Got this guy a looooooong time ago in a gunshow in Louisville, Kentucky.

One of the few firearms I bought to admire rather than shoot, (It did come with some reproduction bullets to fire though.) thing is, this revolver started out as a black powder revolver and later on started shooting a smokeless powdered round, problem is I never could get a straight answer on whether the later models were made to withstand such change in power or the French military simply used a very light smokeless load to make sure all revolvers could fire the updated cartridge without them detonating like a hand grenade in the soldier's hand.

Either way, both the old and updated rounds for this revolver were rather pathetic compared to say? .45 Colt or .455 Webley?

It's about as hard hitting at its height as my Beretta 1935. xD


I have to note that I really like the sights on this revolver though, one of the best sights on a revolver I have seen really. = )

Its trigger pull in single action feels 4-5 pounds, though its double action pulls feels a painful 10 or 12 pounds! This can be a difficult revolver to fire one handed and accurately if you try it in double action.

One more thing I must point out and a rather interesting one is that the cylinder swings out to the right rather than the left. I kinda like this design choice because it feels easier to reload that way, you use your good hand to pull that lever on the side of the revolver back, than use your off hand to hold the revolver and pop the cylinder out and hold it in place using your thumb and index finger and middle finger, than start loading it with your good hand while rotating the cylinder with your off hand fingers and when finally loaded. Pop the cylinder back in, push the lever forward and proceed to fire. This is actually a pretty good way to reload a revolver because your less likely to drop bullets or have the cylinder "spin away" from you if the round's bullet tip only falls in and the entire casing is still sticking out, in left swinging cylinders, this often causes the cylinder to spin around and fucks up your loading process.

Very few revolvers were ever made to swing the cylinder out in the manner the M1892 Revolver did.


If anyone has noticed that the shape of this gun reminds them of another gun, you likely have seen the Mosin Nagant Revolver that took after it when it was made. A major difference however is that you could not swing out the cylinder on a Nagant Revolver. Forcing you to open a loading gate and use a rod to push out all seven empty shell casings (note that the rod has no spring on it so you have to both push it in and out of each hole in the cylinder) and finally start loading one bullet at a time. A tediously slow process compared to the older M1892 Revolver that existed about four years before it. = P


This one has a "S 1894" on the barrel right under its name, so I assume that means it was made two years after the first revolver was produced, which makes this a very early produced revolver. I also has a "M" and a "B" in circles on the barrel, but I don't know yet what they mean. It also has the rather classy imprints on its side, like this. http://www.deactivated-guns.co.uk/i.....er/lebel-5.jpg

It also has a "F" at the beginning of its serial number.