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Metallic cartridge era

The Smith & Wesson Model 1 was the first firearm manufactured by Smith & Wesson, with production spanning the years 1857 through 1882. It was the first commercially successful revolver to use metallic rimfire cartridges instead of loose powder, musket ball, and percussion caps. It is a single-action, tip-up revolver holding seven.22 Short black powder cartridges.

The Smith & Wesson Model No. 2 Army is a 6-shot,.32 caliber revolver, intended to combine the small size and convenience of the Smith & Wesson Model 1.22 rimfire with a larger more effective cartridge. It was manufactured 1861–1874, with a total production of 77,020 units.

The Smith & Wesson Model 3 was a 6-shot, single-action, cartridge -firing, top-break revolver produced by Smith & Wesson from c. 1870 to 1915, and was recently offered again as a reproduction by Smith & Wesson and Uberti. The S&W Model 3 was originally chambered for the.44 American and.44 Russian cartridges, and typically did not have the cartridge information stamped on the gun (as is standard practice for most commercial firearms). Model 3 revolvers were later produced in an assortment of calibers, including.44 Henry Rimfire,.44-40,.32–44,.38–44, and.45 Schofield. The design would influence the smaller S&W.38 Single Action that is retroactively referred to as the Model 2. All of these revolvers would automatically eject the spent shell cases when opened.

The Colt Single Action Army, also known as the Single Action Army, SAA, Model P, Peacemaker, M1873, and Colt.45 is a single-action revolver with a revolving cylinder holding six metallic cartridges. It was designed for the U.S. government service revolver trials of 1872 by Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company – today's Colt's Manufacturing Company – and was adopted as the standard military service revolver until 1892. The Colt SAA has been offered in over 30 different calibers and various barrel lengths. Its overall appearance has remained consistent since 1873. Colt has discontinued its production twice, but brought it back due to popular demand. The revolver was popular with ranchers, lawmen, and outlaws alike, but as of the early 21st century, models are mostly bought by collectors and Cowboy Action Shooters. Its design has influenced the production of numerous other models from other companies. The Colt SAA "Peacemaker" revolver is a famous piece of Americana known as "The Gun That Won the West".

In 1889, Colt introduced the Model 1889, the first truly modern double action revolver, which differed from earlier double action revolvers by having a "swing-out" cylinder, as opposed to a "top-break" or "side-loading" cylinder. Swing out cylinders quickly caught on, because they combined the best features of earlier designs. Top-break actions gave the ability to eject all empty shells simultaneously and exposed all chambers for easy reloading, but having the frame hinged into two halves weakened the gun and negatively affected accuracy due to lack of rigidity. "Side-loaders", like the earlier Colt Model 1871 and 1873 gave a rigid frame, but required the user to eject and load one cylinder at a time, as they rotated the cylinder to line each chamber up with the side-mounted loading gate.

Smith & Wesson followed 7 years later with the ''Hand Ejector, Model 1896'' in.32 S&W Long caliber, followed by the very similar, yet improved, Model 1899 (later known as the Model 10), which introduced the new.38 Special cartridge. The Model 10 went on to become the best selling handgun of the 20th century, at 6,000,000 units, and the.38 Special is still the most popular chambering for revolvers in the world. These new guns were an improvement over the Colt 1889 design since they incorporated a combined center-pin and ejector rod to lock the cylinder in position. The 1889 did not use a center pin and the cylinder was prone to move out of alignment.

The Smith & Wesson Model 36 is a 5 shot, revolver chambered for.38 Special. It is one of several models of "J-frame" Smith & Wesson revolvers. It was introduced in 1950, and is still in production. The Model 36 was designed in the era just after World War II, when Smith & Wesson stopped producing war materials and resumed normal production. For the Model 36, they sought to design a revolver that could fire the more powerful.38 Special round in a small, concealable package. Since the older I-frame was not able to handle this load, a new frame was designed, which became the Smith & Wesson J-frame.