of the gun.
Here is how a revolver works. The cartridges are held in a cylinder that revolves as the gun is fired. Instead of cartridges being moved from the magazine to the chamber each cartridge has it’s own chamber. When you see how many malfunctions happen during the feeding cycle, extraction and ejection you realize making these manual operation that are done before and after firing can make revolvers very reliable and quick to get into operation ( especially if it is already loaded).
Like every thing else in life there are a few drawbacks for revolvers. The obvious is with several chambers and one barrel there has to alignment issues, reloading will be slow and all the parts that lock the cylinder in position and unlock it will have to be timed to work together perfectly.
When a revolver fires the cycle of operation goes something like this, the trigger is squeezed to the rear and as it moves the hand attached to the rear of the trigger pushes upward and contacts the cylinder to begin rotation. The front of the trigger pulls down on the locking bolt and unlocks the cylinder before the hand moves the cylinder. Now the cylinder starts to rotate to the next chamber. After it moves out of the locked position the cylinder lock slips off the trigger and a spring power it up where it slides against the cylinder until it rotates enough for the next locking notch to arrive and then the lock snaps into the locking notch. The hand that pushes the cylinder has slid off the notches in the rear of the cylinder as the lock slide into place in the bottom of the cylinder. While the trigger was moving rearward the back of the trigger was traveling upwards and pushing against the hammer cocking it rearward. When the cylinder reached the position where the hand pushed free, the lock snapped into place and the new cylinder was in alignment with the bore the hammer was rotated far enough back that it slid off the trigger and fired the cartridge.
This understanding of the timing of parts is crucial to revolver work. It is not enough that the part be the correct shape and work smoothly, it has to operate at exactly the right time. This timing is achieved by the part that operates or powers the part being operated. Most of the time the parts are rotating on a pin going through the action and small amounts of wear and damage close to the pin will result in large timing changes further away from the pin.
The best example of this might be the hand/ cylinder lock relationship. The hand is engaging the extractor very close to the cylinder pin and the cylinder lock notches are on the outside of the cylinder. Just a few thousandths stoned off the hand will keep the cylinder notches from alignment with the lock.
Revolvers are fascinating guns to work on. They require a through understanding of the cycle of operation and interdependence of working parts.