Speedloader for revolver - a device that is 142 years old!
Cartridge revolver "Remington" "New Model" .46 caliber. One of the first revolvers with a quick-detachable drum and a discharge system due to a movable pin. Photo littlegun.info
"Headless horseman". Mine Reid, 1865
Weapon stories. This article was supposed to appear by order of one of the readers last year. But... it didn't show up. It was necessary to revise a lot of pictures, a lot of patents and bring it all into one material. But now, finally, the work has been completed and the material about revolver loading accelerators is in front of you.
Well, the story about them should begin with an appeal to the technical features of a revolver as a weapon. Moreover, it is important that the revolver has a very annoying drawback that affects almost everyone who uses it in the field: after you shoot the drum, it must be loaded again. And if with the same rifle this is not a big problem: he inserted a clip, pulled the bolt and shoot yourself further, then everything was different with a revolver. Six chambers - insert a cartridge six times or fill in gunpowder, drive the bullet tightly, cover it with gun fat, put a primer on the brand tube. This is if you have a primer revolver. That is why, already on the first Colt revolver, the drum was removed, and by removing one, empty, it was possible to insert another, loaded. Colt himself later refused this, but this system did not take root on Remington revolvers.
Pusher pin on a Remington New Model revolver. The retention of the lever for tight driving of the bullet allowed the use of interchangeable drums. Photo littlegun.info
It was improved by W. H. Elliot of the Remington Design Bureau. On December 17, 1861, he was granted patent No. 33 for design improvements that made it possible to remove the rotating axis of the drum without lowering the loading arm to drive the bullet tightly. Before that, in order to remove this axle (for example, on the 932 model), it had to be lowered down, which was not very convenient. The model became known as the Remington M1858 percussion revolver. True, the field experience of their operation showed that the axis of the drum sometimes moved forward due to recoil forces, which led to jamming of the revolver.
"New model" - "Abadie's door". Photo littlegun.info
Cartridge systems seemed to be faster, for example, the same Smith and Wesson, which entered service with the Russian army. However, he only quickly discharged. It was still necessary to load it by inserting cartridges into the chambers one at a time! Well, you can’t even remember about our famous “Nagant” at all, but for the sake of order, you have to: seven times it was necessary to knock out the shells from the drum, then insert the cartridges seven times. All this turned this revolver into almost a disposable weapon.
True, revolvers, fortunately for their owners, did not have to be fired so often, and those who fired often carried two revolvers with them. Still, it wasn't a very good way out. It was necessary to figure out not only how to quickly unload a revolver, but also how to quickly load it.
And there was a man who came up with exactly this, and exactly 142 years ago, in 1879. His name was William H. Bell, and he came up with a device that was a simple metal disk with a rotating locking mechanism that could hold six revolver cartridges. It was intended for use on the Smith and Wesson turning point revolver. It was installed on a drum and at the same time all six finished cartridges were loaded into it. It is not known for certain if Bell's device was ever produced, but it is certainly the first of its kind. In any case, earlier patents for something similar are unknown.
In 1894, a certain Mr. William de Courcy Prideaux, a subject of Queen Victoria, patented a device that he called the "cartridge holder". It was a round disk, in which 12 metal springy "fingers" of six pairs stuck out. Each pair contained one cartridge in .455 caliber for the British Webley revolver. An improved design from later 1916 added a handle to the back of the plate.
Prideaux's device became popular with army officers and discerning marksmen. That's when he got the nickname "speedloader" ...
Webley revolver owners in the UK have now been able to reload their revolvers very quickly in any stressful situation (even in total darkness). Speedloaders began to be used in the Boer War, and then in the First World War. In October 1918, the Prideaux speedloader was officially adopted by the British Army, although none were purchased before the end of the war - all surviving military examples are dated 1919.
"Cartridge holder" Prideaux to the revolver "Webley". Photo forgottenweapons.com
Some designers decided to create multi-shot magazines for reloading revolvers. But they were very bulky and uncomfortable.
A device similar to the Prideaux speedloader began to be produced by Major Arthur in the same 1919, but with the advent of self-loading pistols, revolving accelerators fell out of fashion for some time. But not quite!
The original accelerator was invented by Garau W. Silva in 1924. With his device, he resembled garden shears!
Despite the near-universal interest in semi-automatic pistols by militaries around the world, American law enforcement officials continued to use revolvers. For most of the 20th century, it was revolvers that were issued to American police, and with them, accelerators began to be used again. So, in the middle of the century, the speedloader again experienced a rebirth. For example, Pachmair of Los Angeles developed a rubber-plastic speedloader designed by J. M. Hunt.
In 1965, Matic began to produce them, but they did not have much success.
The reason is that it was not easy to use them, as they were demanding on the technique of application. If the user retracted the Matic accelerator at the wrong angle to the frame of the revolver, he risked pulling the cartridges out of the chambers. That is, they had to be correctly inserted and remembered exactly how this should be done. Photo revolverguy.com
A simple, as you can see, but not very convenient design was at the Matic company. Photo revolverguy.com
In November 1973, William T. Griffis received a patent for his unique accelerator design, with a plastic body and a ring on the outside that slid up and down its entire length. The ring engaged the rims of the cartridges, and when pushed forward, it pushed the cartridges out of the accelerator and into the drum. He called his accelerator "Second Six"
The advantage of this system is that its operation did not depend on the orientation of the revolver. It could be loaded even when it was facing up or lying on its side, which made it popular with police officers who realized that they might have to load from an awkward position or with one hand, unable to point it down. Griffis allowed the sale of his speedloader only to the police. It was used by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and a number of other law enforcement agencies.
In 1968, Dade Machine Screw Products produced an all-plastic-framed revolver speedloader that could hold six cartridges for various framed S&W revolvers and Colt revolvers. To make them cheap, light, easy to make and reliable, Dade made the body of the speedloader out of plastic. The spring held the cartridges in their sockets and prevented them from falling out. After aligning with the open and empty drum of the revolver, it was necessary to press the central button, after which all the cartridges were simultaneously dropped into the chamber. In practice, this meant that an average shooter, after a little training, could reload his revolver in less than four seconds, while manually reloading each individual chamber took several times longer.
Dade boosters were hailed as the best invention of their time, and like the earlier speedloaders, many policemen around the country began to buy them at their own expense. Fictional San Francisco Police Inspector Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry films had Dade speedloaders for his .44 Magnum revolver, which no doubt helped their publicity. By the end of the 1970s, there were plenty of different types of speedloaders, and police departments began to buy them for their officers and train them in their use. This led two other companies, HKS and Safariland, to produce their own improved versions of the plastic cased speedloader.
Safariland's Hunt speedloader gained great popularity from the very beginning, and soon it was recognized by law enforcement agencies. He perfectly kept the sleeves in case of an accidental fall of the accelerator to the ground. Photo revolverguy.com
For those who are looking for something different, many small firms make special customized presentation grade speedloaders to order. One of the most famous companies is Five Star Firearms, which makes them from high quality aluminum alloy with stainless steel internals. That is, everything for those who like to show their coolness and viability!
Pachmair, a subsidiary of Lyman Products Holding, which produces tools and accessories for weapons, also makes speedloaders from a single milled piece of aluminum. The case has a polygonal shape for reduced bulk and wide compatibility with Smith & Wesson revolvers with different frames, as well as with the Ruger revolver model. Inside the design there is an O-ring that prevents the movement of cartridges. Release from fixation occurs in just one movement due to the rotation of the knurled drum.
So once again this example shows that the good is so good and remains, no matter how much time passes ... There are also special loading accelerators for machine gun magazines and for stuffing machine-gun belts. But this is completely different story...
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