Nagant 1895 revolver 7.62 mm
03. Popular names | Nagant Gas Seal Revolver | |
06. Design date | 1892 | |
01. Original name | Nagant M1895 Revolver | |
02. Other official names | Nagant “Private’s model” («солдатский» наган) – a single-action version for non-commissioned officers and soldiers Nagant “Officer’s model” («офицерский» наган) – a double-action version for officers | |
04. Chamberings | 7.62mm x 39mmR (also 7.5mm commercial and possibly Romanian – limited detail) | |
05. Designed by | Léon Nagant (brother of Emile); Fabrique d’Armes Leon Nagant (to 1910) | |
07. In service date(s) | Russia- 1895 – 2009 (retired from use with postal security service in 2003, and from bailiff security service (Федеральная служба судебных приставов) in 2009 | |
08. Adopted by | Imperial Russia and various other countries. Possibly Romania in 7.5mm although little information is available on this | |
09. Production quantities | up to 1918 1.2 million, up to 1945 about 2 million | |
10. Mechanism | Revolver single and double action. Gas seal system – this is done by pushing the cylinder forward as the hammer is cocked so that the forcing cone of the barrel is inserted into the cylinder chamber while the mouth of the cartridge case is inserted into the forcing cone. The bullet itself is recessed into the mouth of the case so that it does not interfere with the rotation of the cylinder. It effectively creates a gas seal which adds 75 ft/s to the bullet’s initial velocity. A sound suppressor can also be used effectively unlike typical revolver designs | |
11. Weight | 1 lb 12 oz/0.8 kg | |
12. Mountings | Belt holster and accessories (cleaning kit) | |
13. Practicality in action | Accurate and robust. Disadvantage of the design was that Nagant revolvers were laborious and time-consuming to reload, with the need to manually eject each of the used cartridges and reload one cartridge at a time through a loading gate | |
14. Comments / Other information | Other Nagant revolver designs were also adopted by police and military services of Sweden (7.5mm M1887), Norway (M1893), Poland ((Nagant wz. 30), and Greece (Περίστροφον M1895). The Swedish and Norwegian Nagants used a different cartridge, the 7.5 mm Nagant. Emile Nagant patented certain improvements to revolvers: Br Pat 4310/1879 (mechanism, removable side-plate etc.) adopted by the Belgian Army in 1878 (9mm) and others later |