Revolver, pistol, and handgun

"What did DOD call handguns up until revolvers were removed from service?"

Well, the 1940 version of the Army field manual is titled Automatic Pistol...

My guess is that they picked up that nomenclature from Browning/Colt.

Later versions of the field manual called it the "Pew Pew Thingy"
 
I walked across the room and opened my copy of Charles W. Pate's book "U.S. Handguns of WWII: The Secondary Pistols and Revolvers". On page 21 he quotes a post WWII report by the Army Ordnance Department which I quote here:

The term "military hand guns" as used here, implies revolvers and pistols which have been standardized by Ordnance Committee action and for which ordnance drawings and gauges are available. The number of of hand gun models required for military use is small, if the standardized models are available in sufficient quantity.
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They go on to list them.

(a) US Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911A1
(b) Revolver, Caliber .38 Special, with 4" barrel. (This might be either the Colt "Commando" or the Smith and Wesson "Military and Police".)
(c) Pistol, Automatic, Caliber .22, Colt "Service Ace".
(d) Revolver, Caliber .38 Special, Colt "Detective Special".
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They go on to say that items (a) and (b) are combat weapons, (a) for general issue and (b) "for Air Corp personnel desiring a handgun of less bulk and using less bulky ammunition." (c) for training and (d) "...for Military Intelligence personnel or others desiring a weapon easily concealed, yet 'packing a punch'."

So make what you will of the U.S. Army's Ordnance Dept. at the close of WWII and their use of nomenclature.

tipoc
 
To me a pistol is a firearm that is designed to be able to fire with one hand with some sort of mechanical action to ignite a powder charge. A hand held wick, fuse, or stick does not count as a mechanical action. In my opinion the match lock would be the first pistol with anything before that being a canon.
 
"So there has been an evolution to this. The tendency has been to call semis 'pistols' so as to differentiate it from a revolver. That's just the case like it or not."

That's it. It's the same as "clip" and/or "magazine". You can sound informed or uninformed.

For instance, an AR is not a "machine gun" and there is no such thing as an "assault weapon".
 
As Tipoc said, I think the change in usage occurred around WWII. But that doesn't change the fact that a revolver (as in revolving cylinder or chamber) is a type of pistol.
 
and there is no such thing as an "assault weapon".
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Sadly, there actually is such a thing as an "assault weapon". The term was created in law in 1994, and refers to SEMIAUTOMATIC rifles, pistols, & shotguns with the features listed in the 1994 law.

Assault weapon is NOT a term created by the shooting community or gun makers, it was created by the anti-gun forces in the media and Congress.

Assault rifle IS a term used in the shooting community, and is a translation of "Sturmgewehr", the name given by Adolf Hitler to the MP 44 rifle.

Assault is used here in the military sense, as in assaulting (storming) an objective, NOT the common US legal sense of one person assaulting another.
 
As Tipoc said, I think the change in usage occurred around WWII. But that doesn't change the fact that a revolver (as in revolving cylinder or chamber) is a type of pistol.
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I just quoted a document from about 1946 from the U.S. Army. That book was handy. I looked further and documents from the U.S. military back to WWI (and maybe earlier) used "revolver" to refer to revolvers and "semi automatic pistols" to refer to pistols or semis. Sometimes they just used the term "pistols" to refer to semis.

Fact is the divergence in terms begins soon on the heels of the divergence in firearms design. Back around the late 1890s.

The Germans and Austrians called their semis "Self Loading pistols". That's "selbstladepistole" in German. Nice, all one word. But too much work in English.

They are all pistols. None of the terms are incorrect or wrong so long as we know what we're talking about. There was also no one date the transition began or ended. It's still underway. There is no agency that has the authority to make a change. The terms just evolved.

tipoc
 
tipoc said:
In Walter Ropers 1945 book "Pistol and Revolver Shooting" Roper makes the modern distinction of dividing handguns into three groups...single shot pistols, revolvers and semiauto pistols. He often refers to the latter as automatics for simplicity's sake.
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He doesn't refer to semi-autos as "automatics" for simplicity's sake. He does so because that's what they were called at that time in our history. The "automatic" part referred only to the loading, not to the entire firing cycle, but Colt ran numerous ads in the early part of the 20th century for "automatic" pistols in calibers from .25 ACP up through .45 ACP.

All handguns are pistols. Some are single shot, some are revolvers, some are semi-automatic, and a few are automatic.
 
I first saw the "pistol/revolver" argument in print around 1942, and that was in a magazine article from 1920-something. Any chance of ending it sometime in the next century or two? (Unless the gun control folks succeed in banning all mention of guns under penalty of death!)

Jim
 
All handguns are pistols. Some are single shot, some are revolvers, some are semi-automatic, and a few are automatic.
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This point has been made many times. It's correct. It goes hand in hand with calling semis "pistols" in order to distinguish them from other types of handguns. It is perfectly correct to do so.

And yes, when folks began to use terms other than "semi-automatic pistols" or "automatic pistol" or "self loading pistols", and began to use shorter variations of those terms like "automatics", or "semis" or simply "pistols" it was for simplicity sake. We still use many of these terms.

It's an example of dogmatism to insist, against all the evidence, that "they are all pistols" and that no other term is correct. It's perfectly correct and common for a person to walk into a gun store and ask to see a Sig P236 Pistol. Or for a fella to say "I like revolvers more than pistols".

Some folks will argue that Elmer Keith was wrong to call his classic work "Sixguns by Keith" because it was incorrect! Dogma tells us it should have been "The Revolving Pistol by Keith". Poor Elmer he even titles Chapter XI "Revolver vs. Auto Pistol"! What a Loser, the dogmatists imply!

tipoc
 
Yes, but do you know what "bore diameter" measures? A lot of Internet Experts don't.
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Bore diameter measures internet expertise. The smaller the number the larger the bore or the greater the expertise.
 
MP44 is a correct, early, designation for the gun. That's what it was called before the official designation was changed to Sturmgewehr 44, ostentatiously at Hitler's personal order.

The initial production test versions were officially known as the MP 43.

The earliest prototypes were known as Mkb 42s, the Mkb standing for Maschinenkarabiner.
 
Mike Irwin is correct about the MP44 designation for the Sturmgewere. They used this name for a Machine Pistol to help disguise the actual purpose of this new weapon while being developed.
 
I didn't know this was even an issue. In Spanish, a gunman is called a "pistolero", and "pistola" is used to refer to a handgun. So, for me, "pistol" has always meant a handgun, not any specific type of handgun.
 
You buy pistol ammunition for handguns. It doesn't matter if it is for a revolver or an auto-loader or a single shot. It is all referred to as PISTOL ammunition. Unless of course your pistol is chambered for a rifle cartridge then you buy rifle ammunition for your pistol.
 
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