The mechanical handgun, a myth?.

[bluez]

A few years ago i read in an European newspaper about spetznas, one of  the things the article mentioned was that they had made a very silent mechanical pistol that did not look like a weapon. From time to time i have heard about weapons using steel springs to eject a projectile and some of this should have been made even century's ago, but i have never seen one. And for the record,i am not referring to spring powered airguns or spear guns.

[32 Magnum]

There was a Russian developed cartridge that was powder powered which had a "plunger" in the case - when the powder was ignited the plunger took the hit propelling the projectile AND containing the powder gasses within the casing - supposedly was silent when fired because no gasses escaped.  Can't remember the nomenclature and whether it was successful or not.  Russians have come up with a few innovative firearms over the years, mostly for sinister purposes.

[MGMorden]

Interesting.  I've also never heard of it, but the idea of something like this is intriguing.

I have heard about (theoretical) rail guns however.  Very interesting idea there, though barrel length might be a problem in a handgun.

I'm sure most here are familiar with the idea, but I'll lay it out for those that might not be.

Essentially, you'd have a gun barrel that was lined with a long succession of electromagnets. A bit like this (coils with projectiile position shown):

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                                                                         <

The projectile would need to be steel/iron, or at least have an outer shell made out of it. The coil directly in front of the projectile would be switched on.  The resulting magnetic pull would pull the projectile forward. As it crossed the line of the coil in front of it, that coil would shut off which would immediately turn on the coil ahead of it, and so forth, and so forth.  Essentially you have each magnetic coil turn on successively down the entire length of barrel pulling the projectile at higher and higher speeds as it goes.  The stronger the electro-magnets, and the longer the barrel, the more speed the projectile could develop. 

Some basic versions of this have been built in a lab, but it's never been developed into a usable weapon.  Still, the idea is pretty neat - your ammo would be much smaller - all of the energy used to shoot it would come from a battery.  Even cooler, is that aside from the projectile, and a switch to depress, this design could be built with almost no moving parts.  No gas to escape, not even a hammer to fall or a slide to cycle.  Essentially, aside from the sound of the bullet moving through the air, it would be virtually silent. 

Not necessarily a great idea for a general purpose gun, but a lot of application for specific scenarios.  At this time though, given the length requirements, I've heard this touted more frequently as an option for sea-going vessels, as they would have the size to carry plenty of batteries and could carry large enough barrels to really develop the velocity.

[32 Magnum]

Here's the Russian gun, the PSS GRAU, go to this link for info:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSS_Silent_Pistol

[1911crazy]

7,62x42 sounds really naganty here???  The nagant revolver is 7,62x41 i believe.  The cylinder close up the gap between the barrel too.  I wonder what this new quiet gun looks like. They may have turned the nagant into a pistol and made it quiet.   Bill

[SHOOTALL]

Mattel Toys had such a thing in the late 60's ya stuck a plastic bullet in a case with a spring. For added effect ya stuck a greeeney stickum cap on also . I mention this because the idea had to come from some where .

[32 Magnum]

Nagant M1895 revolver is chambered for 7.62x38mm R (rimmed) cartridge.