When cocking or firing a revolver the cylinder rotates to bring a live shell ready to fire. My question–is the rotation of the cylinder typically clock-wise, or counter-clockwise, when viewing from the back of the weapon? I know that both directions are used. What is the most common direction of rotation employed today?
I have two revolvers–one is CW, and the other is CCW. Why?
No idea. Off the top of my head, I have never seen an anti-clockwise (as seen from the rear) revolver. But then again I have not seen everything.
I’ve only ever seen CW, but like Paul, I ain’t seen everything.
What’s the make/model of your two wheelguns?
Everything I’ve seen in movies has been clockwise. I presume the reason for that is because most people are right handed. You’d rather see the bullets going in than out, I would guess (for instance, if you have fewer than a full cylinder’s worth of bullets, you’ll spot the gap coming.)
Does your CCW gun have the cylinder swing out on the right side (as viewed from the back)? Possibly it’s for a lefty.
It’s to do with the loading mechanism, usually.
Solid-Frame revolvers (such as the Colt Single Action Army and the Nagant M1895) rotate clockwise, because they load from a gate at the rear of the revolver and it’s easier for the firer to index (manually rotate) the chambers clockwise to eject the shells and load new cartridges.
The Webley top-break revolvers rotate clockwise, as do most other British revolvers. Ruger GP-100, Security Six, and Redhawk revolvers rotate anti-clockwise, as do (I believe) Colt Police Positive and S&W Model 10 revolvers, but it’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to play with either of those.
FWIW, It’s been my experience that swing-out cylinder revolvers generally rotate anti-clockwise, whilst solid-frame and break-top revolvers rotate clockwise.
It’s easier to get the cylinder on a swing-out revolver to “roll” out of the gun if it rotates anti-clockwise (towards the left, the same side the cylinder swings out), whereas on a solid-frame revolver it’s easier if the cylinder rotates clockwise to facilitate ejection and loading, whereas in a break-top revolver it doesn’t really matter which way the cylinder rotates, since the revolver breaks open to reload anyway, so I guess they went with “Clockwise” because that’s how most revolvers rotated at the point the top-break design became popular.
I will give it my $.02,
The oldtimers, Cap & Ball with percussion caps are a clockwise rotating cylinder. That allows the spent cap to fall free as the cylinder is rotated towards the loading cutout, which is found on the right side of the frame. of course this cutout is for priming the cylinder(capping).
This revolver was and is still raised up over the right shoulder and then cocked to allow the spent cap to fall free as they do cause a cylinder to jam.
Smith and Wesson revolvers rotate to the left. They didn’t make a cap and ball revolver as Model # 1 is a .22 rimfire (what we might refer to as a .22 short today).
Note;
Raising revolver is a poor safety practice, as our muzzle should always point to ground then target with good backstop, and back to ground. The old days of a high retention should be corrected.
The CCW cylinder rotation is on my Ruger SP101. Yes, it is CCW. That is why I asked the question, I had never seen it before.
I can see the scenario in a movie–a guy loads a revolver and leaves one empty cylinder. Being “cool”, he cocks and pulls the trigger. Unknown to him, the revolver has a CCW rotation! Good-bye, Mr. Cool! Great scenario for a movie!
More info: My CW revolver is a Charter Arms. Both the Ruger and Charter cylinders fall to the left for reloading. Odd, is it not?
And it has happened in real life also, A case where some young men were doing the Russian roulette thing, and mistook the rotation after seeing the rounds position in the cylinder from the front.
FWIW, I have S&W and Taurus revolvers. Both rotate CW from the perspective of the shooter.
My best guess as an engineer is that a CW rotation is easiest to accomodate with the internal mechanism and a right-handed shooter. CCW is certainly possible, but harder to design and implement.
ETA: Hallmarks of a right-handed design are the cylinder release being on the left side, and the cylinder itself opening to the left.
I remember hearing at the gun club that Colt revolvers rotate “into the frame” and S&W revolvers rotate “out of the frame” based on cylinders that swing open to the left. Colt lovers cited this as “proof” that Colt revolvers had tighter lock-up than their S&W counterparts.
I just checked a S&W model 66 (.357) revolver. The cylinder opens to the left, as you note is best for a right-handed shooter. But the rotation is definitely CCW when viewed from the rear.
Yep. My S&W rotates CCW, while the Taurus rotates CW. Both open to the left.
My two S&W’s rotate counter clockwise. So does my NAA minirevolver.
I’ll check my 686 when I get home. Unfortunately, I’ve slept a few times since I shot it last.
Colt 1908 introduced the .38 Police Positive with a cylinder that rotated clockwise when viewed from the rear. This is opposite to Colt’s previous double-action models which rotated counter-clockwise. I believe clockwise is now the direction in which all Colt revolvers operate.
http://www.shootingtimes.com/handgun_reviews/coltp_083106/
All current Smith & Wesson revolvers rotate counter-clockwise; however early model double-actions rotated clockwise. They, too, have reversed their direction of rotation.
So, the answer is: both. Even from the same manufacturer.
Is Colt even making any significant number of revolvers these days? Last I heard, they had SAA/“Peacemakers” and Pythons available for jaw-dropping money from their custom shop, but nothing for the general consumer market.
And for those who didn’t already know: Look for a teardrop or triangle shaped indentation on the cylinder to point which way it rotates.
Great information, and true!
I believe you are correct.