Introduction
has invented many types of revolver in the life of Samuel Colt, the father of the famous American firearms inventor, revolver, and one of them has the most special name. That is the Colt M1848 Dragoon (Colt M1848 Dragoon) he developed in 1848.
This revolver named "Dragman" (hereinafter referred to as Dragoon revolver) has excellent performance, firepower and power is also very good, so that it was honored as "Raptor pistol" at the time! It has a very important position in the history of the United States and the history of firearms. It is one of the "classic symbols" of American western culture and once helped the United States open up the western frontier.
Now please readers and friends, follow the editor's article to learn about the related history of the Dragoon revolver.
The origin of the Colt Dragoon revolver
In the late 1840s, the United States absorbed the Republic of Texas (now Texas) as the 28th state and expanded to the Pacific coast. There were constant frictions between China and Mexico, and eventually the two countries inevitably broke out in a war, known as the US-Mexico War (May 1846 ~ February 1848).
In order to fight against the powerful Mexican army, the U.S. Army has carried out a substantial expansion, and the number of soldiers has skyrocketed. At the same time, these soldiers are in short supply of weapons. This situation is particularly serious in its cavalry units. A weapon with both great power and high rate of fire is needed to fight the enemy.
For this reason, with the help of an officer, Colt invented the Colt Walker (hereinafter referred to as the Walker revolver) in 1847 to solve the predicament of the cavalry, but Walker There are too many shortcomings and faults of the revolver. For example, although
has great power and extremely fast rate of fire, when shooting, its runner shell nest is always prone to burst failure, and the joint between the runner and the barrel is also easy to break when shooting. In addition, the Walker revolver has many problems, and its reliability is quite poor.
Therefore, in response to this situation, Colt learned the lessons of the past, and in 1847 developed a new type of pistol based on the Walker revolver-the Colt M1848 Dragoon revolver. Its power and size are equally huge, but it is more reliable and popular with users. It became one of the standard weapons of the US Army in 1848. Details of the
Colt Dragoon revolver
Dragoon revolver is an alternative to Walker revolver. Both have the same caliber. Both are 0.44 inches (about 1.11 cm) in caliber, but Dragoon The size, weight and power of the revolver are smaller than that of the Walker revolver. It has a total length of 37.5 cm and a barrel length of 19.04 cm. Each bullet uses 3.23 grams of black powder. The whole gun weighs about 1.8 without ammunition. Kg, the projectile’s muzzle velocity is about 259 m/s.
Unlike the Walker revolver with many faults, the Dragoon revolver can be regarded as a good battlefield gun with excellent performance.
Because of the reduction in the amount of gunpowder, the power of the Dragoon revolver is slightly weaker than the Walker revolver, but its power is also considerable. It was one of the most powerful revolver in the world at that time. The power of the
Walker revolver is very powerful, because each bullet uses 3.88 grams of black powder, which can produce about 640 joules of kinetic energy, but at the same time it is powerful, its bullet nest is easy to burst. It's not safe to get up. The Dragoon revolver uses only 3.23 grams of black powder per bullet, which can generate approximately 576 joules of kinetic energy. This makes the Dragoon revolver more reliable, durable and easy without reducing its power too much. carry.
Compared with the bulky body of the Walker revolver, the Dragoon revolver that has been significantly reduced in weight is more "light and agile" and is very sensitive to use. The user can easily change the aiming direction and aim of the pistol. shooting.
Colt also analyzedPreviously, the revolver was easy to misfire. The Dragoon revolver was equipped with a safety device to prevent accidental misfire, and the thickness of each part was reinforced to prevent the pistol from bursting or breaking during shooting.
In addition, the previously criticized drop of the pressure rod on the Walker revolver has also been solved in the Dragoon revolver. The original foldable pressure rod on the Walker revolver fired on the pistol. It is easy to be shaken off when the time, and then jam the runner shell nest, making it unable to rotate freely to change the bomb.
The Dragoon type revolver is equipped with a reloading hammer strike lock structure for the first time. This structure can effectively prevent the pressing rod of the pistol from jamming the revolver nest and preventing it from rotating when the pistol is shooting. This structure is very important. The gunners no longer need to hold the pressure rod with one hand or tie the pressure rod to the barrel with a cloth strip when shooting.
In addition, compared with the revolver made in the past, the Dragoon revolver is also more refined, because when the Dragoon revolver was produced, Colt’s weapon manufacturing company has come back to life and developed. It also purchased the more advanced machinery and production technology at that time. The Dragoon revolver produced by it not only engraved multiple spiral rifling inside the barrel, but also carried out blueing and rust prevention on the surface.
At the same time, in order to make customers feel that the revolver produced by Colt Weapon Manufacturing Company is worth the money, Colt requires that the weapons produced by the workers must be unique in appearance, quality and performance, and be in the dragoon type. The revolver of the revolver is decorated with an exquisite picture of the American cavalry fighting the Indians. The use of
Colt Dragoon revolver
Dragoon revolver appeared, the metal fixed ammunition has not yet been invented, gunners are still using sub-loading ammunition, and using flash caps as the bullet primer, the loading process Slightly complicated and cumbersome.
When using the Dragoon revolver, the user must first pour gunpowder into the chamber of the revolver cartridge, and then fill a gasket into the chamber to increase air tightness to prevent the leakage of gunpowder and projectiles , And then put a projectile into the chamber, and press it with a folding compression rod, and finally put a flash hider on the anvil at the end of the chamber, so that you can pull the hammer back and prepare to shoot.
and then the user only needs to pull the trigger, the hammer will hit the flash hider, and then the flash hider will generate sparks, which will ignite the gunpowder in the revolver cartridge chamber, and finally shoot the bullet.
Dragoon revolver is a single-action revolver, so what is a single-action revolver? The so-called single-action revolver of
refers to that although the hammer and trigger of the revolver have a mechanical linkage structure, the hammer cannot be automatically reset to a ready-to-fire state after shooting, and the user needs to reset the hammer manually. The more accurate explanation of
is that when the user manually pulls the hammer of the Dragoon revolver back, the hammer can only drive the revolver to rotate, rotating a certain chamber to be flush with the barrel. When pulling the trigger, the hammer will also hit the tail of this chamber. When the hammer completes one impact, if the user wants to shoot a second time, he must pull the hammer back again to reset it, so that repeated shooting can be completed. The single-action firing structure of
leads to a very famous shooting method-revolver rapid fire, that is, the user holds the trigger of the revolver with one hand, and the other hand quickly fanned the revolver. The hammer keeps hitting the tail of the runner's bullet nest, so that all the bullets in the runner's nest can be shot out within three seconds. This shooting method of
has great practicability and may instantly increase the firepower of the pistol, but at the same time, this shooting method is also more difficult and requires high requirements for the gunner’s experience, arm strength and physical fitness. In order to make the dragoon revolver hit the target more accurately, the user must go through a long period of exercise, so as to withstand the huge recoil generated by the dragoon revolver and give way to the waist. The revolver hits the target in the distance accurately. The application of
Colt Dragoon revolver
Because of its superior performance, the sales and application of Dragoon revolver are much better than Walker revolver, and Colt is also the number one.After the Dragoon revolver was sold, the Dragoon II and Dragoon III revolver were produced according to market demand. These three versions of Dragoon revolver were sold between 1848 and 1850. 7000, its sales volume is several times that of Walker revolver, and user response is also very good.
In the US-Mexico war, the Dragoon revolver gained a reputation. Although it was expensive, each pistol sold for about US$28, which was almost equivalent to a month’s salary for ordinary American workers at the time. The U.S. cavalry has greatly increased its combat effectiveness.
Even after the war, the Dragoon revolver played an important role in maintaining the security of the American frontier. For example, the Rangers in Texas, USA, like to use the Dragoon revolver and Abba. The Chi and the Comanche and other Indians fought and were always able to defeat them.
The previous Walker revolver is almost unpopular in the civilian weapons market. Only the U.S. Army’s Ordnance Department has purchased thousands of them. The Dragoon revolver has been used by civilians because of its superior performance, reliable structure and safe use. Accepted by the market.
Although the dragoon revolver is relatively large in size and weight, it is a large saddle bag gun (Holster Model) and needs to be carried in a saddle pistol holster, but some ordinary Americans who go to the wild west to open up the wilderness value it. In view of the powerful firepower and reliable performance of the Dragoon revolver, they believed that it was the best weapon to protect themselves and their family members and property from others, so they paid for it.
Although the performance of the Dragoon revolver is very superior, it also has some shortcomings. For example, although the Dragoon revolver is powerful, its size and weight are also very large. If there is no horse to carry, It is very inconvenient for the user to carry, and it is also difficult to hide, unable to respond to some emergency situations in time, which greatly limits the final sales of this revolver.
In order to seize the market share of civilian weapons, Colt had to develop a new type of revolver on the basis of the Dragoon revolver-Baby Dragoon (Baby Dragoon).
Colt has greatly reduced the size, weight, caliber, and power of the Dragoon revolver. However, the final sales volume of the new revolver produced by it is very good, far exceeding the previous Dragoon revolver. , And the Dragoon revolver did not become more popular until the Civil War, and sales increased.
