Cylinder configurations

[washambala]

Is there any particular reason why almost all (maybe all) double action revolvers have cylinders that swing out to the side for loading and single action revolvers have a fixed cylinder and a loading gate? Why is it never the other way around (SA with a swing out cylinder)?

 

[LHRGunslinger]

Sounds like somebody forgot the top-break revolvers.

 

[washambala]

oops. I havent looked into those too much. Seems like more of a novelty at this point in history than anything else.

 

[CraigC]

Why do people insist on wanting single actions to be more like double actions??? That's the appeal, they're not double actions.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Mostly tradition

You have to remember that the SA revolver was based on the black powder revolvers that preceded it. Without a captive cylinder, you would not be able seat the balls into the cylinder with the ram mounted under the barrel. The reason the loading gate is on the right side of the recoil shield is because it is a left handed gun

 

[LHRGunslinger]

MP412 REX if you're looking for a truly wonderful top-break design that we're never gonna get our hands on. Unless someone goes about working on reversing the Clinton/Yeltsin trade agreement.

 

[CraigC]

The reason the loading gate is on the right side of the recoil shield is because it is a left handed gun

Nope. This gets repeated often, along with the theory that Sam Colt was left-handed but it does not withstand scrutiny.

The reason the loading gate is on the right side is because the capping cutout on the percussion guns was on the right side. This was to facilitate easier capping, done with the dominant and assumed-to-be more dextrous right hand. And so on the cartridge conversions of those guns (designed after Sam Colt's death), the loading gate was also placed on the right side to take advantage of the existing cutout, among other things. Colt's first big bore cartridge revolver was the 1871-1872 Open Top .44 rimfire model. Based largely on the 1860, it had a new, dedicated cartridge firing frame with the loading gate on the right side. It was submitted to the Army for its trials. The Army came back wanting a solid frame, 7½" barrel and .45 caliber. William Mason went back to the drawing board and the result was the 1873 Single Action Army only a few months later.

So, if the SAA was designed solely to fit the requirements of the Army, don't you think that if they had wanted the loading gate on the left side, they would've ordered it that way?

Personally, I'm right-handed and see absolutely no functionality issues with the location of the loading gate. I wouldn't own two dozen of them if I did.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Nope. This gets repeated often, along with the theory that Sam Colt was left-handed but it does not withstand scrutiny.

http://www.ctheritage.org/encyclopedia/topicalsurveys/colt.htm

Smoking Cuban cigars, Colt ruled his domain from a roll-top desk at the Armory, often writing his own letters in his left-handed scrawl.

American Handgunner, May-June, 2005 by John Taffin :

He always said Sam Colt was left-handed and built his single actions, beginning with the Paterson of 1836, for lefthanders. All of the percussion revolvers produced by Colt are most easily capped by switching the sixgun to the left hand and then capped with the right hand.

 

[rcmodel]

It might be worth noting that Sam Colt was long dead (1814-1862) before the 1873 Colt SAA was designed.

So whether he was left or right handed is totally immaterial.

I'm with CraigC on the reason the cap cut or loading gate is on the right side.
Holding the gun in your left hand while capping or loading shells with your more dexterous right hand works far better for right-handed folks then trying to do it with your weak & clumsy left hand.

rc

 

[9mmepiphany]

I don't disagree on the ease of loading by switching hands...I do it when loading a swing out cylinder with a speedloader too. But there are still people who feel that a DA revolver should be loaded with the left hand on the speedloader.

I'm addressing the OP as to why SA revolvers don't have swingout cylinders...tradition of the original design by Colt of percussion revolvers

 

[Vern Humphrey]

The reason the loading gate is on the right side of the recoil shield is because it is a left handed gun

The reason the loading gate is on the right is because the capping notch was on the right. The capping notch was on the right because capping a cap-and-ball revolver calls for some dexterity -- so you hold the gun in your left hand and cap with your right.

Similarly, a SAA is designed for the most dexterous hand to handle the trickiest part of loading -- inserting the cartridges into the chamber. The left hand holds the gun.

 

[CraigC]

An estimated 13% of the population is left-handed. Sam Colt was, along withbeing a brilliant firearms' designer, a smart business man. Do you really think that he would, after struggling through a failed attempt with the Paterson company, alienate potentially 87% of his customer base by catering his sixguns to the left handed?

And again, as I noted below, if the 1873 Single Action Army was made to order for the military, do you really think they would've ordered it differently if the loading gate was on what they perceived to be the wrong side?

Of course not, on both counts.

And so why is every other sixgun built the same way then? Remington's percussion and cartridge conversion sixguns had their capping notch and loading gates on the right side. Their cartridge conversions preceded the Colt by a couple years, due to their licensing of the Rollin White patent.

It's also worthy of note that no other firearm to come from Colt was designed for lefties. Their rifles all had their capping notches and loading ports on the right side, to facilitate loading and capping with the more dextrous right hand.

 

[rcmodel]

And you can trace it all the way back to the very first firearms, even before revolvers were invented.

Matchlocks, flintlocks, and percussion rifles & muskets all had the right hand doing the detail work of handling the match, or priming the pan, or capping the nipple.

Surely all firearms designed since they were invented were not designed for 13% of the population!

rc

 

[9mmepiphany]

But how does this address the OP's question of why the cylinder doesn't swing out like a DA revolver?

 

[rcmodel]

It doesn't.
You answered the OP's question in post #5 about ramming balls in C&B revolvers the SAA was based on.

We got off track a little bit when the wrong answers started flying about Mr. Colt being a lefty so revolvers are too.

rc

 

[9mmepiphany]

If we consider the question answered, I can close the thread, unless someone else has a theory as to why SA revolvers don't have cylinders that don't swing out