Chapter 369: The Revolver

There were also some dissenting voices who objected: would the widespread distribution of weapons to the natives at this time cause the weapons to be scattered? The controversy was particularly great over equipping native cadres with pistols: the army was centrally managed and strictly controlled by the Transmigration members from top to bottom, minimizing the possibility of weapons being scattered. Once the weapons were in the hands of the extremely dispersed native cadres, they would be difficult to manage.

However, the realistic threat eventually led the Planning Yuan to propose the creation of a pistol specifically for native personnel as a standard self-defense weapon.

So this problem was handed over to the First Weapons Design Group—the first group specialized in designing “modern weapons,” unlike the second design group, which was mainly focused on retro-style weapons.

The main force of the First Weapons Design Group was Li Yi’ao. This man, who rarely spoke and had a round figure, was a skilled machinist. He was not only a good fitter, but also very proficient in the application of other machine tools. This skill contributed to Li Yi’ao’s side business. He used to secretly and illegally make guns. It was a piece of cake for him to imitate small pistols with a free-bolt action like the Type 64. According to him, he had made pistols, shotguns, and rifles. To show that he was not bragging, he brought two of his own works in his carry-on luggage, a 9mm Makarov/Type 59 and an M1911.

Li Yi’ao donated his full set of gun-making tools and many of his self-made special equipment to the organization. With this set of things, as long as he could find roughly suitable steel, it would not be too difficult to make an AK—of course, it could not be compared with the AKs that came out of regular factories. The only problem was that bullets were difficult to make. He humbly said that he could only reload them.

Li Yi’ao’s initial involvement in this line of work was more out of interest than for making money—a common pursuit for those who love weapons and have hands-on skills. However, once this interest was supported by profit, his dedication to technological research intensified, and the things he created became increasingly bold, from simply imitating crude small “zha pao” to a more sophisticated imitation of various famous pistols. If it weren’t for the wormhole, Li Yi’ao’s fate would be imaginable. His wife, Li Yuanyuan, said that their participation in the Transmigration was largely out of necessity.

In Lingao, the couple lived a very happy life. His wife worked as a clerk in the Executive Committee, and he could finally make guns openly and legally—the joy of being able to make guns in the open and discuss his works with others in a grand manner was something Li Yi’ao had never enjoyed before.

But Li Yi’ao didn’t find many opportunities to show off his skills. The Transmigration members’ armory was quite full, with rifles, pistols, and shotguns, so there was no need for his homemade firearms for the time being. Everyone praised his craftsmanship, but no one wanted to personally use the guns made from unqualified local steel. As for the Minie rifles made for the natives, they were the product of industrialized mass production and did not require much of his effort—Zhan Wuya and others had prepared a full set of tooling equipment needed for the production of Minie rifles in another time and space.

So Li Yi’ao was specially responsible for the manufacture of light weapon ammunition in the machinery factory—mainly reloading 7.62*54mm bullets for the SKS rifle—the consumption of this kind of bullet was very large in several battles. Li Yi’ao used to reload this kind of bullet frequently, was very familiar with it, and had specially made a set of small special equipment, including bullet molds and a special press.

He couldn’t make jacketed bullets—fortunately, lead was abundant here, so he used pure lead directly. The gunpowder was the best high-grade fine-grained black powder—no matter how hard the chemical department tried, nitrocellulose was still at the level of making paint.

But the current situation was not like reloading a few, a dozen, or at most a hundred rounds at a time in the past. Even for the daily shooting training that the Transmigration members conducted to maintain their feel for weapons, the number of shell casings brought back after each session was at least two thousand. It was simply hard labor for him to reload them one by one.

With the support of Zhan Wuya, Li Yi’ao improved the equipment, turning the small equipment that was suitable for him to use secretly by himself into an assembly line that could be operated by multiple workers. This way, he had time and energy to engage in his main business—light weapons manufacturing.

He did not participate in the manufacture of Derringer pistols—he looked down on such crude weapons. He focused his energy on imitating military 12-gauge shotguns. Shotguns have low requirements for bullets and do not need metal casings. The navy and the special reconnaissance team were very interested in this weapon.

The task of imitating pistols temporarily interrupted his research and development of shotguns. The members of the weapons design team gathered in the office of the machinery factory from their respective posts to prepare for a project discussion on this “native-specific pistol.”

The soul of the First Weapons Design Group was Bai Yu. He was not only an armored corps officer, but also a bona fide graduate of weapons design and engineering. Although Li Yi’ao had rich experience in gun making, he had little experience in how to design weapons and adapt them to mass production—he had always been a workshop-style manufacturer.

After receiving the task book, the members of the design team pondered the weapon requirements issued by the Planning Yuan:

This weapon must be cheap enough, consume less material, be convenient to manufacture, and be able to form a large-scale production capacity in a short period of time;

In terms of the ammunition used by the pistol, it is best to be ammunition that the natives cannot imitate or find substitutes for, so as to prevent the pistol from being used by hostile elements after it is lost;

The pistol must be easy to use, safe and reliable, and its performance does not need to be very high. An effective range of 25 meters is sufficient.

“To meet these requirements, only a revolver will do,” Li Yi’ao said after reading it. “Otherwise, we might as well mass-produce the 13mm ‘single-shot,’ so that the barrel and ammunition are universal with the Minie rifle.”

“Forget the ‘single-shot.’ You have to load it once for every shot. It’s either for murder or for suicide.” Bai Yu had always been disgusted with this crude and ugly weapon, and everyone in the first group felt the same.

Revolvers have low material requirements and use a hammer firing mechanism, which does not require springs and firing pins that have high requirements for materials and production technology. The feeding method is simple and reliable, and it can provide a certain degree of sustained firepower.

“Which one should we imitate? Webley or Smith & Wesson?” Li Yi’ao was familiar with the line drawings and structural diagrams of most pistols in the world. If he had the materials, he could basically imitate them to a large extent, but of course, the performance could not be compared. “In terms of performance, the Webley revolver is better.”

“Let’s go with Smith & Wesson,” Wang Ruixiang insisted. He really liked this pistol, although he had never seen an S&W pistol in another time and space—not even a dog. But he still fell in love with this rather romantic weapon.

Among the self-defense pistols purchased by the Transmigration members through the North American branch were many S&W revolvers using 9mm Para ammunition, most of which had 4-inch barrels. Wang Ruixiang got one, and paired it with a replica American police revolver holster and bullet belt from a military surplus store, which he always hung on his hip.

“The Webley revolver is very fast to load,” Li Yi’ao said. The Webley revolver is loaded by pushing the ear pin on the left rear of the revolver frame forward to lower the grip, then the sleeve and barrel are closed to prepare for firing. When ejecting the shell casing, the gun is opened again, and a star-shaped ejector automatically removes the shell casing from the revolver. This is a faster and more advanced device than a swing-out cylinder, and it is more suitable for use with a speedloader.

“I’m afraid the material won’t be able to handle it,” Bai Yu said. The structure of this gun is complex and its weight is relatively large, so the material strength requirements are high. “Besides, we don’t have metal casings available, so its advantages can’t be realized.”

“Let’s imitate the Smith & Wesson,” Wang Ruixiang insisted.

“I think it’s still too complicated. The gun-making instructions given to us by the Planning Yuan are to simplify—and simplify again,” Bai Yu said. “Eliminate all unnecessary parts and reduce the number of processes and processing requirements as much as possible.”

“If we simplify the Smith & Wesson any further, we’ll have to make a Western-style revolver.”

In the end, it was decided to adopt the Western-style revolver. Its cylinder cannot be swung out. The cylinder has to be manually rotated, and one round is loaded at a time. The loading speed is slower, but it saves the device for swinging out the cylinder, and the tolerance requirements for production and assembly can be further reduced.

Originally, in order to further reduce the difficulty of production and unify the production standards, Wang Ruixiang proposed to let this revolver use the same 13mm diameter seamless steel pipe as the Minie rifle, so that they could use the same size seamless steel pipe without having to prepare separate materials, and even use the waste material generated from cutting during the production of Minie rifles.

But Bai Yu believed that this improvement was not worth the loss: using a 13mm caliber was too large, which would inevitably lead to too much ammunition being loaded, resulting in excessive power.

Revolvers do not have any anti-recoil components—such as a recoil mechanism, so the recoil is completely absorbed by the shooter. Therefore, they cannot fire ammunition with too much propellant.

The result of excessive recoil is that it is difficult for the shooter to control the gun during shooting, which affects accuracy. Moreover, the unique structure of the revolver allows the propellant gas to leak from the gap in the cylinder. If the bullet is too large, the amount of propellant loaded will inevitably be large. Excessive propellant gas and incomplete combustion may injure the shooter.

The more propellant, the more expanding gas when firing, and the higher the requirements for the material and processing level of the barrel and chamber. If small-caliber ammunition is used, the requirements for the barrel material can be greatly reduced, and the structural and process requirements can also be lowered.

The last problem is the 13mm bullet. Whether it is a metal bullet or a paper-cased bullet, its size and weight are too large. The size of the pistol made will also increase accordingly. In order to reduce the size, the capacity of the magazine will have to be reduced.

“In my opinion, the current 13mm Minie rifle is already too large in caliber and has excessive power, but this is a fait accompli and cannot be changed for a while.”