The end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century was indeed a very interesting time: progress not only did not stand still, but ran forward with leaps and bounds. New technologies, scientific discoveries, the search for more advanced materials - all this could not but affect firearms, which in just a couple of decades received such an impetus for development that even now many weapon models developed a hundred years ago are relevant.
How they tried to cross a revolver and a pistol
It was during this period of time that revolvers began to give way to self-loading pistols. At first, reluctantly, clinging to the armament of armies and police of different countries, to people's distrust of everything new, but nevertheless, revolvers had to not just make room, but finally surrender their positions, since the advantages of self-loading pistols were confirmed many times in practice, and even the most staunch skeptics surrendered.
In the process of replacing revolvers with pistols, controversy repeatedly flared up about which weapon is better. Even now, many are ready to defend their love for revolvers, although there are very few really weighty arguments left. Reliability and reliability have always been considered the main advantage of revolvers, and it is difficult to argue with this. Relatively slow moving mechanisms with minimal dramatically increasing loads will always be more reliable. But in the context of firearms, the reliability of revolvers was understood somewhat differently. The main advantage of revolvers is their readiness to fire immediately after a misfire, while with a pistol in this situation, you will have to do a number of manipulations to remove a failed cartridge. Nevertheless, as time went on, the quality and reliability of ammunition changed, and mostly for the better. Such a phenomenon as a misfire has become so rare that for many manufacturers such a phenomenon is considered almost a shame, unfortunately, not for all manufacturers, but for the majority it is.
The second argument in such disputes is the simplicity of the design, which is also difficult to disagree with, however, modern machine tools greatly simplify and reduce the cost of the production process, so this argument has certainly lost its relevance.
The third argument in favor of revolvers is their safety and constant readiness for use. And vice versa - modern pistols are not inferior to revolvers by this criterion.
Among the advantages of pistols then and now are a greater volume of loaded ammunition, a faster reloading, a weaker trigger force after the first shot, if only a double-acting trigger is not used, less weight, a better balance … In general, there is a lot of pluses, which made it possible to press revolvers.
It is not surprising that in the process of distributing pistols, many designers tried to combine the positive qualities of revolvers with the advantages of pistols. By the way, no one succeeded to the end. But a new class of weapons has appeared - automatic revolvers.
For most people who are fond of firearms, the expression "automatic revolver" is associated with the very original Mateba revolvers. These revolvers are really interesting both in design and in appearance, perhaps to some extent they are not practical, but the charisma of this weapon covers all its shortcomings.
For those who are fond of firearms in more detail, the Mateba automatic revolvers are not new, since the Webley-Fosbery Self-Cocking Automatic Revolver was created long before them. This weapon turned out to be very interesting, as far as possible, combining both the advantages of a revolver and the positive qualities of a pistol, but for a number of reasons it did not find success.
There was also an earlier sample, which few know about, namely the Landstad automatic revolver, and we will try to get acquainted with it in more detail.
The appearance of the automatic revolver Landstad
Frankly speaking, it is very difficult to call the automatic revolver of the Norwegian designer a revolver. Yes, it has a drum, yes, it rotates, but it still gives the impression that this is not a revolver, but not a pistol either. But first things first.
The appearance of the weapon for its time is quite common: a massive frame and a thin curved handle, the only thing that does not fit into the overall picture is a flat drum and too massive heap of parts where the bolt of the weapon should have been.
Behind the flat drum with two chambers there is a shutter and two platforms for a more comfortable grip for operations with it. Directly in front of the platforms for holding the shutter of the weapon there is a link connecting the trigger and the barrel of the weapon. At the bottom of the handle of the revolver on the left side there is a cutout in the wooden plate, in which the button is located. With its help, the handle opens to install a magazine in it. It is strange that the designer, creating a new weapon, did not foresee the possibility of replacing the magazine in a way more familiar to a modern person - from the bottom of the handle. To give preference to the shape of the revolver handle for the sake of convenience and speed of reloading and at the same time to use a completely modern magazine is a very controversial decision. And yes, do not think, the author of the article has not lost his mind and is absolutely sober, this weapon really has both a drum and a magazine, but about the design in more detail a little below.
Sights are unregulated rear sight and front sight, the weapon does not have safety devices, although their presence in this case would not be superfluous.
The design of the automatic revolver Landstad
Before dwelling on the description of individual units of the weapon, you need to give at least a superficial explanation of how it all works, because without it horses, people and drums with magazines will mix into a heap.
In order to fire a shot, the weapon had to be loaded first. To do this, on the left side of the weapon, an overlay on the handle with a part of the frame was opened, a magazine with a capacity of 6 rounds was placed on this overlay, after which the overlay along with the magazine was installed in its place. Opposite the first cartridge from the store was the lower chamber of the drum. When the shooter pulled back and released the bolt, the cartridge was fed into the lower chamber, and the drummer was cocked. When the trigger was pressed, by means of a long rod located on the left side of the weapon outside the frame, the drum was rotated 180 degrees, thus the lower chamber of the drum moved up and took place opposite the axis of the barrel of the weapon. After turning the drum, the movement of the trigger led to the breakdown of the drummer and a shot occurred. Then the automation system came into play, which is now known to us as a free shutter automation. Powder gases pushed through the bottom of the sleeve the shutter of the weapon, which, when moving backwards, threw out the spent cartridge case, and when moving forward, inserted a new cartridge into the lower chamber of the drum. Thus, each pull of the trigger turned the drum 180 degrees without compressing the mainspring, which made the trigger quite easy, albeit long.
The trigger mechanism of the weapon, as is clear from the description of the work, is a striker, single action. In principle, another trigger is not needed here, since if the shot did not happen for some reason, you still have to pull back the bolt and release it, since without this the lower chamber of the drum will be empty, and, therefore, a new cartridge will not be served.
Based on the design of the trigger mechanism, we can conclude that the force of pressing the trigger will be small, which means that there is a possibility of a shot if accidentally pressed. But it should be noted that this is partially offset by the length of the trigger stroke, as well as the presence of free space for turning the flat magazine. In case of falls and accidental stripping of the striker, the revolver will be completely safe, since the drum chamber in front of the barrel is always empty without fully pressing the trigger.
Pros and cons of the Landstad revolver
I did not think that I would ever come across a weapon, over the positive qualities of which you would have to rack your brains, but it seems that Landstad's revolver is exactly the same weapon. Among the advantages can be noted an easy descent, but revolvers and pistols with a cocked trigger also possessed and do possess it, while the preliminary platoon allows you to use only one hand. The relative safety of the weapon during falls and at the same time its constant combat readiness seems to be positive qualities, but the implementation of this is very specific. In general, it is not clear for what purpose this garden was fenced, since there are simply no obvious advantages of the structure, but the disadvantages are above the roof.
The main design flaw is its complexity. It seems that there are not so many parts in the revolver, but they are all quite complicated to manufacture and require a large amount of metal. The magazine capacity of 6 rounds 7, 5x23R also does not provide advantages, since the revolvers have the same ammunition. The speed of changing the magazine is quite comparable to the speed of reloading a revolver, provided that you have to equip the magazine, separate the pistol grip, disconnect the empty magazine, insert a new one in its place, close the handle, and at a separate moment there will be three objects in your hands at once. Even reloading the Nagant M1895 one cartridge at a time, with proper skill, can be faster.
The presence of an open pull from the trigger to the drum is also not the best solution in this design. The location of this thrust makes the weapon very uncomfortable for a left-handed person or if the right hand is injured.
Conclusion
Of course, the design of the Landstad automatic revolver is very interesting, but it has no obvious advantages over pistols or revolvers. It is for this reason that this revolver did not enter service with the army and was produced only in a small batch. Unrecognized then, this revolver costs a lot of money now, as a rare and unique weapon. At the moment, the location of only one copy of this weapon is known, although more than 20 were produced for army tests of revolvers. It is possible that only one revolver of this design remained, which makes it literally invaluable, since the thing is one of a kind.
It is completely incomprehensible how the idea of creating this, albeit interesting, but very strange weapon was justified. However, using the example of this automatic revolver, one can see that there were and are designers in Norway, the mechanism is rather complicated, original, though irrelevant. However, this is not the first and not the last time when trying to reinvent the bicycle, the designer does everything the same as his colleagues, only with front wheel drive or rear steering. It seems to be interesting and unique, but there is absolutely no sense in this.
Usually, it is customary to write about unusual models of hand-held firearms that they were either ahead of or late with the time of appearance, in this case we can talk not about time, but about the civilization in which this device appeared. Perhaps somewhere, where neither revolvers nor self-loading pistols are known, such a weapon would have made a splash, but not with us.
