Who created the Nagant revolver. The legendary revolver of the Nagant system is a weapon for centuries. The mechanism for removing spent cartridges of the revolver "Nagant"

In psychology, there is a test called "associative series" - this is when a person is told a word or shown a picture, and he must name the word that he associates with the presented object. For example, "hare" - "wolf", "rain" - "puddle". And what association does a person have with the word "revolver"? If the question was raised for a resident of the United States, the answer could be "Smith and Wesson", and from the inhabitants of the post-Soviet space one can hear only one answer - a revolver. The revolver is a legend of several generations. In all feature films about the First and Second World Wars, about bandits and law enforcement agencies, a revolver is used everywhere. All schoolboys, show them the legendary revolver, without hesitation, they will say that it is a revolver, and they will also ask you to shoot.

It all started with the requirements for the performance characteristics of a revolver

Historically, at the end of the nineteenth century, local gunsmiths did not produce concealed short-barreled weapons for the Russian army. At that time, the Smith and Wesson revolver was used, which performed well in the Russian-Turkish war, but its weight and technical performance left much to be desired. For a country that is constantly in armed clashes, protecting its borders from raids by enemy armies, a self-cocking weapon was needed for firing at short distances. Russian military commanders staged a grandiose tender of that time for all European gunsmith designers. The task was not easy, but it was thanks to this that it became the most massive in production in the world and overgrown with legends among connoisseurs of weapons. Among them were the following:

1. The revolver must stop the horse from 35 meters, or pierce half a dozen inch boards from the same distance.
2. The muzzle velocity of the bullet must be greater than 300 meters per second.
3. The mass of the revolver must not exceed a kilogram.
4. The caliber should be three lines - 7.62 mm according to the new standards.
5. The capacity of the drum should hold more than the standard six rounds at that time.
6. Smokeless powder was used, and brass should be used as the case material.

A huge number of requirements were put forward to the manufacturer, but all of them for the most part described the tactical and technical characteristics of an existing weapon that was used by the military of the Russian army.

The cunning and ingenuity of the Belgian gunsmiths immortalized their creation for centuries.

The Belgian gunsmiths Leon and Emile Nagant were already developing such a revolver at that time. However, the caliber of their revolver was 5.45 mm, and there were only six rounds in the drum. The brothers went to the trick - having made two dozen revolvers, they presented them to the Russian Tsar, all ministers and military commanders. The tender for the choice of a gunsmith ended before it even started. Even a few years later, the revolvers presented by European gunsmiths could not surpass the revolver of the revolver system.

To fulfill all the requirements of the customer, the designers had to create a new drum for seven rounds and increase the caliber of the bullet by using barrels from three-line rifles. Having fulfilled all the conditions of the contract, the Nagant brothers delivered twenty thousand revolvers to the Russian army within three years and ensured the production of the Nagant at the Tula Arms Plant.

Belgian gunsmiths also provided two versions of their creation. Slightly changing the device of the revolver, they made it so that the revolver could now be with a self-cocking mechanism, as well as with a manual cocking of the trigger. This change affected the price of the revolver. So, an ordinary soldier was supposed to cock the trigger with his finger during the battle, and the officers received a self-cocking weapon.

World famous for several years

Having studied the drawing for the Naganov pistol patent, any gunsmith could reproduce it without much effort. After all, the device of the revolver "revolver" is simpler than any similar competitor. A few years later, revolvers of the same name with a reduced bullet caliber began to appear in the United States, South America and Europe. However, the whole mechanism was very similar to the Tula revolver - revolver. Photos taken by reporters over a century confirm this fact:

1. A self-cocking trigger mechanism that retracts the hammer by pulling the trigger.
2. Monolithic, non-separable frame of the revolver.
3. The ramrod tube in the combat position is retracted inside the axis of the drum.
4. The barrel screwed into the frame on a blind landing.
5. The entire trigger mechanism is mounted in the frame and closed with a removable cover.
6. Uses smokeless powder.

On the other hand, it was thanks to the growing popularity of the revolver all over the world, and, accordingly, to mass production, that a large leather holster for a revolver appeared. Historical documents testify that in tsarist times there was no holster. However, if we talk about the production of a revolver in Serbia, then a holster for it appeared there, exactly the same as that used by the Red Army.

Favorite weapon of bandits and Red Army soldiers

If we turn to history, whether it be a textbook, a film or a documentary video, one can first of all pay attention to the lack of a large assortment of weapons among the warring parties. Machine gun "Maxim", Mosin rifle and the most popular weapon - revolver. The revolver is present in the fighters from both sides of the conflict. Any military man will confirm that the fewer types of weapons in the war, the more likely it is to find the necessary ammunition for their weapons in battle. To conduct a battle, you need the weapon itself, supplies for it and its fault tolerance. And given that the cleaning and disassembly of the revolver "revolver" was carried out in a very short time, this can explain why it pleased all the participants in the conflict.

Up until the start of World War II, the significant and only drawback of the revolver was the difficulty of pulling the trigger to fire a shot. The exponential ease of shooting simultaneously with two hands is false for that time. You can see a similar technique in the movie "The Elusive Avengers".

The best weapon for SMERSH

From the beginning of World War II until the Caribbean crisis of 1962, Soviet gunsmiths developed a huge number of pistols and revolvers, which they tried to promote in military circles. Having made one misfire during test firing at the firing range, the then unknown Tula Tokarev caliber 7.62 mm was stuck in the laboratories of the arms factory for a long time. However, having appeared towards the end of the twentieth century, the TT 7.62 mm pistol has become a favorite weapon of criminals, due to its low price, excellent fail-safety and huge lethal force.

The leading staff of the state, GRU intelligence officers, spies and the NKVD received at their disposal the best revolver in the world. The revolver pistol has undergone many improvements. Along with the usual gun in the museum, you can find a revolver with a silencer and a flame extinguisher for SMERSH and GRU employees. Until now, among the collectors of weapons, the revolver carbine is in demand, which was intended for the border troops and made it possible to fight at long distances.

Favorite weapon of the military in peacetime

After the end of the Second World War, all the weapons used by soldiers in battles and captured from the enemy were located in the military warehouses of many Soviet republics. The country was built and developed both spiritually and sports. It was thanks to the development of sports in the USSR that they remembered the Nagant revolver. Reviews of former combatants all as one insisted that for sports shooting there is no better pistol than a revolver. Given that in the thirties, the development of a revolver for a caliber of 5.6 mm (with less lethal force) was already underway and a limited number of it was released. The 5.6 mm caliber was not a novelty for Russian gunsmiths, as it was found in Smith and Wesson revolvers brought by Russian generals from abroad.

They didn’t invent anything new, they just changed the barrels and drums. This is how revolvers with a caliber of 5.6 mm appeared in sports shooting clubs. They were joined by three-rulers, converted to 5.6 mm caliber, received factory marking TOZ, popularly referred to as "small things". High shooting accuracy, very low recoil, easy maintenance and long effective range are the characteristics due to which the revolver (revolver) and small-caliber rifle can still be found in sports clubs and weapons of internal troops.

Change the flag to a revolver during the start

It is not known who came up with the idea to replace the wave of the flag at the start of the runners with a shot from a revolver, but a revolver was used as a revolver in all competitions. The development of the 30s for the caliber 5.6 mm came in handy here too. The cartridge was completely changed to a zhevelo, the power of which was enough to reproduce a loud shot. The system with the use of a zhevelo was converted for shooting, so there was also a signal revolver "revolver". Before the collapse of the USSR, it will completely disappear from the market, making people believe that the time of revolvers is in the past. But the revolver can easily compete for a place in a private collection.

If you look at it, for a whole century a huge number of modifications of the revolver have been released, which, having different performance characteristics, have found their application in different areas. However, the trigger mechanism incorporated into the revolver at the end of the nineteenth century has not changed at all.

Traumatic weapon as a step of the revolver to the masses

The magnificent weapon is not only overgrown with legends, but also gains fans who wish to legally acquire the famous weapon. That is how the "revolver" was created. The caliber of the rubber bullet was reduced to the 5.45 mm standard, since with a 7.62 mm caliber, the rubber bullet, with good aim, still allowed the horse to be stopped. Also, in order to reduce the lethal force, the barrel of the revolver was significantly shortened, and the revolver moved from rifled weapons to the niche of smoothbore pistols. Fans did not like this modification of the legendary weapon, but due to lack of analogues, they had to

The popularity of the revolver in traumatic performance is still very high. In addition, a traumatic pistol, like the original one, still shoots bullets due to powder gases, and for fans of military weapons, a revolver in this design is more valuable than a pistol that shoots. forget about legendary weapons.

Shoot - so shoot

The famous concern Izhmash, which is known throughout the world for the production of Kalashnikov assault rifles, since 1942 has been engaged in the production and modernization of the Nagant revolver. Indeed, during the Great Patriotic War, the Tula Arms Plant was evacuated to Izhevsk. And during the collapse of the USSR, thanks to the export of weapons to foreign countries, the plant increased its capacity.

From the end of the twentieth century to the present time, pneumatic weapons have become very popular. The pneumatic revolver "revolver" quickly found its customers and fans. Outwardly, it is very similar to the original of the late nineteenth century. But upon closer examination, you can see that a compressed gas cylinder is built into the handle. The walls of the barrel, unlike the original, are very thin, the same walls have a signal revolver "revolver" in one of the early modifications.

Don't forget about collectors

The demand for a revolver as close to the original as possible among collectors has never decreased. Now it’s impossible to say for sure why the signal revolver "MP-313 revolver" was launched to the masses without consulting well-known collectors. Having knocked down the serial number of the product by polishing, applying the marking of the Baikal factory with a laser over the native brand, the manufacturer deprived the revolver of historical value, discouraging the collector from acquiring a revolver. Seeing the market reaction to the new weapon, the concern changed the production technology. So there was a signal revolver "revolver R-2". Leaving the serial number and native markings, the plant placed the logo on the back of the revolver.

Having studied the negative feedback from customers about the bored barrel, the manufacturer refused to change the internal diameters of the barrel muzzle. The revolver was damaged to protect against firing with live ammunition in two ways - the drum was bored up to 10 mm, adding inserts for the chew, and the barrel was drilled through the frame on the right side and a large pin was inserted. A pin with a diameter of 8 mm is welded to the barrel and neatly ground along the edge.

But what about Flaubert?

The Flaubert cartridge with a caliber of 4 mm, which sets the acceleration of the bullet with the energy of powder gases, has not been evaluated in the post-Soviet space. At first, no one could believe that permits were not needed under Flaubert's cartridge, then the 4 mm caliber was ridiculed. But faced with the problems of increasing the muzzle velocity in air pistols, in which either the cylinder has a low pressure or the spring is not stiff enough, buyers turned their attention to the novelty. And the appearance of a revolver of the revolver system chambered for Flaubert contributed to an increase in demand for such a wonderful pistol in the arms market.

It was a combat pistol that did not allow to kill or injure a person, firing bullets due to the energy of powder gases and not requiring permission from the authorities. This is just a dream. A great purchase for both home gun collection and outdoor fun.

Nagant and modding

Considering the trend of the 21st century, it can be seen that modification of products, both visual and improving performance characteristics, is popular among weapon owners. First of all, the revolver handle is subjected to modernization. The material used is carved wood, textolite, organic glass with false drawings or non-ferrous metal. For good accuracy and accuracy of fire, the revolver can be equipped with a folding butt. This solution will allow you to shoot not on weight, but with an emphasis, like from a rifle, which is very convenient during shooting training.

To improve the performance characteristics, laser, optical or collimator sights are installed, this improves the accuracy of shooting. A silencer is mounted on the barrel, which serves as an excellent counterweight during firing, reducing recoil to zero. And although there are many variations on the theme of revolver modernization, nothing will overshadow the first example of the legendary revolver of the revolver system of the late nineteenth century.

Nagant has become a legendary weapon due to its reliability, accuracy and popular popularity. The revolver of the Nagant system of the 1895 model became a legendary weapon. Having passed the First World, Civil, Soviet-Finnish, Patriotic and Japanese wars, he continues to be in service as a service weapon.

The prototype of the famous Red Army revolver was created in the Belgian city of Liege in a small family workshop under the proud name "Emil and Leon Nagant Arms Factory" ("Fabrique d'armes Emile et Leon Nagant"). The factory was founded in 1859 by the Nagant brothers, who repaired Dutch revolvers and along the way developed their own models of firearms.

In 1878, the eldest of the brothers, Emile Nagant, presented to the Belgian military department a six-shot "1878 revolver" of 9 mm caliber, equipped with the so-called "double action mechanism". The hammer was cocked either automatically by pulling the trigger, or manually. This allowed the Belgians to be armed with two models of a revolver: senior officers used weapons with a “self-cocking”, and non-commissioned officers, infantry, cavalry and auxiliary personnel were forced to manually cock the trigger after each shot. The latter version was called the "9-mm revolver Nagant M1883".

A serious flaw in the design of revolvers at that time was the breakthrough of powder gases between the breech cut of the barrel and the front end of the drum. In 1892, Leon Nagant designed the later classic model of the Nagant revolver with a powder gas obturation system, the principle of which was developed by the Belgian designer Henry Pieper.

The Nagant revolver has received wide recognition in the armies of various countries. The Belgian model M1883, converted to the Swiss 7.5 mm cartridge, was adopted by the Luxembourg army. And the Swedish army not only bought Nagant revolvers of the 1886 model for a 7.5-mm cartridge, but also from 1897 began to produce them itself in the city of Huskvarna. Only in the period from 1898 to 1905. The Swedes produced 13,732 units of the Nagan M1887 revolver. The Serbs and Norwegians, in turn, also began to provide their army with the “model 1893” already modified by the Swedes. 12.5 thousand revolvers for Norway were produced in Liege, 350 units in Husqvarna and several units in the Norwegian Kongsberg. Even the Argentine Navy ordered Nagant revolvers for American caliber .440 from German factories.

The appearance of high-quality rapid-fire weapons did not go unnoticed in Russia either. Just at the end of the 19th century. there is a need for a massive rearmament of the Russian army. A competition was announced, the prize of which was a huge state order from the Russian Empire for the supply of weapons. Naturally, the most famous gunsmiths in the world hurried to take part in the competition. In accordance with the terms of the competition, Leon Nagan was again forced to remove the “self-cocking” and remake the weapon for the Russian 7.62-mm caliber. Nagant's main opponent was Henry Pipper with the M1889 "Bayar" revolver model. True, Nagan's life was facilitated by the fact that he had already received awards from the Russian military department - an award of 200 thousand rubles in gold based on the results of a rifle competition.

As a result, the Nagant revolver was recognized as the best. The gunsmith demanded for a patent for his revolver at that time a crazy amount - 75 thousand rubles. The Russian military did not pay, but appointed a second competition, while determining a premium of 20 thousand rubles for the design of the revolver, 5 thousand for the design of the cartridge, as well as Russia receiving all rights to the winning model, including production as at home, and abroad, without any additional payments to the inventor.

And again, the Nagant revolver turned out to be the best. At the request of the officers, the "double action mechanism" was returned. As a result, the Russian army, as well as the Belgian, received two versions of the Nagant revolver: an officer's double action and a soldier's non-self-cocking. The design of the revolver, already in the Russian version, was finally approved in the spring of 1895, and on May 13 of the same year, by decree of Nicholas II, the Nagant revolver was put into service.

True, under the terms of the contract, Russia was supposed to purchase 20,000 revolvers within three years, produced at the Leon Nagant and Co. factory in Luttihe (Liège, Belgium). But the Belgian side was obliged to provide tools and templates for launching the production of revolvers in Russia.

In 1897, Leon Nagant donated revolvers made by his own factory to the Tsar, Feldzeugmeister General Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich and the Minister of War, apparently hoping to receive additional orders for the supply of weapons from Belgium. However, in the same year, a decree was issued on the purchase of American and British machine tools for installation at the Imperial Tula Arms Plant, and by June 1901, 90,000 domestic-made revolvers had been produced. At the same time, if the purchase price of the Belgian revolver was 30-32 rubles, then the Tula "revolver" cost only 22 rubles 60 kopecks. The state order for the five-year plan from 1895 to 1904 amounted to 180 thousand weapons. In time, the manufacture of one such revolver took 30 machine-hours.

One of the first battle baptisms of the Russian version of the "revolver" occurred on June 3, 1900, when the Russian troops pacified the so-called "Boxer Rebellion" in China. The commander of the consolidated company of the 12th Siberian regiment, lieutenant Stankevich, shot two attacking Chinese soldiers.

In 1903, the production of revolvers dropped sharply. But when the Russo-Japanese War began, the Tula gunsmiths were ordered to produce 64,830 revolvers, but they managed to produce only 62,917 units. And according to the decision of the commission created after the war in 1908, revolvers began to be produced only on orders from specific military units.
Before the First World War, on the basis of the 1895 revolver, a carbine with a barrel length of 300 mm and an integral butt and a revolver with a barrel length of 200 mm and a removable butt were developed. At the same time, the production of revolvers did not stop either during the revolutionary years or during the Civil War. Nagant became the most famous revolutionary weapon, and in Russian the gunsmith's surname became a household name and any revolver was called a revolver. From 1918 to 1920 alone, 175,115 Nagant revolvers were produced.

In post-revolutionary Russia, the "officer" version of the revolver remained in service, with a double-action trigger mechanism (USM). The Nagant revolvers were recognized as obsolete only in 1930, after the TT pistol of 1930 was adopted. However, their production continued until the end of the Great Patriotic War, and even after that they still remained in service with private security (VOKhR), including the protection of railways.

In the 1920s, the Mitin brothers developed a revolver silencer - the so-called "Bramit device", which made it possible to successfully use the revolver during reconnaissance and sabotage operations of the Red Army during the war.

During the Great Patriotic War, the revolver was in service with the Red Army, the Polish Army, the 1st Czechoslovak Corps, the Romanian Infantry Division named after Tudor Vladimirescu, the Yugoslav Infantry Brigade, and the French Normandie-Niemen Fighter Aviation Regiment. In total, more than 2 million revolvers of the Nagant system were produced in Russia.

Characteristics

The performance characteristics of the revolver Nagant

The Belgian brothers Nagant (Nagant) began developing revolvers back in the 1880s, and by 1894 they had received patents for a revolver with obturation of powder gases. In 1895, the revolver of the Nagant brothers system was put into service in Tsarist Russia, and - in two versions - an ordinary revolver with a double-action trigger was provided for officers and police, and for the lower ranks the revolvers had a simplified single-action trigger. The first deliveries of revolvers to Russia were from Belgium, but since about 1898 the production of revolvers mod. 1895 (hereinafter, for brevity, I will simply call them Nagans) was established in Russia, in Tula. In Soviet Russia, they were officially in service and only revolvers with a double-action trigger were produced. Nagans were officially declared obsolete in Russia in 1930, with the adoption of the TT pistol mod. 1930, however, the production of Nagans continued until 1950, and revolvers mod. 1895 were widely used both in the war with Finland in 1940 and in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. In total, more than 2 million revolvers of the Nagant system were produced in Russia, and they can still be found in service with the VOKhR (Extra-Departmental Protection), including the guards of the Russian Railways, while the revolvers can be 2-3 times older than those who is wearing them now.

Based on the design of the revolver arr. In 1895, several sports revolvers were developed, both for the native 7.62 mm cartridge and for the 5.6 mm circular ignition cartridge.

Revolver Nagant arr. 1895 had a solid frame and an inseparable drum for 7 rounds of 7.62mm caliber. The trigger mechanism is double action, the long drummer is rigidly fixed on the trigger, the trigger is rebound. Loading and extraction are carried out one cartridge at a time through a hinged door on the right side of the frame, a special extractor rod is used for extraction, in the stowed position, partially hidden inside the hollow axis of the drum. The extractor is transferred to the working position by pulling it forward and turning it on a special rocking lever that rotates around the barrel.

From a technical point of view, Nagan became obsolete already 5 years after being put into service - the latest revolvers of such systems as the Smith & Wesson Hand Ejector or Colt New Service, which had drums folded to the side, were simpler and had a greater practical rate of fire. However, revolvers mod. 1895 also had certain interesting features, the main of which was the obturation mechanism between the drum and the barrel. In conventional revolvers, when fired, part of the powder gases breaks into the gap between the drum and the barrel when fired, but this problem was successfully solved in Nagant. When cocking the trigger, a special lever moved the drum slightly forward, while the tail of the barrel entered the recess in the drum. In addition, a special cartridge of 7.62mm caliber had an elongated sleeve that completely concealed the bullet inside. The sleeve muzzle was narrowed, and when moving the drum forward, it entered the breech breech, providing additional obturation. This design significantly complicates the design of the revolver and provides real advantages over traditional systems only if it became necessary to use a revolver with a silencer. Special silencers developed in the 1920s in Russia by the Mitin brothers (“Bramit device”) were successfully used by reconnaissance and sabotage and other units of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War.

In general, the revolver mod. The 1895 was overly complex, slow to load, and had a mediocre ammunition with little stopping power, but on the other hand, it was very reliable, had good shooting accuracy and was popular with users.

Revolver Abadi


Revolver "Nagan" Russian production arr. 1895



Revolvers "Nagant" of Russian production arr. 1910



Revolver "Nagan", released in the USSR after the modernization of 1930



A shortened revolver "Nagan", manufactured for the command staff of the Red Army.

Design of parts and mechanisms

The revolver consists of the following parts and mechanisms: a barrel, a frame with a handle, a drum with an axle, a double-acting trigger, a mechanism for feeding cartridges and fixing the drum, a mechanism for removing spent cartridges, sights, a fuse.

The device of the revolver "Nagant" (soldier's sample): 1 - barrel; 2 - frame; 3 - ramrod tube; 4 - ramrod; 5 - trigger guard; 6 - drum; 7 - movable tube; 8 - tube spring; 9 - axis of the drum; 10 - breech; 11 - slider; 12 - trigger; 13 - trigger; 14 - connecting rod; 15 - dog; 16 — mainspring; 17 - striker

The barrel inside has a channel with four rifling and a widening in the breech for the muzzle of the sleeve. Outside, the barrel has a threaded stub for connecting to the frame and a limiter belt for a ramrod tube (the belt has a cutout for the end of the tube tide and a line for installing a ramrod tube).


Trunk

Frame with handle

Frame consists of four walls and is integral with the handle.

The front wall has a threaded channel for the barrel, a smooth channel for the drum axle and a cutout for the drum axle head.

The top wall has a groove for easy aiming.

The bottom wall has a recess for the passage of the belt of the drum, a semicircular cutout for the trigger guard, a threaded hole for the trigger guard screw, the axis of the trigger.

On the rear wall there is an aiming slot, a rear sight, a chute for facilitating insertion of cartridges into the drum, a rack of the drum door with a hole for a screw, a chute for a door spring with a hole for a screw, a drum shield that holds cartridges, a hole for the thin end of the drum axis, a window and a nest for the head of the breech, slot for the nose of the dog, slots for the slider, the axis of the breech.

The handle has an axis for the trigger, an axis for the tail of the trigger guard, a hole for the connecting screw with a side cover, a hole for the nipple of the mainspring.

Frame with a screwed-in barrel: 1 - barrel; 2 - groove; 3 - recess for the belt of the drum; 4 - notch for the front end of the trigger guard; 5 - threaded hole for the trigger guard screw; 6 - axis of the trigger; 7 - the axis of the trigger; 8 - aiming slot; 9 - scutellum; 10 - slot for the nose of the dog; 11 - vertical groove; 12 - hole for the connecting screw; 13 - threaded socket; 14 - a smooth hole for the nipple of the mainspring; 15 - back of the head; 16 - ring; 17 - trigger guard axis

Side cover The frame has two sockets for the axes of the trigger and the trigger, a recess for moving the pawl and a tube for the connecting screw.

The frame with the barrel, side cover and trigger guard make up the body of the revolver.

Side cover: 1 - socket for the trigger axis; 2 - socket for the end of the trigger axis; 3 - recess; 4 - tube with a channel for the connecting screw; 5 - wooden cheek

trigger guard has a semicircular cutout with a recess for a mounting screw and a tail with a hole for the axle.
Trigger guard: 1 - semicircular cutout; 2 - tail; 3 - hole

Drum with axle

Drum has a central channel for placing a movable tube with a spring and the end of the drum axis, a circular groove and a groove in the channel for the nipple of the drum tube, recesses to lighten the drum, a belt with recesses for the trigger nipple and notches for the door tooth, a notch with rims on the front wall, surrounding chambers, a ratchet wheel with cutouts for the nose of the dog.

Drum axis has a head for fixing it and a channel for a ramrod.

Drum: 1 - ratchet wheel; 2 - central channel; 3 - chamber; 4 - notch (top)
Drum axis: 1 - head; 2 - thin end; 3 - thick end

trigger mechanism

It consists of a trigger with a striker, a connecting rod with a spring, a trigger and a mainspring.

trigger consists of a notched knitting needle, a striker swinging on a hairpin, a toe with a combat platoon, a ledge and a combat ledge for contact with the mainspring, and a recess for the connecting rod with a spring.

connecting rod has a spout for contact with the trigger sear and a protrusion with a hole and limiting bevels for placement in the groove of the trigger.

Trigger has a cranked protrusion for raising and lowering the slider, a sear for cocking the trigger and self-cocking, a recess for the mainspring pen, a hole for the pawl, a tail for pressing when firing, a nipple for fixing the drum, a ledge for retracting the drum after a shot and a hole for axis.

Action spring lamellar, two-fingered, held in the frame with the help of a nipple. The top feather has a protrusion for pulling the trigger back with the help of the trigger ledge after the shot and a platform for contact with the trigger lug. The chainstay provides a forward trigger position and pawl retention.

Trigger with connecting rod: 1 - spoke; 2 - striker; 3 - tail; 4 - combat ledge; 5 - toe with a combat platoon; 6 - connecting rod; 7 - ledge (above)
Mainspring: 1 - ledge; 2 - top feather; 3 - platform; 4 - lower feather (in the middle)
Trigger: 1 - crankshaft; 2 - nipple; 3 - tail; 4 - hole for the axis of the dog; 5 - whispered; 6 - ledge (bottom)

Mechanisms for feeding cartridges, fixing the drum and locking

The mechanism includes the following parts: trigger, pawl, slider, breech, movable tube with a spring and a door with a spring.

Dog has a spout for contact with the teeth of the ratchet wheel and an axle, half cut, for placement in the trigger hole and contact with the lower feather of the mainspring.

crawler has a cutout at the top for the passage of the striker, and at the bottom - a recess for the cranked protrusion of the trigger.

Treasury. Its configuration consists of: a head with a channel for the passage of the striker, a bevel for tilting forward under the action of the slider, a protrusion for returning the slider to its original position and a hole for the axle.

movable tube has a ledge for resting its spring and a nipple for fixing in the opening of the drum.

Door. Its configuration consists of ears with holes for mounting on the frame stand, a nipple for fixing the drum when it is loaded, a tooth for limiting the rotation of the drum to the left when the door is closed.

Dog: 1 - spout; 2 - axis (top)
Slider: 1 - cutout for the passage of the striker; 2 - recess for the cranked protrusion of the trigger (right)


Movable tube and its spring: 1 - nipple; 2 - ledge (above)
Breech: 1 - head; 2 - ledge (right)


The door and its spring: 1 - nipple; 2 - ears; 3 - tooth

Spent cartridge case removal mechanism

The mechanism consists of a ramrod tube and a ramrod with a spring.

Cleaning tube has a tide with a channel for moving the ramrod, a protrusion to hold the drum axis, a cutout in the tide for the ramrod spring tooth, a hole for the ramrod spring screw.

Ramrod has a knurled head and stem with longitudinal and transverse grooves for the spring tooth.

The ramrod spring is lamellar and has a tooth for fixing the ramrod when entering the ramrod groove.

Shompolny tube: 1 - protrusion; 2 - high tide (above)
The ramrod and its spring: 1 - head; 2 - transverse groove; 3 - stem; 4 - longitudinal groove

Sights

They consist of a front sight and a slot (pillar) on the back wall of the frame.

The front sight is movable and has paws with which it slides into the groove of the front sight base on the trunk.

Front sight of a Soviet-made revolver. On the left - options for the front sights of revolvers produced at the Liege factory of Nagant (a) and at the Tula factory before 1917 (b)

Fuse

The upper feather of the mainspring acts as a fuse against accidental shots, which, with its protrusion, presses on the ledge of the trigger and takes it to the rear position, removing the striker from the primer-cartridge.

Work of parts and mechanisms

Starting position

The lowered trigger with the front protruding part rests against the slider and does not allow the striker, hidden in the channel of the breech head, to move towards the primer of the cartridge.

The mainspring, being in the smallest preload, with its feathers keeps the trigger and the tail of the trigger in the forward position, and the pawl is tilted forward.

The nose of the pawl protrudes from behind the rear wall of the frame and is adjacent to the beveled surface of the tooth of the ratchet wheel of the drum.

The cranked protrusion of the trigger lies on the cape of the trigger, its nipple is recessed inside the frame, and the ledge is retracted to the rearmost position.

The slider is located below the head of the breech and the front plane rests against the beveled protrusion of the breech.

The head of the breech is retracted to the rear position.

The drum is in the rear position and is fixed by the tooth of the door, the ledge of the trigger, the nose of the pawl, and the spring of the drum tube.

Between the front edge of the drum and the rear edge of the barrel, a gap was formed for the free passage of the barrels of the cartridges during the rotation of the drum.

The ramrod is fixed in the axis of the drum.

The trigger is cocked

To cock the trigger, press its spoke, turn it down to failure and release it. The trigger, turning on the axis, compresses the mainspring with its lugs, resting its toe against the cranked protrusion of the trigger, turns it with its tail back and, sliding along the sear, jumps into the sear cutout with a platoon and stops. The trigger is cocked.

The trigger, turning under the pressure of the toe of the trigger, feeds up the pawl and the slider.

The dog, resting its spout against the edge of the tooth of the ratchet wheel of the drum, turns it 1/7 of the circle and sets the next cartridge against the barrel bore.

The slider, resting its upper part against the bevel of the breech head, turns it on the axis head first.

The breech, pressing the head on the head of the cartridge, forces the cartridge to enter the muzzle into the broadening of the bore.

The trigger nipple enters the notch of the drum belt and fixes it from turning.

The revolver is ready to fire.


The position of the parts of the revolver before the shot

Shot

To fire a shot, you must press the trigger.

When the trigger is pressed, it turns on the axis, its cranked protrusion rises and releases the cocking of the trigger from the sear cutout.

The trigger, under the influence of the mainspring, sharply turns on the axis and strikes with a striker on the cartridge igniter primer. After hitting the trigger, under the action of the mainspring on its ledge, it bounces back and leads the striker into the channel of the breech head, not allowing it to protrude from the breech.

Powder gases put pressure on the walls of the sleeve, causing it to expand and fit snugly against the walls of the drum and the annular broadening of the barrel. Complete obturation of powder gases is carried out.

The action of the parts of the revolver when fired

After the shot

After cessation of pressing the trigger, under the influence of the lower feather of the mainspring, it turns on the axis, lowers the pawl and the slider down, removes its nipple from the groove of the drum belt.

The dog, sliding its nose along the tooth of the ratchet wheel, jumps over the next tooth.

The slider, going down, presses on the protrusion of the breech, turns it, forcing its head to move back.

At the same time, the slider with its rear plane rests against the front protrusion of the trigger and takes it back even more along with the striker, protecting it from an accidental shot.

The drum, under the action of the spring of the movable tube and the ledge of the trigger, which presses on the belt of the drum, moves to the rear position.

self-cocking shot

In this case, all parts, except the trigger and hammer, work in the same way as when fired with a pre-cocked trigger by hand. Therefore, we will consider the interaction of only these details.

In order to fire a self-cocking shot, you only need to pull the trigger.

When the trigger is pressed, turning around the axis, it raises the cranked protrusion, which presses on the lower end of the connecting rod, trying to pull it forward and up.

The connecting rod, resting its shoulders against the front ledge of the trigger, rotates it around its axis, compresses the mainspring and cocks the trigger.

Further pulling the trigger causes the rounded end of the protrusion to jump off the end of the connecting rod and release the trigger. The trigger strikes the primer, and a shot is fired.

After releasing the pressure, the trigger under the influence of the lower feather of the mainspring takes its original position.

The cranked protrusion of the trigger, going down, presses on the front plane of the connecting rod and, pulling the connecting rod back, compresses its spring. When the crankshaft passes the end of the connecting rod, the connecting rod, under the action of its spring, moves to the forward position and its lower end again becomes above the rounded part of the cranked protrusion of the trigger.

Revolver disassembly and assembly

Partial disassembly and assembly

1. Push the cleaning rod forward to the full by turning it by the head.

2. Remove the drum axle by sliding the ramrod tube to the line.

3. Remove the drum from the frame by opening the door.

Assembly is carried out in the reverse order.

Incomplete disassembly of the revolver: a - removal of the ramrod; b - extraction of the drum axis; c - removing the drum

Complete disassembly and assembly

1. Make an incomplete disassembly of the revolver.

2. Remove the movable tube of the drum with the spring by turning it until the mark matches the groove.

3. Unscrew the connecting screw of the handle.

4. Separate the cover from the frame by tapping on it.

5. Put the trigger on the combat platoon.

6. Screw the connecting screw into the threaded socket of the handle.

7. Separate the trigger from the frame by pressing the trigger.

8. Take out the dog.

9. Remove the trigger from the axle.

10. Separate the slider from the frame.

11. Separate the breech from the frame by pressing on its lower end.

12. Release the mainspring by holding the trigger guard with your left hand after unscrewing the screw.

13. Separate the trigger guard.

14. Pull the connecting screw out of the handle.

15. Separate the door and its spring by unscrewing the screws. Complete disassembly of the revolver: a - removal of the movable tube with a spring; b - unscrewing the connecting screw; c - compartment of the side cover; g - screwing in the connecting screw; e - removal of the trigger from the axis; e - extracting the dog; g - removal of the trigger; h - separation of the slider; and - removal of the breech; k - release of the mainspring; l - removal of the trigger guard; m - unscrewing the door screw; n - ramrod compartment.

Nagant revolver, "Nagant" - a revolver developed by the Belgian gunsmiths brothers Emil (Émile) (1830-1902) and Leon (Léon) (1833-1900) Nagans (Nagant), which was in service and produced in a number of countries in the late XIX - mid-XX centuries .

History of creation and production

In the last quarter of the 19th century, many states thought about rearming their armies. By that time, revolvers were the most promising example of personal short-barreled firearms, combining sufficient design simplicity, multi-charge and reliability. The Belgian city of Liege was one of the European centers of the arms industry. Since 1859, the Emile and Leon Nagant Arms Factory (Fabrique d'armes Emile et Léon Nagant) has existed in it - a small family workshop that repaired Dutch revolvers and designed its own firearms. The first revolver of the original design was presented by the elder brother Emil for testing to the Belgian military department, and it was accepted into service as an officer and non-commissioned officer's weapon under the name "Model 1878 revolver". The Model 1878 9mm revolver was a six-shot revolver equipped with a "double-action mechanism", that is, the cocking of the hammer could be carried out directly by the shooter's hand or automatically by pulling the trigger. For non-commissioned officers of the infantry, cavalry and auxiliary personnel, on the instructions of the leadership of the Belgian army, a “9-mm revolver Nagan M / 1883” was developed with deliberately degraded combat qualities: due to the introduction of an additional part, the possibility of firing “self-cocking” was excluded, after each shot it was necessary re-cock the hammer. Several more modifications of the revolver of different calibers and barrel lengths were released. Soon, Emil Nagant, as a result of an illness, almost completely lost his sight, and Leon Nagant undertook the main work to improve the design.

In the 1886 model of the year, the weight of the weapon was slightly reduced and the reliability and manufacturability of the design were significantly improved, for example, the four springs of the firing mechanism were replaced with just one double-pronged one. Also, the new model took into account the existing trend in the development of weapons in the direction of reducing the caliber, the most common at that time 7.5-mm cartridge with smokeless powder was chosen. One of the main problems facing the designers of revolvers was the breakthrough of powder gases into the gap between the breech section of the barrel and the front end of the drum. In the design of the Belgian gunsmith Henri Pieper, a solution to the problem of obturation was found: before firing, the trigger mechanism moved the revolver drum forward, the cartridge had a special design, the bullet in it was completely recessed into the sleeve, the role of the obturator was played by the mouth of the sleeve, distributed and pressed by powder gases at the time of the shot to bore, which excluded the possibility of gas breakthrough. This principle, with a significant simplification of the design that pushes the drum onto the barrel, was used by Leon Nagant in 1892; a cartridge with a sleeve equipped with an elongated muzzle was developed for a new model of a revolver. This model of the Nagant revolver has become a classic, subsequent modifications did not bring noticeable changes to the design.

At the end of the 19th century, the Russian Empire began a massive rearmament of its army. The Mosin rifle of the 1891 model was chosen as the main sample of small arms. The model of the 4.2-linear (10.67-mm) revolver of the Smith-Wesson III system of the 1880 model, obsolete by that time, served as a standard revolver. The Commission for the development of a small-caliber rifle, headed by Lieutenant General N. G. Chagin, was involved in the search for promising models. The main requirements for the new army revolver were as follows:

• Great bullet stopping power. Since one of the main types of troops was cavalry, a shot at an effective range (up to 50 steps) should stop the horse.
• "Combat Strength" should be able to penetrate four to five inch pine boards.
• Small weight (0.82-0.92 kg).
• The caliber, number, direction, barrel rifling profile, etc. must match those of the three-line Mosin rifle, then defective rifle barrels can be used in the manufacture of revolvers.
• The revolver should not be equipped with a self-cocking device, because it "has a harmful effect on accuracy."
• The muzzle velocity of the bullet must be at least 300 m/s.
• The revolver must have good accuracy of fire.
• The design should be simple and technological.
• The revolver must be reliable, insensitive to dirt and poor operating conditions, and easy to maintain.
• Extraction of sleeves should not be simultaneous, but sequential.
• Sights must be designed so that the trajectory of the bullet crosses the line of sight at a distance of 35 steps.
• The capacity of the drum is not less than 7 rounds.
• Cartridge with flanged brass case, jacketed bullet and smokeless powder.

The rejection of self-cocking firing and the simultaneous extraction of spent cartridges was caused by the opinion that, firstly, they would complicate the design (which would negatively affect the reliability and cost of the revolver), and secondly, they would lead to "excessive consumption of ammunition."

The announced competition and the potential gigantic order aroused great interest among domestic and foreign arms manufacturers. Several modifications of the existing Smith-Wesson revolver, revolvers and automatic pistols were introduced. The main struggle unfolded between the Belgian gunsmiths Henri Pieper with the M1889 Bayard revolver model and Leon Nagant with the M1892.

Leon Nagant had to remake the revolver for the Russian 7.62-mm caliber and, as in 1883, exclude the possibility of self-cocking firing, worsening the characteristics of the weapon in accordance with the requirements of the competition. Two variants were presented - 6- and 7-shot revolvers. Piper's revolver was rejected due to the large mass and unreliability of the design. Leon Nagant's victory in the competition was probably largely due to the fact that he already had long-established connections in the Russian military department. For a patent for a revolver, Nagan requested 75,000 rubles, which he was ultimately denied and a second competition was appointed with new specified conditions. In addition to the characteristics, they stipulated a bonus: 20,000 rubles for the design of the revolver and 5,000 for the design of the cartridge; in addition, the winner "given his invention to the full ownership of the Russian government, which received the right to manufacture it both in its own country and abroad, without any surcharge to the inventor." Piper submitted to the competition newly redesigned revolvers with original automatics, which the commission considered "witty, but not practical." The six-barreled revolver of S. I. Mosin was also rejected. Refinements in the design of the Nagant revolver were less significant, and after comparative tests with a 4.2-line Smith-Wesson revolver, the design was approved. According to the results of military tests, the officers participating in them expressed an insistent desire to get a double-action revolver with the possibility of self-cocking fire. Returning to the self-cocking version of the revolver, the commission did not consider it completely satisfactory either, so it was decided to adopt two types of revolvers into service with the Russian army: self-cocking officer and non-self-cocking - for non-commissioned officers and privates.

After a number of minor changes, the design was approved in the spring of 1895.

On May 13, 1895, by decree of Nicholas II, the "soldier" and "officer" models of the Nagant revolver were adopted by the Russian army, however, according to the military department, the revolvers were officially adopted in June 1896, by order of the Minister of War No. 186.

The purchase price of a revolver produced in Belgium did not exceed 30-32 rubles for the Russian army. The contract provided for the delivery of 20,000 revolvers of the 1895 model over the next three years. The Belgian side was also contractually obliged to assist in setting up the production of revolvers at the Imperial Tula Arms Plant. The design of the Russian-made revolver underwent a slight modernization: the back of the handle was made whole (and not split, as in the Belgian version), the shape of the front sight was simplified. The production technology has also been improved. The cost of the Tula revolver was 22 rubles 60 kopecks. The order for five years - from 1899 to 1904 - amounted to 180,000 units. However, when comparing prices, it should be borne in mind that in Russia the revolver was produced at a state-owned enterprise and many costs were not taken into account. For example, to establish production, the treasury purchased machine tools in the United States for more than a million rubles. If this amount were paid directly by the Tula plant, the price of production would be much higher.

The reduction in military appropriations since 1903 led to a sharp decline in the production of revolvers, and the Russo-Japanese War had just begun, forcing the government to send emergency loans for the purchase of weapons. In 1905, the Tula plant was ordered to produce 64,830 revolvers of the 1895 model, but only 62,917 revolvers were produced. After the war, funding for the rearmament program of the army was once again reduced, and the interdepartmental commission established in 1908 allowed the manufacture of revolvers on orders directly from military units.

By the beginning of World War I, according to the report card, there were 424,434 Nagant revolvers of all modifications (out of 436,210 laid down in the state), that is, the army was provided with revolvers by 97.3%, but already in the first battles, the loss of weapons was significant. Measures were taken to reconstruct the arms industry, and 474,800 revolvers were produced from 1914 to 1917.

The revolver of the 1895 model was distinguished by the comparative simplicity of design, manufacturability and low cost. The labor intensity of manufacturing one revolver was about 30 machine-hours. At the same time, some assembly operations (installation of the axes of the mechanism in the frame) required a fairly high qualification of the personnel. In combat conditions, one of the main advantages was unpretentiousness in operation and reliability: for example, a misfire did not affect the possibility of firing the next shot and did not cause a delay. You can also note the high maintainability of the revolver.

Nagant became one of the symbols of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent civil war, and later the word "nagant" became a household word - in colloquial speech, any revolver, and sometimes a self-loading pistol, was often called "nagant".

Only the self-cocking ("officer") version of the revolver was adopted by the Red Army, while the technological documentation in 1918 was transferred to the metric system of measurements. During the Civil War, the Tula Arms Plant continued to produce revolvers - in the period from 1918 to 1920, 175,115 pieces were manufactured. (52,863 units in 1918, 79,060 units in 1919 and 43,192 units in 1920). After the end of the civil war, the question of re-equipping the Red Army was repeatedly raised, but even after the adoption of the TT pistol in 1930, the production of revolvers continued.

In June-July 1930, the design and production technology of the revolver underwent a slight modification: the sight slot became semicircular instead of triangular, the front sight was supposed to be replaced with a rectangular one, but then a more complex semicircular truncated shape was introduced.

The cost of one revolver "Nagant" (with a set of spare parts) in 1939 was 85 rubles.

Until the beginning of World War II, the production of revolvers and pistols at the Tula plant was maintained at approximately the same level, from 1932 to 1941 more than 700,000 revolvers were produced. The advantages of pistols were quite obvious to the leadership of the Red Army, however, for a number of reasons, the TT pistol and revolvers were produced in parallel. One of the reasons was the opinion that the gun must necessarily be suitable for firing through the embrasures of the tank. The TT pistol was clearly not suitable for this, and the new models of pistols, which had a barrel not covered by a casing, turned out to be worse than the TT. In 1941, the Tula Arms Plant was evacuated to Udmurtia, to the city of Izhevsk, where the production of revolvers continued, and in 1942 a partial re-evacuation was made from Izhevsk to Tula.

Over 370,000 revolvers were produced between 1942 and 1945. The revolver was in service with the Red Army, the Polish Army, the 1st Czechoslovak Corps, the 1st Romanian Infantry Division named after Tudor Vladimirescu, the 1st Yugoslav Infantry Brigade, the French Normandie-Niemen Fighter Aviation Regiment.

In wartime, the percentage of defects in production increased - the lack of qualified personnel affected. The quality of finishing of military revolvers was lower than in peacetime. The combat use of revolvers revealed the moral obsolescence of its design and the lack of combat qualities, the most noticeable loss in comparison with self-loading pistols was the low practical rate of fire (that is, a large loss of time for reloading).

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, the revolver was removed from service with the Soviet army and its production was discontinued. However, the Nagant revolvers were in service with the Soviet militia until the mid-1950s, and in the paramilitary security system and the collection system for much longer. Until at least 2000, revolvers were used by geological enterprises. According to the regulations of the Ministry of Geology of the USSR, the heads of parties and expeditions, chief and senior geologists armed themselves with revolvers.

Major modifications

"Soldier's" revolver- a revolver with a non-self-cocking trigger mechanism, production was discontinued in 1918.

"Officer's" revolver- a revolver with a self-cocking trigger mechanism.

Carabiners- before the First World War, a limited number of carbines with a barrel length of 300 mm and an integral butt and a revolver with a barrel extended up to 200 mm and a removable butt were produced for the border troops.

"Commander's" revolver- a compact version of the revolver, involving concealed carrying, with a barrel length reduced to 85 mm and a shortened handle. Developed in 1927, produced until 1932 in small batches, about 25 thousand pieces were produced. It entered service with the OGPU and NKVD officers.

In addition, for reconnaissance and sabotage units in 1929, a silenced revolver, equipped with the BRAMIT silent-flameless firing device of the system of the brothers V. G. and I. G. Mitin.

Nagant wz. thirty- Nagant revolver model 1895 of Polish production, from 1930 to 1939 it was mass-produced at an arms factory in Radom, in total 20 thousand pieces were produced in Poland. revolvers "nagant" in two versions: Ng wz.30 and Ng wz.32

Design

In all revolvers of the Nagant design, common foundations and signs can be traced:

• the presence of a double-action trigger mechanism, which made it possible to shoot both with a preliminary cocking of the trigger and self-cocking (with the exception of "soldier" and "non-commissioned" pre-revolutionary models, in which the self-cocking mechanism was blocked in order to reduce ammunition consumption)
• monolithic one-piece frame
• a door that opens the drum chambers by turning to the side. The exception is the 1910, which has a door that swings back and releases the drum, which swings to the right.
• the barrel is screwed into the frame on a blind landing
• a ramrod, in a combat position, hiding in the axis of the drum, and after firing, playing the role of an extractor (ejector) of spent cartridges
• the mechanism in the frame is closed with a flat cover

The revolver drum is both a chamber and a magazine. The most common model (sample 1895) and most of its modifications have a drum capacity of 7 rounds. The hollow axis of the drum is inserted into the frame from the front and held in it by a ramrod tube installed in front of the drum and mounted on the neck of the barrel with the ability to rotate on it as on an axis. On models with a drum sliding onto the barrel, the drum is equipped with a return mechanism consisting of a drum tube and a spring. On the right wall of the frame there is a locking device of the drum, the role of which is played by a spring-loaded door. In the open (folded sideways) position, the door allowed loading and unloading the revolver, in the closed position it closed the chamber, preventing the cartridge from falling out and preventing the drum from turning counterclockwise. On the drum there are seven nests and recesses for the protrusion of the door in the open and closed position. The revolver mechanism consists of parts that perform the functions of a locking mechanism, a trigger mechanism and rotate and push the drum onto the barrel: a breech, a slider, a trigger with a pawl and a mainspring. Sights consisted of a rear sight with an aiming slot on the top of the frame and a front sight on the front of the barrel. In total, there are 39 parts in the design of the revolver of the 1895 model.

The trigger mechanism is a double-action trigger (there was also a version with a single-action trigger only), the striker is pivotally mounted on the trigger, the mainspring is plate-shaped, two-pronged, placed in the handle. The sear is made integral with the trigger. There is no fuse, but when the trigger is not pressed, a special part does not allow the striker to come into contact with the primer. When cocked, the trigger also activates a specific locking mechanism that shifts the drum of the revolver forward, and the trigger ensures that the drum is stopped from rotating.

Operation and combat use

Revolver Nagant arr. 1895, despite the moral obsolescence of its design, was used throughout the war.

The Nagan revolver was developed by the Belgian Nagan brothers towards the end of the 19th century. These revolvers were produced at the tsarist arms factories in huge quantities, and after the revolution, the revolver began to be produced at Soviet arms factories. Revolvers of the Nagant system were widely used not only during the Second World War, but also after its end. In some paramilitary organizations, weapons such as the revolver were used until the early 2000s.

The history of the creation of the revolver "Nagant"

The second half of the 19th century was remembered for the massive rearmament of almost all the armies of the world. The most advanced pistol at that time was a revolver, which was a real standard of reliable personal short-barreled weapons for officers and junior officers.

In the Belgian city of Liege, which at that time was considered one of the most advanced European cities in terms of the production of various weapons, there was a small family factory of the Nagant brothers. Their family workshop was engaged in the repair of various systems of revolvers, mainly of Dutch design. Over the years of work, the Nagan brothers have perfectly studied the design of revolvers, which made it possible for them to first make drawings, and then make their own models of pistols. By the way, in weapon terminology, only single-shot or automatic models of short-barreled small arms are called pistols. Models that have a classic turret layout with a rotating drum are called revolvers.

The first revolver of the Nagant brothers, which became widely known, was the “revolver of the 1878 model of the year”, which was presented by Emil Nagant at the tests of the Belgian military department and passed them with honor.

The revolver of the 1878 model of the year, which had a caliber of 9 mm, had the following main performance characteristics:

• The drum of the revolver held 6 rounds;
• The revolver could fire both when cocked by hand and without cocking, although this required more effort, which significantly reduced the accuracy of the shots;
• The bullet had a fairly high stopping power.

A few years later, another revolver of the Nagant system was developed, which was intended for junior officers. This 9 mm caliber model had one feature that reduced its combat qualities - after each shot, the hammer had to be cocked again. The "9mm revolver Nagant M/1883" was developed with technical downgrades commissioned by the Belgian army, most likely to reduce its cost.

In total, several modifications were released during this period, which differed in caliber and barrel length dimensions. Since the older brother Emil Nagant soon became seriously ill and almost completely blind, all further developments and improvements were the work of Leon Nagant.

In 1886, a new revolver model was released, which not only lost some of the shortcomings of the old model, but also received a new 7.5 mm caliber. Since the transition to a smaller caliber became obvious in Europe, Leon Nagant was forced to take this measure. At the same time, a bullet fired from a new revolver model still had a sufficient stopping effect. In addition to this feature, the following changes were made to the design of the revolver of the 1886 model:

• The overall weight of the weapon has been significantly reduced;
• In the trigger mechanism, 4 springs were replaced by one;
• Improved overall reliability and manufacturability of the system.

The new model was appreciated not only by the Belgian army, but also by the armies of other European countries.

The adoption by the tsarist army of the revolver of the Nagant system

The Russian-Turkish war showed that the Russian army, like most of the armies of Europe, is in urgent need of modernization and massive rearmament. The Mosin rifle was chosen as the main rifle of the Russian army, and to replace the outdated linear Smith-Wesson III revolver of the 1880 model, a commission was created that developed a number of features necessary for the new military revolver. The description of these features is quite large:

• The bullet of the new revolver should have a great stopping power. Since this revolver was supposed to be used, including for fighting cavalry, the bullet had to stop the horse at a distance of up to 50 steps;
• The power of the cartridges was supposed to ensure a confident penetration of pine boards with a thickness of about 5 mm by a revolver bullet;
• Due to the fact that the mass of the old Smith-Wesson revolver was about 1.5 kg, it was not easy enough to shoot from it. The weight of the new revolver was not to exceed 0.92 kg;
• The caliber, barrel rifling profiles and other similar characteristics should have been identical to those of the Mosin rifle, since in the further manufacture of revolvers, rifle rejected barrels can be used;
• The new revolver should not have a self-cocking system, since, according to the commission, this adversely affects accuracy;
• The speed of the bullet must be at least 300 m / s;
• The accuracy of the new revolver should exceed the same parameters of the old model;
• Simple and reliable overall design of the model;
• Reliability in any conditions, readiness for battle, despite pollution;
• The sleeves in the drum should not have been extracted at the same time. Such a strange wish is due to the fact that the reloading of the revolver drum, in which the cartridge cases are extracted at the same time, is much faster. The tsarist command was very worried that there would be many lovers of aimless shooting, wasting state ammunition for nothing. It was with this that the requirement was also connected to deprive the new revolver of the self-cocking system;
• The drum must hold at least 7 rounds. At the same time, the cartridges themselves, which were loaded into the drum, had to have a shell bullet and be equipped with smokeless powder.

Since the state order promised huge profits, many large domestic and foreign arms companies rushed to apply for participation in the competition for a new military revolver. In addition to revolvers, several options for automatic pistols were proposed.

In the end, two contenders remained:

1. A. Pipers, who introduced the M1889 Bayar model;
2. L. Revolver, with a model of a combat revolver model M1892.

Both 6 charging and 7 charging models were presented at the competition. As a result, the Nagant revolver won the competition, the characteristics of which were more consistent with the stated task. However, there is an opinion that the victory of Leon Nagant was due not so much to the outstanding characteristics of his revolver as to his personal connections among Russian military officials. Some believe that the fact that the revolver extracts the shells one by one also played a role.

Since Nagant requested a significant amount of 75,000 rubles for his patent, the competition was declared invalid. The repeated competition had special conditions in which the amount of remuneration was indicated. The premium for the new revolver was set at 20,000 rubles, plus an additional 5,000 rubles for the development of a cartridge for it. In addition, the designer had to give his invention to the buyer, who later could produce it in any quantities, both at home and abroad.

After testing the new revolver, the commission found it fit. In addition, under the influence of the combat officers who were part of the commission, two models were adopted: a self-cocking model for officers and a non-self-cocking model for junior officers. The cartridges of the Nagant system were also adopted for service.

Description of the performance characteristics of the Nagant revolver arr. 1895

• The production of a new revolver was established at the Tula Arms Plant;
• Weapon caliber - 7.62 mm;
• The cartridges that were used for the revolver are 7.62 × 38 mm Nagant;
• The weight of the revolver loaded with cartridges was 0.88 kg;
• 7 cartridges were placed in the drum.

Revolvers of the Nagant system between 1895 and 1945

Before the outbreak of the First World War, the Russian army had more than 424,000 revolvers of the Nagant system, which accounted for about 97 percent of the total need for these weapons. When the first battles began, the loss of weapons was simply catastrophic, so the arms industry began to urgently modernize. As a result of innovations, over 474,000 Nagant revolvers were produced from 1914 to 1917.

The revolver of the Nagant system was a reliable weapon that had a fairly simple design. Dismantling the Nagant was also not particularly difficult. In addition to the fact that the cost of the revolver was low, it also had a high maintainability. During and immediately after the revolution, the word "revolver" was used not only for revolvers of any design, but also for automatic pistols.

After a comparative analysis of the two versions of the Nagant system, it was decided to leave the "officer" self-cocking version in service with the Red Army. Although in the 20s the question of replacing the revolver with a more effective short-barreled small arms was repeatedly raised, nevertheless, even after the appearance of the TT pistol in 1930, Nagant revolvers continued to be produced.

The cost of a revolver with a set of cleaning tools was 85 rubles in 1939. Revolver cleaning occurs immediately after shooting, and consists in removing carbon deposits from the barrel and drum. In a calm environment, you need to re-clean the barrel and drum, then wipe the barrel bore with a clean cloth for 3 days.

By the beginning of the Second World War, revolvers of the Nagant system were produced in fairly large volumes. During the period from 1932 to 1941, about 700,000 revolvers were produced at the Tula plant. During the Great Patriotic War, the Tula Arms Plant produced about 370,000 more revolvers. It is worth noting that the quality of revolvers of the war years of production was quite low, which was due to the lack of a sufficient number of qualified weapon assemblers.

During the Second World War, it became completely clear that the revolver of the Nagant system was not suitable as a regular military pistol, since it had long been outdated. In 1945, revolvers were taken out of service by the army, but the police used them even before 1950.

The main modifications of the revolver of the Nagant system of the 1895 model

In the entire history of the production of revolvers of the Nagant system, 5 different modifications were produced at the Tula Arms Plant:

1. A revolver for junior officers and soldiers with a non-self-cocking mechanism. Such revolvers were discontinued in 1918;
2. Nagant for officers, which was produced until 1945;
3. Nagan-carbine. Although few people know about the existence of this type of revolver, they were issued for mounted border guards. Nagans-carbines were of two modifications: with a barrel length of 300 mm and a non-removable butt, and with a barrel of 200 mm and a removable butt;
4. There was also a special "commander's" revolver, which had a shortened barrel and handle. Most often used by the NKVD;
5. In 1929, the Nagant revolver with a silencer was released.

A small number of Nagans were produced in Poland. During the period from 1930 to 1939, 20,000 revolvers were assembled at the plant in the city of Radom, which received the names "Ng wz.30" and "Ng wz.32".

Overview of revolvers "Nagant" of modern years of release

Currently, two main models of revolvers of the Nagant system are being produced, which are used both as starting and as revolvers for sports shooting. In addition, there are often mock-ups of mass-dimensional (MMG) Revolvers of the Nagant system. The most valuable MMGs are considered to be "hollowed out" versions of combat revolvers.

Nagan "Thunder" is the most popular model of a domestic revolver that uses Flaubert's cartridges for firing. Nagan "Thunder" shoots lead bullets, caliber 4.2 mm. Since the revolver "Thunder" was remade from combat revolvers of the tsarist and Soviet years of production, it is of historical value.

Revolver revolver "Bluff" is one of the most famous starting revolvers in the CIS. Like the "Thunder", it is produced on the basis of combat models of revolvers.

The 1895 model revolver occupies an honorable place in the history of Russian short-barreled weapons. Thanks to the existence of sports and starting modifications, every person who wants to have such a sample in his collection can purchase it for a fairly modest amount.

From the comments on the article about the German silent revolver PDSR 3, it turned out that people remember only one of the Nagant brothers, Leon. Emil was forgotten, although it was thanks to his work that the well-known M1895 revolver appeared. Let's try to correct this injustice, and at the same time we will try to trace the entire path of development of the Nagan brothers' revolvers, from the first models to the latest most massive and successful.

From the repair of industrial equipment to the first revolver

In 1859, the eldest of the Emil brothers suggested that the youngest, Leon, organize an enterprise whose specialization would be the repair and production of industrial equipment. Despite the very good progress of the young company of the Nagan brothers, the specialty gradually changed, and after a short time, a greater amount of work was associated with the repair of revolvers, rifles and guns from other manufacturers.

Of course, that only one repair could not satisfy the young designers. Seeing the imperfection of the designs of those samples that fell into their hands, the brothers began to develop their own weapons, concentrating their attention on rifles. It was then that the company of the Nagant brothers got its name "Fabrique d" Armes Emile et Leon Nagant. "Despite the fact that the rifles of the Nagant brothers were in many ways simpler and cheaper to manufacture, the designers could not offer anything fundamentally new on the market. To win their place Among the weapons companies with famous names, it was necessary to come up with something that would be superior in its characteristics to other models.The designers even enlisted the support of Samuel Remington: having visited their production, he highly appreciated both the enterprise itself and the developments of the designers, concluding with them contract for the production of their rifles and carbines in Europe.The Nagant brothers, with the permission of the American designer, somewhat modernized the bolt of his weapon, and the rifle with the Remington-Nagant bolt was adopted by the Luxembourg army.

The first recognized Nagant M1878 revolver

This small victory of the designers gave them the opportunity to declare themselves as full-fledged gunsmiths, and soon they developed a primitive, but outrageously cheap double-barreled pistol for the Belgian gendarmerie. So, the brothers completely switched from long-barreled weapons, and since at that time the main short-barreled weapon was a revolver, the designers took up the development of revolvers more seriously.

In 1877, the Belgian army raised the question of replacing the not-so-successful Chamelot-Delvin revolver, and just at the same time, Emile Nagant patented his revolver with a double-action trigger mechanism and a ramrod ejector, which was fixed on the frame of the weapon and retracted into the axis of the drum after performing its functions.

After a number of improvements, this revolver was submitted to the competition for the Belgian army, and from the first days of testing it left competitors behind. The whole frame of the weapon made it possible to use more powerful ammunition without harm to the revolver itself, and individual structural elements were simply more convenient and reliable. The price of the weapon also played a key role: despite the fact that the design of the trigger was not the simplest, and the revolver itself required a large amount of high-quality metal, the Nagan brothers offered to supply it at a lower cost than competitors.

As you might guess, the M1878 revolver was adopted by the Belgian army. This weapon became personal for warrant officers, senior sergeants, and later the same revolver became the main weapon of the Belgian mounted gendarmerie.

The revolver was offered under a cartridge developed by the Nagant brothers. The cartridge consisted of a metal sleeve, in which a lead shellless bullet with a caliber of 9.4 mm and a mass of 12 grams was placed. The initial speed of a bullet fired from a revolver reached 200 meters per second. The revolver itself was a fairly heavy weapon. The mass of the revolver was 1.1 kilograms. The total length of the weapon was 270 mm with a barrel length of 140 mm. The revolver was fed from a drum with 6 chambers.

This revolver, developed by Emil Nagant, became the starting point in the further development of weapons of this class among the brothers. All subsequent models, one way or another, were based on this first successful revolver. The well-known sideways “door” for extracting spent cartridges and equipping the revolver drum with new cartridges appeared in this version of the weapon.

Degradation of the M1878 revolver: Nagant M1883 revolver

Weapons do not always follow the path of development, sometimes this is the path of degradation. In the M1878 revolver model, the trigger mechanism was double action. Despite the relatively low cost offered by the Nagan brothers, the highest military officials felt that the weapon was too good to arm them all without exception. The designers were asked to abandon the double-action trigger mechanism and develop a cheaper revolver with a single-action trigger. So there was a revolver under the designation M1883.

The gunsmith brothers greatly simplified the trigger mechanism of the weapon, making it a single action. Outwardly, the revolver could only be distinguished by the drum, the surface of which became smooth without fullers. In general, the characteristics of the weapon have not changed, if we forget that now before each shot it was necessary to cock the trigger manually, but the cost of the weapon has changed, although not significantly.

Despite the fact that the trigger mechanism lost some elements due to the heavier drum of the revolver, the mass of the weapon remained unchanged and was equal to 1.1 kilograms. The length of the revolver was still the same 27 centimeters with a fourteen-centimeter barrel. The cartridge was used all the same 9.4x22.

M1884 Luxemburg revolver - an old revolver with a new cartridge

Another modification of the M1878 revolver was the M1884 Luxemburg revolver. The army of this small state was armed with rifles with Remington bolts, improved and produced by the Nagant brothers. Apparently, satisfaction from cooperation and the final product played in favor of the fact that when the question arose of replacing revolvers in their army, Luxembourg military officials again turned to the Belgians.

The main problem was that the military, under no pretext, wanted to switch to the cartridge offered by the brothers, because the new revolvers were developed for a different ammunition - the Swedish 7.5x23. True, the designers managed to “push through” their ammunition, but more on that below.

For Luxembourg, Emil developed three models of weapons at once: with the designation Officer, Safety, Gendarme.

The first was a military revolver, with the designation Officer, and in fact it was still the same M1878, but chambered for a new cartridge.

It is worth immediately giving the characteristics of the ammunition used, so that it is clear why Luxembourg resisted the Nagan ammunition so much. As is clear from the designation of the cartridge, the length of the sleeve is 23 mm with a bullet diameter of 7.5 mm. The bullet itself was already in a copper sheath and had a mass of 7 grams. The initial speed when fired from the M1884 Luxemburg revolver was 350 meters per second. If we compare with what the Nagan brothers offered, then there is nothing to compare, the advantages of the Swedish cartridge are obvious. But back to the revolver.

The Nagant M1884 Luxemburg Officer revolver had the same mass of 1.1 kilograms, the same barrel length of 140 millimeters with a total length of 270 millimeters. That is, the designers simply reduced the drum chambers and replaced the barrel of the revolver.

More interesting was the model with the designation Safety. It's no secret that the perfect balance in weapons, between maximum safety and constant instant readiness for use, immediately after extraction, is achieved precisely in revolvers. However, even this was not enough in Luxembourg. For weapons that were used to protect civilian facilities and prisons, a special modification of the M1884 revolver was ordered, the design of which provided for a non-automatic fuse from an accidental shot. No doubt, with a firearm it is better to play it safe once again, but the safety of a revolver is already too much.

Structurally, the fuse was a lever that blocked the drum of the weapon, thereby it became impossible to pull the trigger, as well as manually cock the trigger. The switch was fixed with the help of an additional part attached to the frame of the weapon. The characteristics of the revolver remained the same as those of the Officer weapon variant, only the weight increased by 70 grams.

As mentioned above, the designers managed to persuade the Luxembourgers to use their cartridge in one of the variants of the M1884 revolver. This revolver was the Nagant М1884 Luxemburg Gendarme, which, as the name of the weapon implies, was intended for law enforcement agencies.

The main distinguishing feature of this revolver was a longer barrel, which had to be increased due to another interesting requirement from the customer. The fact is that the Luxembourg gendarmerie asked to make it possible to install a bayonet on a revolver. What was the use of a thin bayonet with a length of only 10 centimeters remains only a mystery, but it caused quite well-known problems. The fastening of the bayonet interfered with the convenient use of the ramrod-ejector of spent cartridges, for this reason the barrel of the weapon was lengthened. In addition to the longer barrel, the revolver was recognizable by its smooth barrel surface.

The lengthening of the barrel by a seemingly meager value of 20 millimeters significantly affected the accuracy of the weapon, but other parameters of the revolver also changed. So, its mass began to equal 1140 grams without a bayonet. The barrel length was 160 millimeters. The total length, respectively, increased by the same 20 millimeters and began to equal 290 millimeters. As mentioned earlier, the revolver was fed with 9.4x22 cartridges.

Revolver M1878 / 1886: a weapon updated by Leon Nagant

In the process of working on revolvers for Luxembourg, Emil Nagant began to have vision problems. The long work with documents and drawings in low light and the age of the designer also affected. While the eldest of the brothers improved his health, the younger did not sit idly by and developed a new double-action trigger mechanism, which was not only cheaper to manufacture, but also more advanced. The mere fact that as many as 4 springs were used in the old trigger mechanism of the Nagant brothers says that there was still room for development.

It was this development that Leon proposed. In his USM, instead of four, only one spring was used, and separate different elements of the old design became one whole piece. Undoubtedly, complex parts were more expensive to manufacture, but their smaller number more than compensated for this, making the overall result cheaper. In addition, the reliability of the weapon was greatly increased, which now withstood the most barbaric treatment.

In addition to a more advanced and cheaper revolver trigger mechanism, Leon thoroughly worked on the frame of the revolver, removing excess metal where the loads during the shot were minimal, which led to a lighter weapon.

Finally, thanks to Leon, the 9.4x22 cartridge was upgraded, which began to be equipped with smokeless powder, and received a bullet in a copper sheath, which had a positive effect on the general characteristics of the revolver. An interesting point is that initially Leon planned to develop a weapon chambered for 7.5x23, but after weighing the losses from ammunition sales and problems with the promotion of weapons in the army and law enforcement agencies, where 9.4x22 ammunition was used, it was decided to upgrade his own ammunition. As it turned out later, the development of a new revolver chambered for 7.5x23 was not in vain.

The new weapon was proposed to the Belgian army, which gladly accepted a new cheaper double-action revolver, moreover, more reliable and lighter. By the way, all three weapons that were in service with the army served until the end of the First World War and were replaced only because of the ammunition used.

The new revolver had a mass of 940 grams. Its length was the same 270 millimeters with a barrel length of 140 millimeters.

It may seem that Emil interfered with his younger brother with his authority, but in fact this is not at all the case. All previous developments of designers were a joint work, but it is customary to award authorship to the one in whose name this or that patent was registered. The differences between the brothers arose a little later, and although the disagreements concerned the arms company, they had nothing to do with firearms.

A series of M1878 / 1886 revolvers with a shorter barrel for various ammunition

As mentioned earlier, Leon Nagan initially developed a new revolver chambered for 7.5x23, but abandoned this ammunition in favor of modernizing his own cartridge. However, the work was not wasted. A year later, Sweden announced a competition for a new revolver for its army chambered for precisely 7.5x23, the only requirement that Leon's practical ready-made revolver did not fit was the length of the weapon. The solution to the problem turned out to be the simplest: the barrel was shortened from 140 to 114 millimeters. Accordingly, the total length began to equal 244 millimeters, and not 235, as it is written in many reference books: apart from the barrel, nothing has changed in the weapon, and the frame has remained the same. The mass of the new revolver was 770 grams, he received the designation Nagant M1887 Swedish. The competition for a new short-barreled weapon for the army, as you might guess, he won.

The same revolver can be designated Nagant M1891 Serbian, under this name the weapon was adopted in Serbia. The same weapon has another name - Nagant M1893 Norwegian, under this name it was adopted in Norway and was absolutely no different from the Swedish version of the revolver.

On the basis of the M1878 / 1886 revolver, options were made for other ammunition, namely 11.2x20 and 11.2x22 for Brazil and Argentina, respectively. These revolvers already had a barrel of 140 millimeters and a length of 270, while the mass was 980 grams. These revolvers are designated Nagant M1893 Brazilian and Nagant M1893 Argentinian.

So why did they forget Emil Nagant, but remember his brother? Nagant M1895

Despite the fact that Emil Nagant moved away from managing the company and devoted more time to restoring his poor health, his blindness only progressed. Perhaps not accustomed to sitting idle, or perhaps wanting to leave a significant mark on him before he became completely blind, the designer began work on his last revolver.

One of the main disadvantages of revolvers is the breakthrough of powder gases between the barrel and the drum of the weapon at the time of the shot. Such irrational use of a powder charge could not be overlooked by gunsmiths and many tried to minimize it.

In 1892, Emil Nagant registers several patents, among which one can find a variant of the trigger mechanism that makes the drum of a revolver “roll” onto the barrel of a weapon and a cartridge with a deep-seated bullet inside. It was these developments that became the basis for the new revolver, which received the designation M1892, but was not mass-produced.

The weapon did not go into the series due to the fact that this particular revolver was presented at the competition for a new short-barreled weapon for the Russian army. All the efforts of the designers were aimed at winning this time, after losing the competition for a new rifle. In the process of improving the revolver, both Emil and Leon went to a variety of tricks, because everyone knows the phrase that the barrel of the Nagan M1895 revolver can be made from rejected Mosin rifle barrels. The original cartridge of the weapon, the barrel was changed, and all this was deservedly rewarded with victory.

The race for a contract from the Russian army finally undermined Emil's health, and after winning the competition, he retired in 1896. It is this event that can be considered the one that erased his name in history. Since 1896, the arms company has been renamed from "Fabrique d" Armes Emile et Leon Nagant "to" Fabrique d "Armes Leon Nagant". Why there was a change in the name of the company is difficult to say with certainty. Perhaps the reason was that Leon Nagant saw the future in the development of the automotive industry, while Emil remained faithful to firearms. After the model of the M1895 revolver, the arms company of Leon Nagant was already unable to please anything fundamentally new, concentrating on the development of cars, and not new weapons. Leon Nagant died in 1900 at the age of 67. Emil, with his failing health and already virtually complete blindness, could not replace his brother even as the head of the company.

There was a sequel, but it didn't last long.

So in 1900, Emil's children, Charles and Maurice, became the leaders of the Nagant company. True, it is necessary to make a reservation that the children were no longer children, but accomplished men who had previously taken an active part in the affairs of the company.

Just like their uncle Leon, they saw the future of the company in the automotive industry, but they did not abandon the arms business, however, for them it was in the background.

Of all the developments of the children of Emil Nagant, there is only one model of a revolver that deserves attention, namely the Nagant M1910. At its core, it was an M1895 revolver, but with one significant difference - its drum leaned to the right side for reloading, which significantly accelerated this process. Unfortunately, such an update of weapons was a little late, as revolvers were seriously pushed aside by self-loading pistols.

The mass of the revolver developed by the children of Emil Nagant was 795 grams. The length of the weapon was 240 mm with a barrel length of 110 mm. The revolver was fed from a drum with seven chambers of 7.62x38 cartridges.

In 1914, the production of weapons and ammunition in the Nagant company was discontinued. The First World War and the general low demand for cars after it did not allow the company to develop in the car market. In 1930, the company, founded by Emil and Leon Nagan, closed.

Based on articles by Sergei Monetchikov and the guns.ru forum