Watch: Highly Unusual European “Zig-Zag” Revolver
Russ Chastain 11.28.16
This unmarked 11mm (roughly 44 caliber) revolver, with an extraordinarily funky grip shape and angle, is both mysterious and interesting. How and why was it made? Who made it? Why isn’t it marked? But above all else, why does it have such an awkward, unnatural grip?
Ian’s summation of the grip: “It’s weird, it’s not great, but it’s not totally horrible.”
To me, it resembles the weird gun in the Forgotten Weapons logo (see the preview still shot for the video embedded below).
When held, the action and barrel sit considerably above the shooter’s hand, and the tall sights stick up even higher.
It uses a variation of a zig-zag system to turn the cylinder, and it’s rather ingenious. A trigger-like stud is pulled rearward to rotate the cylinder, lock it in place, and cock the hammer.
To load it, you have to cock and manually uncock the hammer each time you load a chamber, which Ian doesn’t like, but he previously demonstrated that the firing pin can be threaded in or out. So you should be able to run the firing pin back until it can’t reach a primer, and then even if you slip while cocking or uncocking, the gun won’t fire. Awkward, but do-able.
Ah, there, Ian noted the same a little later.
All in all, it’s pretty neat (although largely impractical).
On the auction page, they note that this unique popper sold for $5462.50.
