By Jim Dickson | Contributing Writer
The top break revolver has always offered significant advantage over swing out cylinder revolvers,
yet it has fallen out of favor with today’s shooters largely because of the marketing success of the swing out cylinder revolver and the lack of pushing the top break design to the American shooter.
Colt never did offer one and Smith & Wesson quit making their big bore .44 and .45 top breaks by WWI leaving only the pocket .38 S&W and .32 S&W revolvers in their top break designs offered. This also caused many people to assume erroneously that the top break designs were less strong than the swing out cylinder designs despite the success of the top break big bore Webley service revolvers in .455 and .476. Webley had never seriously marketed their products to the American shooter and ultimately that led to the demise of the firm when a flourishing American market could have made them a direct competitor to Colt and S&W even today.
One of the big advantages of the top break revolver is its quick and positive ejection of the empty cases with no possibility of a case getting behind the extractor and tying up the gun until it is manually worked out, as can happen with a swing-out cylinder gun if the muzzle is not held perfectly straight up when you push the ejector rod back. Note that you are having to manually push the ejector rod back whereas on a top break the simple act of opening the pistol throws the spent cases clear; a much cleaner, faster, and more foolproof method.
Once the empty cases are ejected, the top break revolver sits normally in your hand with the empty cylinder pointed straight up ready for a reload. With a swing-out cylinder revolver you have to turn the whole gun muzzle down and the cylinder may easily roll back partly inside the frame as you are trying to insert fresh cartridges. Fractions of a second seem like they take forever when someone is shooting at you and they can also easily make the difference between whether you live or die in the encounter.
Closing the cylinder under pressure is foolproof with a top break revolver but with a swing out cylinder revolver I have seen hurried men try to close the cylinder with the extractor not fully retracted resulting in it marring the side of the pistol and always the threat of whatever made them hurry marring them, perhaps permanently and decisively.
Many top break revolvers such as those made by S&W can easily have the cylinder removed for cleaning. This was a major thing when we were using black powder shells in our guns and it still is a great convenience. The easier it is to clean a gun thoroughly the more likely it is to happen.
There are two main methods of closing a top break revolver, the American lift-up latch and the Webley stirrup latch. Both work well. The Webley stirrup latch is simpler and faster and it can be operated by the hand holding the pistol whereas the American lift up latch requires the other hand to be employed.
Since the majority of American top break revolvers are the pocket pistols of the turn of the century a further look at them is warranted. S&W, Iver Johnson, and countless others made these in both .32 and .38 S&W caliber. Today their place is filled largely by subcompact automatic pistols and the older 5-shot top break revolvers are regarded as obsolete relics, but are they really?
True firepower is defined as bullets hitting the target, and these old pocket revolvers are exceptionally capable in that regard. Remember, only hits matter. The rest is just noise.
Country folk routinely used these to kill varmints after their chickens as well as rabbits and squirrels for the pot. Contrast that with today’s subcompact .32 and .380 autos which are really intended as point blank, close range defense weapons. A potential adversary may not be at grappling range. He may be some distance away trying to shoot at me. I want something that can reach out and touch someone at a distance. These old top break pistols can do that easily.
Recoil is another thing to consider as it can drastically slow down second and third shots. The .38 S&W cartridge fired out of these old guns is very pleasant to shoot quite unlike the ultra-lightweight micro pistols whose polymer frames make serious weight reduction possible. These polymer frames also are planned obsolescence as the polymer will deteriorate in 50-75 years under the best storage conditions and a lot sooner exposed to sunlight and less favorable conditions. They won’t be heirlooms used by generation after generation unless replacement frames are available. I still use guns used 165 years ago in the War for Southern Independence thanks to their being made of steel and wood. I sure couldn’t use 165-year-old polymer guns today if such old examples existed.
What I would like to see is a line of top break revolvers in .22LR, .32, 38 S&W, and .45 Colt. The .45 ACP and the .45 Colt have proven to be by far the most reliable manstoppers of the pistol cartridges and of the two the .45 Colt is the one originally designed for revolvers. The .45 ACP in full or half- moon clips could be offered as a spare cylinder option. I don’t want to use anything but the proven best personal defense, though I concede the need for lesser calibers in smaller guns for concealment. As for magnums and super magnum cartridges, there is no mechanical reason that the top break revolvers cannot be made for them. I just don’t like the decibel levels the magnums reach. I want to keep my hearing thank you. If I want more power than a .45 ACP or .45 Colt I will take a rifle.
America chose the side swing cylinder revolver over the top break long ago. It was the wrong choice.
