Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Opinions please - is a Revolver a Pistol?

I've always considered "Pistols" either the original single shots (where the term came into being) or anything that does not contain a revolving cylinder. To me, a Revolver is NOT a pistol.

Anyone have any strong opinions on this or have any links to historical articles defining the terms as separate or the same? Of course to the general, non gun loving public and press, they are used interchangeably.

To me, any handgun is a pistol, single shot, revolver, or semi.

We have periodically had this discussion several times in the 16 years since I've been here. A revolver is not a pistol. A pistol is a handgun whose chamber is part of its barrel. A revolver, has revolving chambers within a rotating cylinder, which is separate from the barrel.

Yes, early on, when folks were struggling for a term to apply to the revolver, it was sometimes referred to as a "revolving pistol," but that's limited to that early phase when firearm terminology was just incorporating the new concept, and it was pretty quickly dropped in favor of two distinct handgun subcategories, revolver and pistol.

"Handgun" is the super category. "Revolver" and "pistol" are subcategories underneath it in the same way that "chicken" is the super category, underneath which falls "hen" and "rooster." Not all chickens are roosters, and not all handguns are revolvers. Similarly, not all chickens are hens, and not all handguns are pistols.

"All revolvers are pistols but not all pistols are revolvers," is a phrase I have heard for decades and has been in print longer. A revolver is a subset of pistol as are single shots, pepper boxes, fixed multi-barrel pistols, semi-automatics, bolt action, et al. I have seen revolvers called pistols in copies of ads long before Borchard and Mauser came up with their designs in the late 1880s. I recently reread Billy Dixon's auto-biography where he calls whatever revolver he is carrying a "pistol". I'm pretty sure even Sam Colt's 1836 revolver was initially called a "revolving pistol" in early descriptions if not patent request too.

I don't know when the movement to separate the revolver from the pistol category began but I suspect it was not long after semi-auto pistols became feasible devices. If one wishes to use form rather than function as a description I have no problem with it unless one's undies get in a bunch and they try to "correct" everyone. There are much more important definitions to clarify such as calling pistols handgun. and vice versa.

Boy, it's a good thing I haven't had a drink yet today. But I did have scramble eggs this morning! Shhh, don't tell the chickens...er...or the hens.

There are revolvers and there are pistols.

Around here, any handgun in a "pistol". Of course, it is Tennessee, we may not be as discriminating and sophisticated as other folks. "Pistol" is the term for any handgun. Revolver or Semi Auto are descriptive. Typically, we refer to them by make and model (Smith 15, Ruger Blackhawk, Glock 27, Kimber 1911, etc.). But then, my crowd generally knows what those references mean.

I don't know that you can make a statement one way or the other definitively. I have seen old British manuals refer to revolvers as pistols. So historically, especially in the early decades of the invention of the revolver, it continued to be called a pistol. But at some point in the 20th century, "gun people" (which includes military & LE) began calling semi-auto's and anything where the chamber is connected to the barrel a "Pistol" and revolvers were referred to as revolvers exclusively.

While it's technically not "incorrect", in modern parlance, a revolver shouldn't be referred to as a pistol.

Exactly. Just as Winchester 94, Ruger Number 1, Remington 760 or a Mauser 98 are rifles.

when i was a kid back in the 50's, you really didn't see many semiauto handguns being carried. For that matter, i don't remember other than law enforcement many people carrying handguns. They were around the house, but not often carried. More often a rifle of some kind.
The term pistol was often used to describe any handgun. A example would be a first generation colt SAA i hear the term pistol, but don't remember revolver so much. As semiauto's started to become more and more in usage, the distinction between a "wheel gun" or revolver and a semiauto, "a pistol" came into being.

Interesting enought a conversation with a F.B.I. guy that taught classes at quantico sticks in mind. In some of his lectures he used the term wheel gun. He had trainees coming up after the lecture asking him what he meant, they had never heard the term.
Sheesh.

When y'all get done with this, you can tackle what makes the difference between canoe and kayak.

Lets make it easier for the uneducated. We will in future discussions refer to them as side arms.

I guess it would matter when the term pistol came about. If it was used for any handgun or were there specifics to its term.

From my youngest days we never called it a handgun, but a pistol. It didn't matter if it was a semi-auto, revolver or single shot.

Just ask ~ Pistol Packin' Mama!

That's an even larger category than handgun, since it includes sabres.

To my dad, a gun was always a handgun. If you meant rifle or shotgun, you had to say that. Some people seem to develop their own peculiar systems for naming things.

Dammit, Samuel Colt sold his handguns as revolving pistols, and advertised them as such.

That oughta be the end of the discussion.

Traditionally a "gun" was a smooth bore long gun. Everything else was a pistol or rifle. (going back to the turn of the 19th century).

The last I saw the ATF classified 'pistols' as any handgun that doesn't have a revolving cylinder.