Thread: Medusa revolver
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Old January 26, 2010, 03:47 AM   #52
Lost Sheep
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Join Date: January 24, 2009
Location: Anchorage Alaska
Posts: 3,341
Medusa Ruger?

Far cheaper than a Medusa would be a Ruger Blackhawk .357/9mm convertible, with a couple of extra cylinders reamed out for the semi-auto calibers, 38 Super, 9mm largo, and, if you could get a partially finished cylinder from Ruger, chambered for the 380 Auto and 38 Auto, and if you confine yourself to lead bullets, you could probably shoot 38 S&W, too. Plus, you could add .357 Sig to the mix.

In double action, you can dish out almost any double action revolver to headspace the rimless cartridges with moon clips and still retain the ability to shoot the rimmed cartridges, 38 Special and .357 Magnum. Think of it, an SP101 (or GP100 or S&W "L" frame) capable of shooting
38 Special/357 Magnum
380 Auto (also known as 9mm Short, or 9x17mm)
9mm Makarov (also known as 9x18mm
38 Auto (also known as 38 ACP)
38 Super (same dimensions as 38 Auto, but 50% higher pressure)

A good gunsmith would look at the rim thicknesses to make sure headspace would be OK (and, if necessary, moon clips with thicknesses appropriate for each cartridge's rim thickness would have to be in your inventory), but that would still be somewhat cheaper than a Medusa, and spare parts would be a lot more available.

You would not be able to mix cartridges in a single cylinder as easily or as widely as you can with the Medusa, but at least revolvers that could be converted are still being made, and at reasonable prices, too.

I recall reading an article back around 1975 about a semi-auto that was capable of shooting about a dozen different cartridges from .30 Luger and up. It required a barrel and magazines (and a selection of recoil springs) for every chambering and a different slide for each different head dimension, but they all ran on the same frame, and everything fit in a reasonable-sized gun case.

Has started me thinking.

How about putting a Dan Wesson barrel system on a Ruger Blackhawk and picking up a couple dozen cylinder blanks and chambering them for:
22 RF
22 Mag
22 Jet
(skipping over the .25" pistol cartridges)
switch barrels to a .308"/.311" capable barrel
30 Luger
30 Mauser
32 Auto
30 Carbine
switch barrels to a .314" barrel
327 Magnum and similarly sized bullets in whatever chambering they come in
switch barrels to a .355"/357" barrel
you get the idea. You could take this all the way up to .451"/.454" diameter, maybe even .475", depending on the frame.

The Medusa is not dead. I'm just waiting for to figure out how I could get Hamilton Bowen interested in a project gun.

Lost Sheep

I just reviewed my post, and I might be guilty of hijacking the thread (or at least detouring it), but you all have gotten me thinking. And that's always a scary thing. Kind of like a disaster happening. You know it's bad, but you can't look away.
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