Strange Revolvers

This post is similar to my post regarding Exotic Guns, this one is focused just on revolvers......Strange Revolvers.....

Bill Ruger once said that his designs were limited by what the public EXPECTED a revolver to look like. Here are some guns that don't necessarily look like what we expect, perhaps that is why some of these are not on the shelves at a gun store near you.....

Many early revolvers were of the "Pepperbox" type which had a barrel for each chamber.

Another odd looking early revolver, the grip looks like that of a Mauser Broomhandle......This 10-shot pin-fire revolver was made in England

 Here is a Belgium made 12 shot pin-fire revolver
The Pettingill Army Revolver is a percussion gun

The Jacob Shaw under-hammer percussion revolver

Not sure if this qualifies as a revolver, but it fires from a circular chambering device. The Cochran Rotating Turret Revolver's bottom mounted hammer strikes the percussion caps when they line up with the barrel

No barrel? I wonder what the accuracy was like. Maybe this was designed to be fired as you punched your target?

Knuckleduster, Knife or Revolver? This was the late 1800's, people were trying to invent the next big thing. This kind of innovation and forward thinking is what the "Steampunk" movement is based upon.

This one is actually called a Knuckleduster:

How about a revolver so small it fits on a ring around your finger?

This revolver with super long cylinder is a tranquilizer gun built by Webley

 Built by Thomas K. Austin, this .25 caliber percussion revolver was called a "pocket revolver". I think they are a bit liberal in the use of the word "pocket" or perhaps pockets were bigger in the 1800's?

 Its a knife, no its a gun, no its a.....Knifegun? Gunknife? Either way this thing looks bad-ass, I wonder what a stainless S&W 686 Gun-Kinfe would look like...

Another try at the knife/revolver concept:

The LeMat Revolver was introduced shortly before the Civil War in .35 & .41 calibers. They later adjusted to the more popular American calibers of .36 and .44. (Colt's two early calibers).
The LeMat was unique in that the cylinder had nine chambers with an additional 20 gauge shotgun (smooth-bore) barrel mounted underneath the regular one. When fully loaded it weighed a hefty 10 pounds. I like the grip & lanyard ring....very elegant.

This contraption was known as the "Pistola con Caricato", which is Italian for Loaded or Charged Pistol. The 3 barreled, 18 shot revolver was made in Italy in the early 1900s, it was chambered in 6.35MM (25 ACP)

Here is one way to get high capacity with a percussion revolver, I'm sure Diane Frankenstein would not approve....

 Between 1905 and 1920 you could score yourself a new  Zulaica Automatic Revolver, made by the Spanish gun maker M. Zulaica y Cia (M. Zulaica & Co.)
It used the recoil to rotate and cock the hammer, so I guess this is a semi-auto single action revolver-pistol? 

Another semi-auto revolver was the British Webley-Fosbery. It also used recoil to rotate the cylinder and cock the hammer. The gun was designed around the turn of the century by British Lieutenant Colonel George Vincent Fosbery and produced from 1901 to 1915 by Webley & Scott. The caliber was the British .455 Webley.

The 1895 Nagant is strange in that it is a "triple action". By pulling the trigger you cock the hammer, move the cylinder forward (to seal the gap between the cylinder and barrel) and release the hammer. It is definitely one of a kind

This is the Smith & Wesson "Quiet Purpose Revolver".....I think the name says it all

The Metaba MTR-8
The 8 stood for 8 rounds, which is what the standard .357 magnum model's cylinder held. It was also available in .32 S&W (MTR-12) with a 12 round capacity and in .22 LR (MTR-14) with 14 round capacity.
These guns are pretty rare, they were produced for a short time by Macchine Termo Balistiche (which is where the name MaTeBa comes from) in Italy. they were designed Emilio Ghison.


They appear to be very well made and sport a handsome high polish blued finish.

This Mateba Autorevolver called the Unica 6 (unit or model 6) was built from 1997 to 2005 by Macchine Termo Balistiche in Italy. Also designed by Emilio Ghison they were chambered in both .357 & .44 Magnum calibers.
They featured an open top strap and a low slung barrel that fired from the bottom chamber.

Another revolver that fired from the bottom chamber is the Russian built AEK-906. Chambered in 9x18mm (Makerov) and 9x19mm Parabellum.

The Medusa Revolver could fire any straight walled cartridge that had a bullet between .355 and .358", the list includes: .38 Short Colt, .38 Long Colt, .38 S&W, .38 Special, .357 Magnum, .380 ACP, .38 Auto, .38 Super, 9mm Luger, 9mm Makarov, 9mm Largo, 9mm Browning Long.....From what I have read, these are pretty rare.

Designed by Karel Michalek from Czechoslovakia, the Cameleon (sic) Epoxy revolver was made of a polymer and chambered in .44 Magnum. Unfortunately no production models were ever produced.
I don't know why, but I like it......

The Chiappa Rhino is well known these days and has gathered quite the following, like the Meteba, it fires from the bottom chamber, has a six-sided cylinder and is made in Italy.

How about a gun with a see-thru panel? Taurus came up with this novel idea. They call it the "View".
I'm not sure why they made this, maybe they ran out of good ideas in Brazil?

This strange looking beast is from Russia, that should be all you need to know.....but if you care.
The U-94 UDAR revolver was designed in 1994 for the Russian Police. It is a Single/Double Action with a shrouded hammer and fires a .41 caliber projectile of tear gas or rubber bullets, but it also has a lethal hollow point round for when the party really gets out of hand.
It is a design update from the earlier R-92 (designed in 1992) that fired the 9x18 Makarov cartridge.

The Cobray Pocket Pal was a semi-auto revolver that featured two barrels and two interchangeable cylinders allowing the user to choose between firing a .380 ACP cartridge out of the top barrel or .22LR out of the bottom barrel

This next one is of the most powerful handguns ever made, the Pfeifer Zeliska revolver fires the unbelievably powerful .600 Nitro Express (a round designed for big game rifles in Africa).
This beast weighs in at over 13 lbs. It needs every bit of that weight to tame the monstrous recoil generated by the cartridge. The standard .600 Nitro Express cartridge (.900 grain bullet) can produce 7,591 ft-lbs of muzzle energy, by way of comparison, the standard .44 magnum round (240gr JHP) generates a little over 1200 ft-lbs of energy.....this thing has more power in one shot than all six from a .44 Magnum revolver combined!

  Here are a couple of custom revolvers using some new and old school technology. The guns feature a Ruger Alaskan Frame with a Match grade ported barrel, the trigger guard takes a cue from the Beretta 92 Pistol, giving the shooter a place to mount their second index finger. The hammer is concealed and features a switch to fire the 454 Magnum cartridges in the 6 round cylinder or the single shot 37mm grenade launcher mounted under its barrel. They finish the gun with grips made from Ivory or Coco Bolo with Silver inlays/trim and a lanyard attachment.

The guns above do not really exist, someone created them using a computer graphics program, they look pretty cool though....

 Another fictional revolver is known to sci-fi fans as the "Good Samaritan". Owned by Comic book hero Hellboy, this 4-shot, break open revolver is said to be forged from a combination of Irish church bells, cold iron from crucifixes, blessed silver, and other mystic metals.

Now the gun below does exist. Taurus created a new model of the Raging Judge (the XXVIII) chambered in 28 gauge! The 5-shot revolver comes with a .55" diameter 6" rifled barrel.

They debuted it at the 2011 SHOT show, there were rumors that it was killed by the BATFE when they discovered what Taurus was up to.
Either due to it's bore diameter being larger than .50 cal or the fact that the only cartridge it shoots was designed solely for shotguns, making this a "Short Barreled Shotgun", qualifying for NFA status.

 Now we hear word that the gun has been approved by the BATFE and was supposed to be shipping in late 2012. As of today it has not been added to Taurus' website or catalog.

This is one of, if not the smallest revolver in the world. The Swiss MiniGun is only 2.17" long, it fires a 2.34mm rimfire cartridge.

We'll close out this post with something that has to be seen to be believed. This is undoubtedly the biggest revolver in the world. Ryszard Tobys built this scaled up version of the Remington 1858 New Model Army percussion revolver. This thing shoots a 28mm ball, that is a 1.10 Caliber....yes bigger than an inch..and using 28 grams (not grains) of Black Powder (that's more than 430 grains).
The gun weighs just under 100 lbs, is 4 feet 2" long and 1 foot 4" tall

References
Weapon.GE
Peashooter85
NRA Museum
Giz Mag
Historic Replica Guns
The Firearm Blog
Taurus
Wikipedia
Vince Lewis