Trivia of the day

The Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver in .455 and .38 Cal

Featured in the movie "Zardoz" as Sean Connery's Revolver and also the gun which killed

Sam Spade's partner Miles Archer in "The Maltese Falcon" (for extra credit the gun in the 

movie is incorrectly  identified by Bogie as an 8 shot .45 cal automatic.  The .455 model in reality

had a six shot cylinder - though the .38 cal does have an 8 shot capacity).  The terms automatic

and revolver are usually mutually exclusive, but Webley is an exception because of it's unique

mechanism.  Essentially, the weapon is cocked by pulling back on the hammer which slides the

entire top half of the revolver - barrel, cylinder and hammer rearward and then releasing it.

When the pistol is fired the recoil force drives the barrel, cylinder, hammer assembly rearward

again.  During the fore and back motion, a stud in the lower section which rides in the grooves in

the cylinder rotates the cylinder to the next round ready to fire again.  Aside from rapid firing

one benefit of the unusual design is improved accuracy versus a normal revolver.  To make

things a bit more odd, the revolver also uses a "break top" reloading scheme (see the last image).

Production ceased in 1918 and fewer than 5k were made.