One more K frame.

by A K Church, Monday, May 29, 2023, 15:44 (547 days ago)

My mind kept telling me Smith made a Model 13-like revolver in 9mm. They did, the Model 547.

It had an automatic block driven by the hammer, to limit the amount of rearward travel the aggressively tapered 9mm case could take, apparently preventing the lockup some other 9mm revolvers have experienced. Looked like a round solid flat tipped pin just above the firing pin hole.

It also had a complex extractor, with lugs which entered the extractor groove on the case under spring pressure. This both extracted and headspaced the cartridges w/o the use of clips.

Online source claims around 6000 produced.

I've seen one in my whole life, at the range in early 90s. The user claimed it ran perfectly. I got to look at the marvelously made extractor, which reminds me of nothing so much as a Ruger No 1 extractor for a rimless case, but miniaturized and repeated 6 times. I did not think, best I recall, to look at the limiter block.

I've read 2 stories as to how the revolver came to be. One was a request-for-proposal from the French government, which ultimately fell through. The other is that the Israelis wanted a revolver using the standard Israeli 9mm service round, but for issue to Palestinian police of questionable loyalty-if they boogied, it was with a revolver, rather than a "more lethal" semiauto. Neither story seems altogether likely to me, but I for sure don't know.