Spanish Gas-Operated Revolvers

[Max Donovan]

A friend of mine has two Spanish-made gas-operated revolvers, a 32 and a 38, obviously from the same designer/factory. Gas is tapped through a port at 6 o'clock to run a piston through the cyliner axis. Is there anything in print about these, other than a brief mention by Wilson?

[grcsat]

Can you sent us some pics?
Don't know if you have a Zig-Zag pistol or what.

[45Auto]

Gunmakers in Spain experimented with gas and recoil opperated revolvers (and many other firearms improvements). As far as I can tell, non of the Spanish automatic revolvers were made in great numbers, and what ever they did produce were not exported to the US market.

With a few notable exceptions, Spanish made handguns are not at the top of the list for American arms collectors. This might explain the limited number of books and articles about Spanish handguns in English. This is also unfortunate because the Spanish made some interesting designs over the years which gun collectors have very little information about.

[Jim K]

I now can't recall where, but I once read about a revolver that had a gas cylinder below the barrel, with a piston that went through the center pin. The piston cocked the hammer, which in the normal way caused the cylinder to turn, then a spring returned the piston. The advantage was that, like a DA/SA pistol, all shots after the first were single action with no manual cocking needed. It was an interesting concept but, like other "automatic revolvers", added complexity and was sort of a solution in search of a problem.

Jim

[grcsat]

Dose it look something like this ?
This type of pistol is commonly refered to as a zigzag pistol.

I do believe that this is a semi auto revolver.

[45Auto]

Hello grcsat,

What you have pictured is a Webley Fosbery, recoil operated revolver.

The revolver collectors call the "zig zag" was a single action made by Mauser, in three different calibers. Collectors call thesa the Mauser zig zag revolvers. There was also an early .22 pepperbox made by Remington, which collectors call the Remington zig-zag. Neither the Remington nor the Mauser were gas or recoil operated.

[Jim K]

Again, IIRC, the one I mentioned was basically a standard S&W/Colt type revolver, just that the operating rod kicked the hammer back (I guess it had a trigger disconnector, though I don't recall mention of it). Cocking the hammer turned the cylinder the same way as if the hammer were cocked by hand; there was no "zig zag" or any need for it.

I would think there might be a problem with such a mechanism in that the gas piston would cock the hammer very fast, much faster than human operation, with consequent excess wear and tear on the ratchet, cylinder stop, etc. That is not the kind of thing that might occur to an inventor with a bright idea, but which might show up in testing and result in abandonment of the project.

Jim