BowMan wrote:timmy wrote:Nor have we addressed the efficiency issue, considering the gap between the barrel and cylinder. This bleeds off a significant amount of energy (compare the ballistics of the same cartridge in a semiauto or Thompson-Center handgun). Please watch how you hold the revolver -- things can get a mite interesting if your flesh is near that gap!
Let me point out that this argument is not really valid at all.
Every self cycling weapon (gas operated/blow back operated/recoil operated) bleeds (or shall I say cycles) some of the ballistic energy of a cartridge in to moving the spent case out and a new round into the chamber. This includes all semi auto/full auto handguns, SMGs and rifles.
So shall we assume these are inferior to say perhaps a bolt action rifle which is the only design that does not 'bleed' some of the energy. Darn even flint locks let out some gas from the firing port.
The only true automatic action that does not bleed any energy from a round is the Gatling action and if you can appreciate that you should also appreciate the genius of Samuel Colt who first realized the idea of putting a wheel and a gun, two of the greatest inventions of mankind, together.
The amount of energy used by a recoil-operated firearm, whether long or short recoil, and the amount of energy used by a gas-operated firearm that bleeds off some gas from just before the muzzle is hardly equal to the amount that escapes the cylinder gap. The difference between auto/semiauto ballistics and those obtained in pump, lever, bolt, and single shot designs is so trifling that one could expect to find just as much variation between different individual rounds of ammo. A simple reference to reloading ballistic data would inform you of this.
For instance, getting the same velocity from the same bullet from my Ruger in .45 Colt requires 8.5 grains of Unique, as opposed to 6.5 grains in my .45 ACP 1911. The Ruger has a 4.625" barrel and the 1911 a 5" barrel, but we must remember that the cartridge chamber in the 1911 is part of that 5"' but the cylinder and chamber of the Ruger is not included in the 4.625" measurement. If, as you claim, there amount of energy escaping from the cylinder gap of the Ruger is equal to the amount of energy the 1911 uses to function the action, why does the Ruger require ~30% more powder to produce the same results?
Au contraire, the Gatling Gun is not an automatic or semiautomatic weapon at all. Every bit of energy used to extract, eject, load, cock, and fire the weapon is provided by the hand crank. In automatic and semiautomatic weapons, all of these processes (except firing, which is for automatic designs only) are powered by the energy of the expanding gasses that result from the burning of the powder in the cartridge.
Regarding Colt, his invention was not, as Two Rivers pointed out, as much revolutionary as it was evolutionary. One might even argue that Smith & Wesson's Volcanic handgun (which later served as the basis for the Henry repeater and the Winchester Models 1866, 1873, and 1876). Was more sophisticated. One can also argue that the big Smith & Wesson cartridge guns based not eh break-open "Scofield" action were better military field weapons; it's said that General Custer carried a pair during his campaigns in the West. But Colt was first and they made a great product, and the lead they amassed in the percussion era stood them in good stead.
Also, the famous Colt Single Action Army ("Peacemaker," or whatever you want to call it) was hardly "The Gun That Won The West." If you have carried one around, you know that it is a big, heavy, clumsy thing, and added to that, it was expensive in the day. Most people packed more modest handguns, if they carried them at all, guns that were not as featured in movies and books about "Old Shatterhand." In other words, there's a lot of myth surrounding the Colt SAA. If any gun could be said to have "Won the West," it would be the Winchester Model 1873.
Please remember that these views are expressed by a dyed-in-the-wool Colt lover. However, I appreciate Colts for what they are, not because of the mythology and fairy tales that have grown up around them.
I am also grieved to bring up the sad fact that both revolvers and pistols operate according to the laws and principles of Physics, except for pistols made of unobtainium that are hung on the West Wall of buildings.
