[BattleRifleG3]

Here I've gone talking about wanting to make a revolver rifle, learning a lot about revolvers as of late, and realized I missed an issue critical to the feasibility of the project.

I don't think I could justify developing a revolver rifle if the accuracy wasn't on a par with what people would normally expect from a levergun, since such a gun would probably be chambered in traditional levergun rounds, ie 30-30, 45-70, 444 Marlin, and such.

So what I'm hoping to know is what kind of accuracy typically comes from a revolver using the longest possible site radius or a scope of some sort, either red dot or magnified. If "pistol accuracy" is what revolvers are good for, I think my revolver longarm ambitions will be focused on shotguns, where a forcing cone comes with the territory and the shell would work in a Nagant style system.

[fred]

I have a hunch that the traditional reasons for not having revolver rifles lies in issues like not having a flat receiver (like a lever action) and not being able to handle powerful cartridges more than in accuracy alone. Well today most people who have rifles don't ride horses so flat receivers aren't the issue. Metallurgy and gun designs have made great strides so that today revolvers are offered with chamberings like .50 S&W, .460 Ruger, and .454 Casull, so powerful cartridges are not the problem. Heck, I even saw one gimmick "Paul Bunyan" revolver chambered for .30-06! The two technical problems that I see are (1) how you would attach a fore end to the gun so that it wouldn't put pressure on the barrel and throw accuracy off (akin to free floating a bolt action rifle barrel) assuming that you intended to get moa accuracy and (2) protecting a shooter's hand from the blast right around the end of the cylinder or else preventing that blast from happening. There were some revolver rifles made by a few old time smiths but they never caught on, especially after the success of the Henry rifle and the early Winchesters. It would be an interesting project, though!.

[damage855]

i thought i saw a revolver style blackpowder rifle in a cables catolog once. looked cool. i would think that with a long enough barrel and sight radius it would be simular to a lever gun. guess there is only one way to find out though.

[BattleRifleG3]

Protecting against cylinder flash is something I'm working on, and a free floating forend is easier than it may seem. I'm just looking for quantitative accuracy measurements at the moment, otherwise I'll focus my revolver longarm designs on shotguns.

[Dallas]

Sorry I can't help, it sounds like a neat project. When I practice with my .357 I shoot up close and personal. Just a wild guess but I'd be willing to bet that the accuracy isn't as good as a lever or bolt rifle. I base my guess on the observation that revolver rifles appeared briefly in the mid 1800's and then disappeared.

[aris_unlimited]

Dallas you are very correct about that. The revolver rifles actually weren't all that popular at the time period and people were more likely to use Dragoons (cap and ball revolver) for long range from horseback than anything else (the soldiers of that era in particular liked them till the lever action was born).