Staying on the subject of attempts to bypass Colt's revolver patent, let's go for an entire class of weapons people barely remember, the chain rifle:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...1.jpg~original

Treeby Chain Rifle of 1855. Since the things on the belt are chambers rather than rounds, this is actually a belt-fed revolver. The big handle in front of the chambers was a screw thread for sealing the gap between the front of the chamber and the barrel, you had to turn it down to form a seal before the weapon would actually fire.

There were also handguns of this type.

1866 Josselyn 20-round chain revolver:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...h.jpg~original

And this thing. Nobody's that sure what it is, but it's in Tula's small arms museum labelled as a prototype from the 1920s.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...6.jpg~original

How did the inventor propose holstering such a pistol?

In Soviet Russia, pistol holsters you.

I guess you could wrap the chain around it and have a *really* flared-out top to the holster, otherwise you'd have to load it every time you drew it.

This is what happens when someone patents the obviously correct answer to a design question, I guess. Not sure what the excuse was for the 1920s one, though, and I think the Josselyn was after Colt's patent had already expired, probably just being different for the sake of not being the same.

Another bit of insanity from 1855 which wins any "how do you holster that?" contest, Joseph Enouy's 8-cylinder, 48-round "Ferris Wheel" percussion revolver:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...y.jpg~original

You can load that on Sunday and shoot all month.

You don't need a holster for it, you need a sling for that

That redefines "high capacity revolver". It rivals the highest capacity stick mags on the market today. Not to mention that thing has an AFG 150 years before Magpul even dreamt of it. What a glorious bit of technology.

And clearly it's not for holstering. You have to lug it around attached to an old timey leather single point sling affixed to the butt. It doubles as an anchor.

As for the belt fed pistol, you get a long enough belt to act as a bandolier and fire it as far as you can stretch it from your body as it hangs from it, hoping the chambers don't get caught or burn you as they come round. When men were men I say!

Should have counted myself rather than just going with what the site said, it has eight cylinders for 48 rounds. And since it's percussion, loading it must have been quite a project in itself.

And the emperor of weird high-cap 18something guns, the Guycot, is another chain rifle.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...1.jpg~original

Doesn't look like much? Look inside.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...5.jpg~original

These were built with capacities of up to 100 rounds (this one is 100, apparently) in a chain that filled the entire inside of the weapon including the stock, using very short ball rounds (similar to the Volcanic bullet, hence there being nothing resembling an extractor) which were inserted into cups in the chain through a hole in the top of the rifle.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...d.jpg~original

The whole nightmare had an inner and outer barrel and a very thin firing pin which struck through the base of the cup. Everything was operated by the trigger (including retracting the inner barrel to form a gas-tight seal) which I guess would make this the world's first crew-served rifle. Even better, in order to load it you had to use a firing pin disconnect since the only way to advance the chain was pulling the trigger. And since this was using a Rocket Ball / Volcanic type round, you'd be looking at a rifle with the ballistics of a pocket pistol. Strangely, it didn't catch on.

I can into thread necromancy, because boredom


Collector's has all kind of weird guns


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