Russia's gas-sealing Nagant: how a revolver of this complexity stayed on serious active duty for 50 years is still astonishing!

Guns Magazine, July, 2004 by Holt Bodinson

The name, Nagant, is prominent in Russian small arms history. It's a name that is associated with Russia's famous service rifle and carbines, the Mosin-Nagants. When it comes to handguns, the name, "Nagant," in Russia carries with it the same weight and immediate recognition as "Colt, does in the United States.

Strangely enough, Nagant, or I should say, the "Nagants," were not Russian. Emile and Henri-Leon Nagant were brothers, gifted gunmakers, and Belgians. In 1859, the brothers established the firm of "Fabrique d'Armes Emile et Leon Nagant" in that hotbed of fine Belgium gunmaking, Liege.

Their rise to prominence was propelled in 1867 when Remington licensed the Nagant firm to produce Remington rolling block firearms for the European trade. The firm's production capacity was apparently considerable. The Nagants made tens of thousands of rolling block rifles, shotguns and pistols for the military and sporting trades, even designing a unique double barrel shotgun of their own based on the roiling block system.

Used Around The World

The Nagants' first commercially successful revolver appeared in 1878 and was purchased by the Belgian military. Following that came a series of improved models designated by their year of issue--1883, 1884, 1886, 1887, 1893--adopted by militaries of countries like Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, Serbia, Brazil and Argentina.

Next to the Russian Nagant, the Swedish Nagant in 7.5mm, made by Husqvarna and imported into the U.S. in the '50s and '60s. is probably the most commonly seen model in collecting circles.

What's interesting about all of the preceding models is their rather conventional design. Outwardly, they look very much like an 1895 Russian Nagant, but they were chambered for a standard looking handgun cartridge, and they were not designed to be gas-sealing. That was to come later.

Needing to modernize their small arms, Russia began testing rifle designs supplied by the Nagants and their own Colonel Ivanovich Mosin in 1890. The result was that the best features of the Nagant and the Mosin designs were blended into a final model. The rest is history. The Mosin-Nagant rifle/carbine soldiered on from 1891 well into the 1950s. The Nagant long arms are a story unto themselves that will soon be covered in a future "Surplus Locker."

Having adopted a new rifle, Imperial Russia began casting about for a replacement for their famous S&W Model 3 Russian revolvers in .44 Russian. They wanted a smaller size, lightweight revolver firing a smokeless powder cartridge that shared the same 7.62mm bore with their Mosin-Nagant rifles.

More Efficient Revolvers

Being the good businessmen they were and already being firmly established with the Russian military, the Nagants lost no time in making available their standard military revolver models plus an entirely new gas-sealing model for testing.

Interestingly, the Nagant brothers did not invent the gas-sealing revolver or its unique cartridge with its bullet seated inside the case. But they knew a good design when they saw it. The credit goes to another prolific Belgian gunmaker, Henri Pieper. Nagants' gas-sealing cartridge looks exactly like Pieper's, featuring a case that encloses the bullet and projects beyond the cylinder face to seal the barrel upon discharge. Pieper's revolver design, featuring a swing-out cylinder was apparently rather complex and considered too fragile for rough field use. It ended up in the dustbin of history, but Pieper's cartridge concept lived on.

And so the Nagants went on to cement their second firearm design solidly in Imperial Russia--the Nagant Model 1895 gas-sealing revolver. It was a long-lived design. More than 2,000,000 Russian Nagants were produced between 1895 and 1944. Initially produced in Belgium, production was shifted to the Tula arsenal in 1899.

Curiously enough, the 1895 model was also produced in Poland at the Radom arsenal, beginning in 1930, when the Poles bought the 1895 production machinery from Nagant during a liquidation sale.

To understand the unique mechanism of the Russian Nagant, you have to think of it in terms of a system. The system consists of the distinctive 7.62mm Nagant cartridge and the revolver itself. The purpose of the system is to eliminate the cylinder gap found in conventional revolvers, thereby preventing any loss of gas and maximizing the ballistics of Nagant round. And it works.

Remarkable Design

The double action Nagant is a solid frame revolver with a seven shot cylinder that does not swing out to load or eject cases. It's loaded through a loading gate and the empty cases are ejected by an ejector rod. In that regard, the Nagant is somewhat of a blend between a classic double action and a classic single action revolver.

The cylinder incorporates a central spring loaded bushing that permits the cylinder to move forward and backward. The bushing is secured in place by a solid arbor that passes through the front of the frame, through the middle of the bushing and is locked in place by the pivoting barrel and ejector rod.