# Could a viable revolver rifle be made today?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-viable-revolver-rifle-be-made-today/841463>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 8, 2019, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-viable-revolver-rifle-be-made-today/841463 "2019-10-08T01:57:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-viable-revolver-rifle-be-made-today/841463/21 "2019-10-08T14:58:03Z")

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> [@bump](#):
>
> …Nowadays, I’d imagine that if there was a move to adapt the modern-day revolver cannon mechanisms to small arms, it would be more in the vein of making a machine gun optimized for high ROF bursts, which is effectively what the revolver cannons were developed for in the context of aerial combat. Why anyone would want to do that, I don’t know; most really high ROF machine guns like the MG-42 ended up with heavier bolts and stuff to slow the ROF in subsequent development.

There was the movement in the 70s to use multiple rounds in a burst to maximize single-hit probability. Thinking of things like the [G11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_didDgUjn0) or [VP70’s burst capability](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W6XuqfQCl8). I can’t seem to find the actual dispersion spec the Bundeswehr was shooting for, but it was something like ‘cover a man sized target at 600m, even if he’s running.’ The VP70 pistol also has a ludicrous rate of fire in 3 round burst mode, akin to the G11’s 2100 rd/min rate.

Not something sought out today. I guess [MetalStorm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8hlj4EbdsE) never amounted to much.

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**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-viable-revolver-rifle-be-made-today/841463/22 "2019-10-08T15:20:32Z")

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Are you asking whether it would be technically viable or commercially viable? Technically, you could make one. But, since it’s a solution in search of a problem, few people would buy it. Revolvers are generally more complicated to build than locking breech semi-autos, so it would probably be more costly. It’s not as convenient to reload as a box-fed rifle, which are insanely popular. A revolving rifle would be a novelty gun that is poorer at its job than cheaper semi-autos.

> [@Ashtura](#):
>
> It occurred to me that most rifle rounds are rimless, which would make loading into a cylinder problematic.

But most rifle rounds are necked. You could machine the cylinder and have the headspace based on the shoulder. That’s how rimless rifle chambers work. However, the rifle cartridges shoot more powder at higher pressures than pistol rounds, so the problems of gas and powder escaping through the cylinder gap and the resulting erosion of the frame would be worse for a revolver chambered in typical rifle rounds. There are, as discussed above, complicated ways of minimizing this cylinder gap but the easiest way to manage the problem would be to use lower-pressure pistol rounds.

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