I was reading a thread on another forum about barrel/cylinder gap blast and its dangers, when I remembered a TV program on spycraft and technology I saw a few years ago. An elderly gent who was supposedly an expert and/or ex-professional spook displayed a Dan Wesson revolver he claimed was the only wheelgun that could be used successfully with a suppressor, which he called a silencer. He said the B/C gap tolerance of this piece was so tight that almost no side blast escaped, and the gun was practically silent.

I doubt it, but I'm no expert or secret agent. Seems to me that even with a minuscule gap, that kind of pressures would emit some gas, flash and noise.

Anybody have knowledge of this?

I learned about cylinder gap blast many years ago with my first revolver. My girl friend loaned me her sweater as a rest to shoot my model 27 off the roof of my car. After six rounds we decided to go sweater shopping.

Thank goodness my lesson was learned on an old, ratty pair of sandbags....and they belonged to me.

There was a Russian revolver design that actually closed the gap as the trigger was pulled. That design was supposed to have worked pretty well. There may have been an exceptionally well made conventional revolver that could keep a very close gap and probably could work with a silencer. I'll just bet it wasn't as silent as with the same cartridge in a sealed barrel.

Just like magazines used to be generically known a 'clips', suppressors were generically called silencers in the old days.

Mosin-Nagant. They are currently avalible quite cheap.

Although the Russian examples are best known, the Nagant revolver was actually invented in Belgium and has been used there and in Sweden and Norway, among other countries, I believe.

Yes, the cylinder does move forward on cocking to enclose the rear of the barrel. Hollywood uses any revolver; they don't care if it's realistic.

The Nagant 1895 gas seal revolver. Saw one at a pawn shop. I almost got it but I knew ammo'd be hard to find.

Attached Images

Nagant.jpg (6.5 KB, 13 views)

What I was watching was a documentary, possibly on the History Channel--don't remember for sure, but it wasn't a Follywood production.

Yes, I imagine most of us learned lessons about cylinder gap blast and slide bite a long time ago.

I own 2 Dan Wessons, the design allows you to adjust the B/C gap tighter that the factory issued feeler gauge, but there is still a gap. Likewise my modest experience with Mosin-Nagant revolvers is that the mechanism that ensures the mouth of the cylinder covers the forcing cone reduces problems with the bullet jumping the gap, but does little to reduce blast and flash. Covering the revolver with a pillow or a towel may reduce some of the noise.
"Supposedly an expert." ? We've heard that one before.

Not Mosin, just the 1895 Nagant revolver. Mosin designed rifles with Nagant contributing the interrupter in the magazine.

The 1895 Nagant was indeed used with a suppressor for executions by the NKVD. The 7.62 Nagant round is not exactly a ballistic superpower.

To the best of my recollection the geezer (who was probably younger than I am) had actually been some sort of covert operative. But then we've heard that one too...

I own an 1895 Nagant revolver and just so happens that I shot it yesterday.
Yes, it can be suppressed quite sucessfully. However, I don't know why anybody would want to. The round is anemic, the trigger is horrible and accuracy stinks. These thing are more just curiousities than anything else.
But I guess if you really want a suppressed revolver, this is the one to use.

Suppressed 1895 Nagant revolver