Swiss 1882 Revolver

[Aragorn243]

I hate waiting. They deducted my points on Sunday and removed the listing yesterday so progress is being made. In the meantime I'm watching videos.

The elephant in the room that no one seems to be able to address is why this was kept as a black powder round for it's entire production into the 1960's. The best explanation seems to be that the earliest revolvers had a top strap that was only 1mm thick. Smokeless powder could have cut through that eventually. But these were only the first 4000 so these could have been removed from service. They went to 3mm after that and finally to 4mm at 17,000.

I see that handloaders have developed some loads giving it slightly better performance, an additional 200 fps but only for the later made revolvers.

[Low & Slow]

From what I understand, smokeless was tested for the revolver at least twice, once early on, and a second time with the strengthened 1929 upgrade. Evidently, these Swiss tests proved unsatisfactory, so they just kept on with the black powder loads for the revolvers right up to the end. Obviously, all their auto loading pistols from 1900 on used smokeless only.

[Eaglelord17]

Made in 1916. This was near the end of the Bakelite grips. They went to wood due to shortages caused by WWI.

Seems to be some conflicting information on whether you can shoot 32 S&W Long in it. The Swiss say you can but everyone else says the cases split at a high rate. Something about using 32-20 cases and cutting them down.

I can and do shoot 32 S&W long through my 1882 and 1929 without issue, I just don't reuse the brass.

I hate waiting. They deducted my points on Sunday and removed the listing yesterday so progress is being made. In the meantime I'm watching videos.

The elephant in the room that no one seems to be able to address is why this was kept as a black powder round for it's entire production into the 1960's. The best explanation seems to be that the earliest revolvers had a top strap that was only 1mm thick. Smokeless powder could have cut through that eventually. But these were only the first 4000 so these could have been removed from service. They went to 3mm after that and finally to 4mm at 17,000.

I see that handloaders have developed some loads giving it slightly better performance, an additional 200 fps but only for the later made revolvers.

They would have already been removed from service by the later dates. The Swiss didn't reissue small arms generally, they would keep them or put them into storage with a new production firearm being made for the next batch of troops. Notable exemptions being the 96/11 rifles when they took back the 1889/96 and converted them to GP-11. It is also why most the Swiss arms are in such good shape, generally only being issued to one soldier for a limited amount of time.

Personally I think they kept the black powder loading to keep their black powder manufactures in business. The Swiss were very influenced by civilian shooting (including black powder shooters) and would keep not as good tactical firearms due to this, such as keeping the G1911 when the military felt the K1911 was sufficient for military usage and handier. The civilian shooters preferred the G11s due to the longer sight radius and because of that increased target accuracy.

The US had similar issues with the Krags and 1903 Springfields, needlessly complex sights for a military firearm, yet the marksmen were insistent on it.