In the XX century, they were able to come up with and develop the idea of modular weapons, the conversion of which under a different cartridge could be carried out directly in the field by the forces of a soldier, and not a specialist technician. They learned to do the conversion of weapons for new ammunition several centuries ago. True, nothing sensible has come out of this idea so far. Therefore, it would be very nice if the weapon could use multiple ammunition.īut this revolver can be loaded with a variety of cartridges at once. Rearmament of any army has always been an expensive pleasure, and after the beginning of the 20th century, it became clear that trying to transfer troops to a new caliber of ammunition was like making toilet paper out of dollars. The calibers became more and more, the armies all over the world also became larger, from which it was necessary to produce an incredible amount of weapons. Armourers began to think about it seriously back in the 19th century. Most often, multi-caliber is achieved by replacing a number of important structural componentsīy itself, the idea of a multi-caliber weapon is far from new. Although purely theoretically, one could try to combine a machine-gun belt and a revolving drum, that would be a sight! But seriously, we are of course talking about a multi-caliber weapon, one of the brightest examples of which is the famous, although not very widespread, Medusa M47 revolver. When we talk about a 'revolver for three dozen rounds', we are not talking about some intricate element of ammunition supply for a revolver that can accommodate 20-30 lead babies. The idea of creating multi-caliber weapons has been exciting the minds of designers for several decades.

Just what is the Medusa M47 revolver, the analogues of which will be quite difficult to find. Engineers are true wizards of our world, as they are able to put into practice things that might seem completely unreal to many in practice. It finds its embodiment in a variety of forms, including in the form of various technologies. The most significant question, of course, is how many people would actually have a need for such a system, beyond simply thinking it is cool (and if the multicaliber capability makes up for the finicky loading, extraction, and accuracy).įor a more detailed look at the history of the Medusa, I recommend this article by AirborneCombatEngineer.Human thought knows no boundaries. The last two obviously did not engage the rifleing as they are substantially smaller than the bore, but the fire safely regardless. 380 Automatic, 9x20mm Browning Long, 9×19 Parabellum, 9mm Largo, 7.62mm Tokarev, and. They are, however, also the weak point of the gun, as they are pretty much the only fragile component, and since the company quickly went out of business, replacements are completely unavailable. These fingers allow proper indexing of virtually any cartridge that will physically fit.

It uses long flexible fingers which snap into the extractor grooves on rimless cartridges or can be depressed down away from the cases of rimmed cartridges. Jonathan Phillips solved this problem with his 1995 patent for the extractor mechanism that is the fundamental heart of the Medusa revolver. What makes it difficult, is finding a way to hold a variety of different cartridges properly in position for reliable firing and extraction. This is made possible because a revolver does not have the headspace requirements of a semiautomatic handgun, and the barrel doesn’t know one type of bullet form another, so long as they are not larger than the bore diameter. The Phillips & Rodgers M47 Medusa is a mechanically very interesting firearm a revolver that can chamber basically any cartridge with a 9mm bullet diameter and an overall length no longer than a.

Medusa m47