Firearm Demonstration: Smith & Wesson Model 66 Revolver

Опубликовано: 25 Июль 2026
на канале: Royal Armouries

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The Model 66 is a variant of Smith & Wesson's Model 19, introduced in 1957. It was designed to handle the powerful .357 Magnum round which is even older (1934) but still one of the more powerful pistol rounds available. It fires a bullet of similar size and weight to a 9mm cartridge, but the longer case allows more propellant to be used, resulting in good performance but a lot of recoil, as the clip demonstrates. The revolver is being fired in single-action mode, which is to say with the hammer ready-cocked into the firing position instead of pulling through on the trigger to both cock and fire (double-action mode). Single action fire is slower, but allows for more accurate shots.

As the trigger is pulled, the firing pin protruding from the nose of the hammer enters the frame of the revolver through a hole and strikes the primer in the base of the cartridge. As soon as the round fires, you can see a puff of smoke and a flash from the muzzle as the bullet leaves the barrel. By this time the pistol is in full recoil, and despite a two-handed grip, is recoiling backwards, upwards, and slightly to the right due to an uneven grip on the part of the firer. Some skill is needed to properly control a pistol of this power, and maintain the correct sight alignment for the next shot as the muzzle comes back down out of recoil. For this reason, as well as the relative lack of advantage given by .357 over other pistol cartridges, most military and police pistols fire rounds of lower power such as 9x19mm.

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