ScaryWoody

Years ago I had read this article about a revolver that could chamber a multitude of chamberings. 9mm, 38spl, 380 Auto, 357 magnum all in the same cylinder. Apparantly, the idea never really took off as I have never seen or heard of this pistol beyond the article. I thought it was a novel idea that was a bit ahead of its time.


http://www.popularmechanics.com/outd...s/1277301.html

Bud White

The Medusa wheelie's are around not very popular though i have seen a 44 not sure if they still make the 357 one though

srfl

Yup, I heard of the Medusa.....I believe Taurus had a similar concept in the works which I think was shelved as well.

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P95Carry

Apart from the ''usual'' versatility like 38spl/357 and 44spl/44mag - I honestly don't think I'd want as much of a ''chamber 'em all'' gun.

I would assume the rimless rounds need moonclips.

Much prefer a dedicated platform, even if it means buying more guns (<gasp> the horror!!)

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CopperKnight

P95, no moon clips. I looked hard at this years ago when ASG magazine reviewed and, and I decided it was just an expensive toy. OK, OK, I just couldn't afford it.

The entire premise of this gun is that all the 38/357/9mm/380 cals are the same diameter. The gun's uniqueness is in its extractor which catches the rimmed cartridges at the top and the rimless just inside the cylinder. Works like a charm. Check out the pic of it in the article.

The idea being a survival gun that would chamber dozens of different cartridges, lots of them very popular and easy to come by. And we aren't talking lost in the wilderness survival.

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P95Carry

Ahhh, OK I was unaware of that extract feature - indeed yes the case sizes of course all will chamber.

I guess then yes for some folks there would be an appeal - but even so, doubt I'd bite

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Chris - P95
NRA Certified Instructor & NRA Life Member.

"To own a gun and assume that you are armed
is like owning a piano and assuming that you are a musician!."

If a BG dies as the result of pointing a gun at me, then he has merely succumbed to an occupational hazard of being a thug

Janq

As reported in Popular Mechanics Nov. 1997:

REVOLVING BORES
The new Medusa multicaliber pistol lets you mix ammo from .38 to .357 Magnum.

BY JOHN WOOLDRIDGE
Published on: November 1, 1997



The shooter in the bay next to mine watches skeptically as I load the conventional-looking revolver with an unusual array of ammunition: a .380 ACP, two 9mm Lugers, a .38 Special Plus-P and two .357 Magnums. He maintains a discreet distance as, with my right index finger outside the trigger guard, I raise the gun to chest level pointing down range, then close and lock the cylinder into the frame.

I cock the hammer with my right thumb and squeeze off the first round. Bright yellow appears at the edge of the dark black center ring of the target 50 ft. away. Even though the Medusa is a double-action pistol that will fire a single bullet with every pull of the trigger, I repeat the single-action process until all six rounds are spent–the final three higher-powered rounds accompanied by a satisfying kick not evident with the first three. More yellow spots appear in the black, nearer the center.



I reload the same mix of calibers, close the cylinder as before, and repeat the process using double-action. When I am finished, my skeptical observer steps up and says, "Pretty unique. Can I try that?" It's a scene that will be repeated many times before the range goes cold for the day.

Unique is exactly the way to describe the Medusa Model 47 revolver, a standard 6-shot revolver from Phillips & Rodgers that chambers, fires and extracts 25 different cartridges in the .38/9mm/.357 ammunition range. This multicaliber firearm is a long-sought solution to a problem worked on by Colt, Smith & Wesson, and other firearms builders for more than a century.

The original Medusa cylinder design came from the bench of gunsmith Jonathan Phillips, a computer specialist for NASA and a former competition shooter, who used to regularly carry 12 to 15 guns of different calibers to the range every time he went to shoot. Knowing that the calibers he shot the most–.38, 9mm and .357–were all the same size, he decided there had to be a way to minimize the number of guns he had to own. Phillips (who's the cofounder of Phillips & Rodgers) took two years to fashion the first working prototype and patent it...

The full article can be found at http://www.popularmechanics.com/outd...s/1277301.html

- Janq

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Bud White

its a fine ideal but

357/38 are not the same size as 9mm/38super

there is a difference in bullet size

Dingle1911

I think it is a neat idea, but so is the survival knife that also fires a .45 ACP round. I'm sure someone will buy it though.

Rob72

All are within nominal .355-.357-ish, all will be within the OAL of the .357 mag. If you recognize the inherent tolerance issues, it would be a prime BOB gun. There is a cylinder conversion available for S&W -86s, and Ruger Gp-100s, from a company in TX that is essentially the same.