Guns: All About the Revolver

Unless very specialized pieces, modern, handheld firearms are constructed to deliver several shots before you load again. This is what that imparts the name. To be precise, it's the loading mechanisms. This is why a revolver is a specific type and not all six-shooters or handguns are revolvers. Neither is the pistol, though Samuel Colt's invention was a revolving pistol.

Primarily, there is a rifled barrel for more accuracy, a bored-through cylinder (chambers) where cartridges find nest, a trigger, a hammer and a frame to hold all of them in place and provide the user a grip. Mostly, there stay six cartridges, although variations are a commonplace thing. High-powered revolvers have been often noticed with fewer chambers while the low-powered with more.

The cylinder rotates around an axis placed centrally to make the chambers move in a pre-measured circular trajectory. This brings the cartridges (one at a time) and the barrel in-line with each other.

To fire, the hammer must go back against the spring pressure. This activates the gun mechanism. The cylinder rotates bringing a chamber into position. The hammer then drops and the weapon fires.

The hammer goes back in two ways. It is either cocked (pulled-back) using thumb(s) to be released by pulling the trigger (single-action/SA firing) or by double-action (pulling the trigger to make the mechanism take care of the rest). The cylinder's rotation, the cocking and the hammer-release are a single continuous process. A faster firing but only if you can endure multiple long and hard trigger pulls. It also affects accuracy. This, nevertheless, adds to the safety of the weapon for which, latest revolvers have no manual safety (except for the hammerless/internal hammer/J-Frame models). The transfer bar (a metal bar that guards the contact point of the firing pin, the striker driven by the hammer to ignite a bullet's charge) has taken care of that. The bar pulls back with the pull of the trigger and prevents accidental discharge of bullets due to concussive shocks. This proves hammer-down-on-an-empty-chamber with any of the new revolvers is curtailing your power. For single action models, it's still alright.

The reloading mechanism has undergone many a changes since the first firearm came into existence; in revolvers, it has been from the most sensible to the most bizarre. However, for the modern types, the cylinder is either a swing-out type or break-tops i.e. the cylinder turns upside down along with the barrel. A thumb-button or a thumb-lever removes the lock that holds the cylinder into place. If it swings out, you need to press an ejector rod to take out spent cartridges out; if it's a break-top, the ejector operates by itself. However, that's again model specific. Now think about something that reloads one chamber at a time and a clumsy, lateral loading port is all you have!