Is a revolver a pistol?

yes it is a pistol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver

hope i helped =]

A revolver Is a Pistol , which Is a handgun. Sorry to be pedantic, but guns aren't toys, no amount of ignorance in their basic designations, legal definitions, possession, and use is excusable. Someone may go to jail or be shot. That's all. You mean, an Auto Pistol vs. a Revolver? Revolvers have a history of jamming less, yes, but some autos are pretty well made. The ones designed specifically for the military jam less, like a P38 was pretty reliable, whereas a Luger would jam on the slightest particle of grit. Any gun wil miss fire on bad ammo, it's just that with a a wheel gun, you can simply go to the next chamber . An auto will jam on bad ammo; you need take immediate action.

It's all a matter of semantics. Both a revolver and a pistol are handguns. The destinction, according to some sources, is that a pistol has no revolving cylinder while a revolver does have the revolving cylinder. According to other sources, a handgun and a pistol are the same thing and a revolver is a special class of pistol.

Neither definition is solidly accepted by everyone but I think the former is the most generally accepted definition. A pistol has no revolving cylinder while a revolver has a revolving cylinder. Both are handguns.

Since an arguement can be made either way, your best resolution is to simply accept thte fact that there are two different definitions and you have each taken a different one. You then agree to disagree and let it go. It isn't worth the effort to continue an endless unsolvable arguement.

Define Revolver

A revolver can be a pistol but it does not have to be. Before the Henrys were made there was some attempts at a revolving rifle. But they had to many problems with it. One being that with the powder they had back then and the way the bullet would revolve, there was a possibility of an exsplotion right in the shooter face.

This was taken from Wikipedia.org:

"Multiple senses of the word "pistol"

The word "pistol" is often synonymous with the word "handgun". Some handgun experts make a technical distinction that views pistols as a subset of handguns. In American usage, the term "pistol" refers to a handgun whose chamber is integral with the barrel, making pistols distinct from the other main type of handgun, the revolver, which has a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers. However, Commonwealth usage makes no distinction at a technical level—"pistol" may refer to revolvers, semi-automatics, or muzzle-loading/cap-&-ball handguns. For example, the official designation of the Webley Mk VI was "Pistol, Revolver, Webley No. 1 Mk VI", and the designation "Pistol No. 2 Mk I" was used to refer to both the Enfield Revolver and the later Browning Hi-Power semi-automatic.[1],[2],[3],[4]

The first pistols were made as early as the 15th century, however the creator is unknown[5]. By the 18th century, the term came to be used often to refer to handheld firearms. Practical revolver designs appeared in the 19th century, and it was in that century that the (sometimes-observed) technical differentiation in usage of the words "pistol" and "revolver" developed.[citation needed]"

A pistol is just a firearm that is held in the hand, and not on the shoulder. Obviously pistols are named by their actions. A revolver is a pistol that uses a cylinder to house cartridges and the mechanism aligns the chamber with the barrel to fire.

Yes, a revolving handgun is a pistol.

Today, speaking of a pistol, it mostly means a auto-pistol

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pis·tol   [pis-tl] noun, verb, -toled, -tol·ing or ( especially British ) -tolled, -tol·ling. noun 1. a short firearm intended to be held and fired with one hand. A semi auto pistol is more prone to different types of jams than a recover but the trade off is that most jams can be cleared in less than a second with proper training and you have a much higher capacity than a comparable sized revolver. With proper training, the semi automatic pistol is the better choice. For someone who is less trained, the revolver is the better choice. This is the reason why 99% of all police departments and military forces worldwide carry semi automatic pistols.

Yes, a revolver is a pistol.

A "pistol" was originally *any* weapon designed to be fired by one hand. They included dart guns, spear guns, single shot muzzle loaders, crossbow pistols etc. The earliest "pistol" to be called such was a 12" candy cane-shaped tube that fired a small dart via force of a compressed spring.

Over the years a lot of different designs and resulting confusion meant that each one would tend to earn a name of its own....a single shot muzzleloader pistol was a "pistol" while a Sam Colt gun was a "revolving pistol". A self-loading pistol, when they were invented, was called an "automatic loading pistol" or just generally "automatics".

Modern usage....as in defined as "any know-it-all teenager or Rambo wannabe" will try to tell you that they are "semi-autos, not autos"....or they are "revolvers, not pistols" etc. Like what they want to call their pistol today has any bearing on the real historic record?

Yes, revolvers are pistols. Single shots are pistols. Automatic pistols are pistols. Crossbow pistols are pistols. Daisy BB pistols are pistols. Etc etc etc.

Oh, and H....the "revolutionary brand-new name" was "revolving pistol". Probably took all of two seconds to come up with that.

Addendum: The point is, H, that the folks who invented the damned thing named it. Not you and certainly not a bunch of teenagers who think they know better. You don't get the right to rename it. Your opinion on that historic fact is thus a moot point. It's a revolving pistol. Live with it.

Loosely speaking the revolver is a pistol but technically speaking it is incorrect to refer to a revolver as a pistol except in the broadest of sense. Usage of the word ‘pistol’ dates back to when all handguns were single-shot or multi-barrel jobs like the Derringer and the Pepperbox and these were the norm. Then came the revolver, a new and innovative departure from what was known as a ‘pistol.' The revolver was so revolutionary that a brand-new name had to be coined for it and so to differentiate it from the older single-shot and multi-barrel pistols it was christened: The Revolver. Later, when auto-loading handguns came along they just called them ‘automatic pistols’ and the revolver simply retained it name, The Revolver. So you see, the revolver is not really a pistol. A pistol is still a single-shot, multi-barrel or self-loading handgun and a revolver is still a revolver.

I hope that helped.

H

ADDENDUM: And rankl, your point is? "Revolver" stuck, 'revolving-pistol' did not.

H