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Can Anyone ID This Strange Looking Cylinder?

buttplatebuttplate Member Posts: 237 ✭✭
in Ask the Experts
Hello,
 Can anyone out there tell me what kind of revolver cylinder this is? It is chambered for a cartridge the size of a .38 S&W .
 Thank you, and stay safe!
  Buttplate
  BMCM USN Retired
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Comments

  • charliemeyer007charliemeyer007 Member Posts: 6,572 ✭✭✭
    edited March 2020
    First thought is that cone shape of the front of each chamber of the the cylinder is a gas seal. 
    added
    Agree 2 piece cylinder and the star is missing.  I like the idea of a conversion cylinder for a prior gas sealed revolver design.
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  • rufe-snowrufe-snow Member Posts: 18,650 ✭✭✭
    Case length of the 38 S & W and 9 mm Luger  are similar. My WAG is that it's out of Europe or South America. A number of 9 mm Luger chambered revolvers. Have been come from there. 
    I believe the widgets on the back of the cylinder are made to snap into the extractor gruve of 9 mm cartridges.
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  • rufe-snowrufe-snow Member Posts: 18,650 ✭✭✭
    I went through my references.  The only 9 mm revolver with a "smooth" cylinder, like the one in your photo. Was the Phillips & Rogers, M-47, Medusa. But it's extraction/retaining mechanism. For the cartridges,  is completely different.  The M-47 was a failure. Perhaps, they might have tryed to make a simpler/cheaper cylinder, strictly for 9 mm P?
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  • mac10mac10 Member Posts: 2,691 ✭✭✭✭
    conversion for a nagant??
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  • buttplatebuttplate Member Posts: 237 ✭✭
    Thank you for your responses! I have no idea what it fits. You've given me some ideas as to where to start looking.
     Stay Safe!
     buttplate
     BMCM USN Retired
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  • buttplatebuttplate Member Posts: 237 ✭✭
     If you look real close, there appears to be a joint where 2 pieces are mated together. The joint is right next to the cylinder stop notches. 
     buttplate
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  • waltermoewaltermoe Member Posts: 2,281 ✭✭✭✭
    I have no Idea what it is,  but what catches my eye, and maybe I'm seeing this wrong, it looks like the chambers are flared on the front of the cylinder, am I seeing this correctly?  And if so, why would they do that?  That doesn't make cense to me.
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  • dok2udok2u Member Posts: 100 ✭
    edited March 2020
    Forgive me for intruding, but I have seen it or something very much like it before.  Unfortunately, that was more than 25 years ago and I don't remember the details.  However, I want to say that it was an attempt to convert a black powder revolver to a cartridge revolver.  I want to say that it was for the Ruger Old Army revolver, but this one appears to be too small for that.  Most, if not all, of the successful conversion cylinders were/are done in two or three pieces.  Is it possible that the star extractor and another piece that would have fit on the back end are both missing?   I also want to say that someone tried making a conversion with a star extractor but without that additional ring of metal over the back end of the cylinder.  It didn't work very well because it wasn't very well made and the cases swelled so much that it still took so long because you almost had to pound out the cases, often breaking the star, in order to reload.  Are those little circular things between the chambers threaded?  If they are threaded, that would be one more piece of evidence pointing toward a three piece - cylinder, star and back plate - conversion.   Let is know what you discover! 
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  • MobuckMobuck Member Posts: 14,070 ✭✭✭✭
    I think they got carried away with "throating" the cylinder.
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  • buttplatebuttplate Member Posts: 237 ✭✭
    dok2u said:
      Are those little circular things between the chambers threaded?  If they are threaded, that would be one more piece of evidence pointing toward a three piece - cylinder, star and back plate - conversion.   Let is know what you discover! 
    Thank you for your input! No, the circular things are not threaded.
     buttplate
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  • buttplatebuttplate Member Posts: 237 ✭✭
    Mobuck said:
    I think they got carried away with "throating" the cylinder.
    Mobuck,
     Could it be that they were attempting to make a gas seal at the forcing cone like on the Nagant?
     buttplate
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This discussion has been closed.