page_title: Pistol
section_title: Revolver
hierarchical_section_title: Pistol / Action / Revolver
caption_attribution_description: English: Colt SAA loading gate Deutsch: Colt SAA Ladeklappe, Ausstosser in hinterer Stellung
context_page_description: A pistol is a common term to describe a handgun. The words pistol and handgun can both be used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in ca. 1570 — when early handguns were produced in Europe and is derived from the Middle French pistolet, meaning a small gun/knife. In colloquial usage, the word "pistol" is often used to describe any types of handgun, inclusive of revolvers and the pocket-sized derringers.
  The most common type of pistol in contemporary usage is the semi-automatic pistol, while the older single-shot and manual repeating pistols are now rarely seen and used primarily for nostalgic hunting, and the fully automatic machine pistols are uncommon in civilian usage due to strict laws and regulations governing their manufacture and sale.
context_section_description: With the development of the revolver, short for revolving pistol, in the 19th century, gunsmiths had finally achieved the goal of a practical capability for delivering multiple loads to one handgun barrel in quick succession. Revolvers feed ammunition via the rotation of a cartridge-filled cylinder, in which each cartridge is contained in its own ignition chamber, and is sequentially brought into alignment with the weapon's barrel by an indexing mechanism linked to the weapon's trigger (double-action) or its hammer (single-action). These nominally cylindrical chambers, usually numbering between five and eight depending on the size of the revolver and the size of the cartridge being fired, are bored through the cylinder so that their axes are parallel to the cylinder's axis of rotation; thus, as the cylinder rotates, the chambers revolve about the cylinder's axis.
caption: Colt Model 1873 Single-Action "New Model Army Metallic Cartridge Revolving Pistol"
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