A turret gun is a type of multi-shot hand-held

firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...

. It is a variation on the

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...

, designed with chambers in a drum mounted so it would rotate horizontally (around a vertically mounted pivot), rather than around a horizontal axis, in an attempt to circumvent the

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

Samuel Colt Samuel Colt (; July 19, 1814 – January 10, 1862) was an American inventor, industrialist, and businessman who established Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (now Colt's Manufacturing Company) and made the mass production of r ...

. Chambers opened in all directions, and the weapon was prone to row ignition, all chambers firing in sequence, resulting in fatal accidents because one chamber always faces the shooter. Several designs were attempted, including an 1837 Cochran and an 1851 Porter. A number of turret rifles were also attempted. None of these weapons were successful, due to the row-firing hazard. As a result, they are very rare and much sought-after.

Sources

Jeff Kinard, ''Pistols'', 2004
(page 64) (Google Books)

External links

- This link is now defunct and is replaced by an archive link. Firearms {{Firearms-stub