Nagant M1895


The Nagant M1895 is a seven-shot, gas-seal revolver designed and produced by Belgian industrialist Léon Nagant for the Russian Empire.
The Nagant M1895 was chambered for a proprietary cartridge, 7.62×38mmR, and features a gas-seal system, in which the cylinder moves forward when the gun is cocked, to close the gap between the cylinder and the barrel, providing a boost to the muzzle velocity of the bullet and allowing the weapon to be suppressed. Its design would inspire the Pieper M1893 carbine and Steyr 1893 revolver.

History

The Nagant was designed by Léon Nagant, whose brother Émile had also taken part in designing the Mosin–Nagant rifle. The Nagant M1895 was adopted as the standard issue sidearm for the Imperial Russian Army and police officers, where it replaced earlier Smith & Wesson models such as the Model 3.
Production began in Liège, Belgium; however Russian Empire purchased the manufacturing rights in 1898, and moved production to the Tula Arsenal in Russia, and was soon producing 20,000 examples per year.
It was produced in two versions: a double-action version for officers, and a cheaper single-action version for the lower ranks. After the Russian Revolution, only the double-action version was made.
Since 1923, the revolver has been a weapon for sport shooting in the USSR. In September 1923, the first USSR championship in sport shooting was held in Novogireyevo in Moscow oblast. One of the competitions involved shooting with standard army revolvers at targets at a distance of 50 meters. Later, several sports versions of this revolver were created for sporting competitions.
Nagant revolvers were used by the NKVD and Red Army units until the end of World War II, with a total of 2,000,000 produced. The Nagant began to be replaced by the Tokarev semi-automatic pistol in 1933, and was formally replaced by the Makarov in 1952, though Nagant revolvers continued to see limited use in the Korean War and Vietnam War.

Technical characteristics

The M1895 has a mechanism which, as the hammer is cocked, first turns the cylinder and then moves it forward, closing the gap between the cylinder and the barrel. The cartridge, also unique, plays an important part in sealing the gun to prevent the escape of propellant gases. The bullet is deeply seated, entirely within the cartridge case, and the case is slightly reduced in diameter at its mouth. The barrel features a short conical section at its rear; this accepts the mouth of the cartridge, completing the gas seal. By sealing the gap, the velocity of the bullet is increased by 15 to 45 m/s This feature also eliminates the possibility of injury from gases escaping through the gap, which can injure a finger if the user holds the gun with a finger positioned beside the gap. The Nagant's sealed firing system meant that the Nagant revolver, unlike most other revolvers, could make effective use of a sound suppressor, and suppressors were sometimes fitted to it.
The disadvantage of this design is that Nagant revolvers were laborious and time-consuming to reload, with the need to manually eject each of the used cartridges, and reload one cartridge at a time through a loading gate. At the time the revolver was designed, this system was obsolete. In British service the Webley Revolver used a top-break cylinder and star extractor to simultaneously eject all spent cartridges and in American service the Smith & Wesson Model 10 employed a similar system but with a swing-out cylinder. The Nagant with its side-loading gate, and ejector rod to remove spent cartridges individually in succession was for all its novelty, outdated as a military revolver in this regard. However, the Nagant design did have the advantage of requiring less machining than more modern formats.
The Nagant M1895 has a heavy trigger pull.

Cartridges

Russian

7.62mm Nagant is also known as 7.62×38mmR or "Cartridge, Type R". The projectile is seated below the mouth of the cartridge, with the cartridge crimp sitting just above the bullet. When fired, the crimp expands into the forcing cone, completing the gas seal and ostensibly increasing muzzle velocity by approximately 75 ft/s.
Aftermarket cylinders for.32-caliber can be installed, allowing the Nagant to safely fire .32 H&R Magnum or .32 ACP. Shooting any ammunition other than the 7.62×38mmR cartridge with the original cylinder can cause bodily injury from bullet shrapnel or escaping gas, and the excessive pressures produced by some.32 ammunition could also cause catastrophic failure of the cylinder or frame.
Proper fitting ammunition can be reloaded from .32-20 Winchester brass by using the Lee Nagant die set or.30" carbine dies and 9mm Luger shell-holders in the reloading press. This allows the reloaders to work up a load that fits their needs and is specific for the Nagant. While this eliminates the bulged/split/stuck cases experienced when using.32 S&W and.32 H&R, the gas seal that made the Nagant famous will still not fully function as the.32-20 is not long enough to protrude past the cylinder like the original Nagant ammunition.

7.5x22mmR Nagant

The Luxembourgish, Swedish, and Norwegian Nagants used a different cartridge, the 7.5 mm Nagant. This ammunition is dimensionally similar but not interchangeable with the 7.5mm 1882 Ordnance. They lack the gas-seal lock of the Belgian and Russian models.

9.4x22mmR Nagant

The black powder cartridge used in Nagant's original gas-sealed revolver design.

Year of introduction: 1878.

Bullet Diameter: 9.25 – 9.30mm. Round-nosed lead bullet with paper patch.

Bullet Weight: 11.95-12.3 grams

Case diameters,

Neck: 9.90 – 10.20mm

Head: 10.75 – 10.90mm

Rim: 12.00 – 12.35mm

Berdan primer

Cartridge overall length 33.30 – 34.50mm

Cartridge weight 11.95 – 12.30gm

Variants

Russia

Military

  • Nagant "Private's model" - a single-action version for non-commissioned officers and soldiers
  • Nagant "Officer’s model" - a double-action version for officers
  • suppressed Nagant with sound suppressor known as the "BRAMIT device" - produced since 1931 for Soviet reconnaissance and scout troops

Civilian

  • TOZ-36 - since 1962
  • TOZ-49
  • KR-22 «Sokol» -.22 LR
  • Nagant 1910 - An improved version with a swing-out cylinder. It was never accepted into service and had poor civilian market sales.
  • "Shadow-7" - Carbine variant with a 450mm barrel, produced in 2020 by Russian company Test-Oruzhie, chambered for 5.45×18mm.

Belgium

Nagant M1878 Belgian Officer's Revolver - Single Action / Double Action trigger. 6-shot cylinder.

Nagant M1883 Belgian Infantry Revolver - Simplified Single Action Only trigger version. 6-shot cylinder.

Nagant M1886 Belgian Officer's Revolver - Simplified Double Action Only trigger version. 6-shot cylinder.

Luxembourg

In the 1880s, Luxembourg purchased a total of 190 Nagant revolvers, with the standard model chambered in 7.5mm, and the Gendarmerie receiving a black powder 9.4x22mm variant which could also affix a spike bayonet.

Norway

Designated the M1893, and based on the Swedish M1887.

Poland

Poland designed approximately 21,000 Nagant wz. 30 revolvers for police use from 1928 to 1939.

Serbia

Purchased 12,000 7.5mm Nagants from Belgium in the 1880s.

Sweden

Chambered in 7.5mm, the Swedish M1887 notably does not have the same gas-sealing feature of the Belgian or Russian Nagants.

Users