The automatic revolver is a strange hybrid of revolver and automatic pistol that uses the energy of firing for cocking the hammer and revolving the cylinder. The first of its kind, the WebleyFosbery automatic revolver, was released in 1901. It was the result of a quest for a reliable, accurate, rapid fire handgun. It was quite successful in its time, but became obsolete when reliable, accurate automatic pistols became available. See the revolvers section for more information.
The term "automatic revolver" was sometimes also used for top-break revolvers that automatically ejected spent rounds when opened.
Revolvers have a revolving chamber; pistols have a chamber integral with the barrel.
Revolvers feed ammunition via the rotation of a cartridge-filled cylinder, in which each cartridge is contained in its own ignition chamber, and is sequentially brought into alignment with the weapon's barrel by a mechanism linked to the weapon's trigger (double-action) or its hammer (single-action).
Some automatic pistol models such as the HK Heckler and Koch USP (Universal Self-loading Pistol) come in a variety of mechanism types and can be easily changed by a gunsmith for both left- and right-handed shooters and for different operating mechanism and safety features.
Revolvers have remained popular to the present day in many areas, although they have largely been supplanted by magazine-fed semi-automatic pistols such as the Colt 1911, especially in circumstances where reload time and higher cartridge capacity is deemed important.
There is a rare class of revolvers, the automaticrevolver, that attempts to overcome this restriction, giving the high speed of a double action with the trigger effort of a single action.
It was recoil-operated, and the cylinder and barrel recoiled backwards to cock the hammer and revolve the cylinder.
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