Chapter 83: New Pistol

The first firearm concept that was turned into reality was naturally an improvement on the revolver.

Samuel Colt, far away in New Jersey, was probably also improving his work at the same time, and may have already completed it.

With the help of Captain Walker, Colt's improved work became the famous "Walker Revolver". The birth of this pistol officially opened the era of Colt.

However, the Walker revolver is still not perfect. It has only removed some of the more prominent design flaws, and its overall reliability still needs to be improved.

As a man of the future, Ma Shao certainly would not take these detours, so his improvements went one step further than the Walker pistol. No, it should be said that they went several steps further.

His first improvement was to control the weight of the gun.

A major flaw of the early Colt pistol was its overflowing power. The sixty-grain gunpowder charge gave it an exaggerated lethality, enough to kill a warhorse with one shot.

But the overflowing lethality is not practical.

What soldiers really need is to kill people, not horses. Moreover, this extra lethality also makes the pistol heavy, often weighing more than two kilograms, which affects its portability and stability.

This is an obvious flaw, but perhaps because of personal preference, Samuel Colt has never changed his ways.

Not only did he not mend his ways, he even became worse.

So much so that Colt later even produced a pistol weighing three kilograms, which could almost be called a "hand cannon."

Therefore, the amount of powder in the whistle was controlled at forty grains. One grain is the weight of a barley grain, which is about 0.065 grams, and forty grains is about 2.6 grams.

After cutting off the excess power, the newly designed pistol weighs 1.6 kg, is much thinner, and has six chambers.

Then there is the sturdy frame design.

The sturdy frame was first used in the Colt M1855. In short, this design is that the cylinder is "wrapped" by the gun body from both the top and bottom directions. Most of the revolvers in the future will adopt this design, which can greatly improve stability.

Of course, there were some adjustments to the details. In the end, the revolver designed by Ma Shao looked more like the Remington M1858. It is far superior to the current defective Colt pistol in terms of appearance and practicality.

Of course, it cannot be compared with the real Remington M1858. The smelting technology at that time had made great progress, which is an irreparable fundamental gap.

Ma Shao also knew the general development path of steelmaking technology, but he now had neither a factory nor a mine, so naturally he had no basis for implementation and could only purchase steel from outside through the town of Clark.

"boom!"

Ma Shao pulled the trigger, and accompanied by smoke and gunshot, lead bullets shot out from the new revolver and hit the target not far away.

"Well done, Mr. Browning, you have realized my idea perfectly." He smiled, playing with the new pistol in his hand.

"It's just rough work to make it compared to your design," said Browning, who was quite polite in his attitude, a sharp turn from the previous year.

In fact, he still couldn't believe it. After only a short period of study and sporadic practice, this Indian chief showed extraordinary talent in firearms design, which made him, who was always proud, feel ashamed.

When Ma Shao handed him the design of the new pistol, he no longer dared to call the young Indian chief a savage.

"This gun doesn't have a name yet, maybe we should give it one," Browning suggested.

Ma Shao thought for a moment and said, "Well... let's call it the 'Browning Pistol'."

"What?" Browning thought he had misheard.

"Browning pistol, your last name, Mr. Gunsmith." Ma Shao repeated with a smile. The genuine Browning in the future may be squeezed out of history.

"I..." Browning stammered and swallowed, "Although this is a great honor, I must admit that it does not belong to me. You are the real creator."

Ma Shao: "Yes, I am the owner of this honor, so I have the right to give it to anyone, right?"

"Okay, you're right, but... why?" Browning couldn't help but ask.

"Of course it's not free." Ma Shao looked at him straight in the eye. "Mr. Browning, if you are willing to be a dedicated teacher to Mian Xiong, this honor will belong to you."

Browning was silent. He certainly understood the implication of this. Although Ma Shao had assigned him a dozen Apache apprentices, he did not teach them seriously. Instead, he assigned them a lot of work such as serving tea and pouring water.

Ma Shao's purpose is obvious. If he wants this honor, he must teach the Apaches the original gun-making technology.

Although Browning's impression of the Apaches had improved, this still made him a little resistant.

But eventually, he figured it out.

Looking at the young chief in front of him, whose stature and intelligence were enough to make people look up to him, Browning suddenly realized that sooner or later the Apaches would master the technology of making guns and even all other technologies.

In contrast, the honor of the new pistol was something that would belong to him sooner or later - as a senior gunsmith, Browning realized the excellence of this pistol almost immediately.

Of course there is another important reason.

The patent for the revolver belonged to Colt, and Colt had the foresight to apply for a series of patents in multiple countries, building a patent wall that was completely insurmountable.

This made it impossible for others to produce and sell revolvers in law. Making a few in private might not be a big deal, but mass production would inevitably lead to lawsuits. After all, it was a weapon, and neither Colt himself nor the US government would let it go.

Only in Sleeping Bear could Browning openly manufacture new pistols and engrave his name on the gun body.

"Okay, I accept your terms," ​​Browning said. "I will make them all qualified gunsmiths."

Ma Shao nodded, talked with him for a while, and finally advised: "We may have a war recently, make more lead bullets."

…

"What should we do? They are catching up with us!" Several black people were running on the plains, gasping for breath and looking back in horror from time to time.

"Look, there's a small town over there!" Suddenly someone pointed.

The companion who escaped with him blurted out: "So what if it's a small town? This is not Canada!"

Canada has officially abolished slavery long ago, and the dream of many American slaves was to escape to Canada, but obviously, these people did not realize their dreams.

As soon as they escaped to central America, they were discovered by slave hunters, and it seemed that they were about to become slaves again.

"This is a plain. We have nowhere to escape. Maybe there will be an abolitionist in this town who is willing to help us!"

"Well, God bless you."

The black men then headed straight for the small town not far away.