20 & 30 shot BP cartridge revolvers you won't believe.

[Bill Akins]

Thought y'all might like to see this. They are rarely seen but high capacity BP Victorian era revolvers predated high cap semi's by many decades.

Note, all these are dual barrels and each barrel would alternate firing between the outside edge of the cylinder and the inside of the cylinder. Top barrel fires, next round the bottom barrel fires, then the top again, etc.

Two 20 round BP cartridge revolvers below.

As you can see by the cuts on the chambers, this one is a pinfire cartridge.

Folding trigger 20 rounder.

A double action top break 20 rounder.

Dual firing pins for the outer of the cylinder and the inner of the cylinder.

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[Bill Akins]

20 and 30 round revolvers, continued from previous post....

20 round cylinder.

Showing action open on above 20 rd revolver.

30 round revolver front of cylinder.

Note twin barrels on 30 rd revolver.

Right side of 30 rounder.

Behind the loading gate of 30 rounder.

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[Bill Akins]

20 and 30 round revolvers continued from previous post....

30 round revolver dual barrels muzzle end and ejector view.

30 rounder cylinder front.

A different 30 rounder's loading gate view. Looks to be a pinfire or teatfire cartridge. Mighty thin cylinder walls.

30 round revolver's exposed external mechanism. (This is so cool)

Various CAD renditions of that exposed external mechanism 30 round revolver.

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[Bill Akins]

20 and 30 round revolvers, continued from previous post....

More CAD renditions of the exposed, external mechanism, 30 rounder.

Now for some colored in CAD renditions of the same exposed, external mechanism 30 round revolver. However, look closely and instead of the pinfire or teatfire on the real revolver, this CAD rendition shows centerfire cartridges for the revolver. Artistic license? Lol.

Imagine carrying this fat 30 rd cylinder in your holster.

Nicely done CAD colored rendition of the 30 rounder. Almost photo realistic.

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[Bill Akins]

20 and 30 round revolvers, continued from previous post.

With its exposed, external mechanism making it more susceptible to mud than a dirty jamomatic Luger, this 30 rd revolver wouldn't really have had any viable military application. Still though, one heck of a high capacity hogleg if you aren't in the dirt of trenches. I wouldn't mind having one....just because .

Heres more pics of that 20 rounder I showed you earlier.

20 rounder.

Cylinder face of 20 rounder.

They were the hi-caps of their day. The end.


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[Kadmos]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing.

Good thing they did a folding trigger on that first one..otherwise it might be a tad unwieldy.

 

[Bill Akins]

Kadmos wrote:
Great stuff, thanks for sharing.

My pleasure.

Kadmos wrote:
Good thing they did a folding trigger on that first one..otherwise it might be a tad unwieldy.

Lol, cracked me up with that one Kadmos.


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[sewerman]

thanx for another very interesting walk thru history.

s.m.

 

[Jim Watson]

So THAT'S what they use in western movies.

 

[Bill Akins]

Sewerman wrote:
thanx for another very interesting walk thru history.

My pleasure Sewerman.


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[Bill Akins]

Jim Watson wrote:
So THAT'S what they use in western movies.

Lol, yep. Like you said, that explains how they shot so many movie rounds without reloading. And all this time we thought they were using six shooters.


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[ironmace]

Imagine how long it took to load that? lol, Great stuff, thanks for posting it.

 

[Hawg]

Think they have one of those 20 shots in the museum at Kennesaw Ga. I saw one somewhere anyway.

 

[Raider2000]

You'd need a back pack to carry it because it looks to weigh a ton especially loaded.

 

[B. Lahey]

Has anyone here had an opportunity to fire one of the critters?

If so, did the pistol seem to be a functional and usable device, aside from the obvious large size and possible weird balance?

 

[Foto Joe]

It's a good thing they're cartridge guns...A chain fire would do more than ruin your day with one of those.

 

[Gatofeo]

There's an interesting chapter on these large-capacity revolvers in the book, "Firearms Curiosa" by Lewis Winant, copyright 1955.
It's a wonder one of these hasn't shown up in a recent movie, with whale-oil lamp projection sights and loaded alternately with incendiary, silver and explosive bullets!
Very nice revolver. Would be interesting to shoot. Wonder how far apart those superposed barrels print bullets at 25 yards?

 

[Ozzieman]

WOW!
One question, Have you ever fired one of them?

 

[railfancwb]

One of the thirty round revolvers looks as though the cylinder is rotated by some style of zig zag motion.