The Nagant revolver was produced in
both single-action and double-action versions. One
characteristic of this revolver is that the cylinder
moves forward before the hammer falls and the forward
end of the chamber alined for fire telescopes the
barrel. The cartridge outwardly resembles a blank
cartridge, and has its bullet seated below the
cartridge case mouth. The purpose of these design
features is to prevent gas leakage at the joint between
the cylinder and barrel.
It was highly doubtful that the
complicated firing mechanism of the revolver was worth
the effort and, in 1930, it was replaced by the
Tokarev Tula 33 7.62 Soviet
Automatic, however it continued to be made in WWII,
reportedly upwards of 3 million altogether.
Heavy, but well balanced and highly
accurate, numbers of the revolvers were used
effectively by both the North Koreans and CCF in
Korea.
