Terminology: Hand

By Wiley Clapp (RSS)

June 05, 2013

In a revolver, the hand is the long bar that reaches up through a slot in the standing breech. The upper tip of the hand engages a lug on the rear of the cylinder (usually part of the extractor) and turns the cylinder. 

It must be adjusted carefully in order to get the cylinder to align with the barrel just as the cylinder bolt locks into its notch. An often misunderstood part of the revolver, the hand was one of the trickiest parts of Sam Colt’s first wheelguns.

Hands have been pretty much the same since. That is until some of the newest polymer frame guns were developed. In effect, they sometimes do away with the hand as we have so long known it. 

Tags:  blogs,  clapp on handguns,  handguns,  hands,  hands on revolvers,  revolvers,  terminology: hand,  wiley clapp

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1 Response to Terminology: Hand

Charlie Rensing wrote:
June 20, 2013

On page 55 of the July 13 A..R, the 'Staff' blew it by calling the revolver bolt a 'bolt/hand' and not even designating the correct hand. I never made it past this page. If you guys are going to talk like experts, you should be sure of what you are publishing.Maybe Wiley Clapp should have edited this part. As far as I know the hand rotates the cylinder, and the bolt locks it in place. They have different fucntions, but work hand in hand. Pun intended.