Revolver that shoots .357 Mag, .38 Special and 9 mm

[Chui]

I recall reading about a revolver that shoots 9 mm, .38 Special and .357 Magnum some time ago in (I think) Soldier of Fortune. Well, I ran across a gentleman who has one, but for the life of me I cannot recall who the manufacturer was (it wasn't S&W, Colt, Dan-Wesson or Taurus).

Can anyone recollect such a beastie?

[ATW525]

Probably not the gun you're thinking of, but the Ruger .357 Magnum Blackhawk/Vaquero is capable of this with an interchangable 9mm cylinder.

[guy sajer]

It was called the "Medusa" I think . Colt was even supposed to obtain manufacturing rights . They displayed a couple at the SHOT Show about 10yrs? ago .

[Anibal]

I know there is a french revolver in .357 Magnum named Manurhim (I don´t remember the model number) wich has a extra cylinder in 9mm.
There used to be a revolver Astra in .357 with a cylinder for 9mm, but there is not in production anymore.
And the revolver Medusa can fire all the calibers in 9mm: 9mm, .38 spl, .357 Mag, .38 Super, .380 ACP, etc.

Anibal.
Forgive my bad English.

[harbinger]

I think the Manurhin was the MR88 model?

[Anibal]

Here is the French revolver, it is the Manurhin model MR73:

http://www.gunsworld.com/gun_revolve...urhin_MR73.htm


Anibal.
Forgive my bad French too.

[chaim]

Most likely it was one of the two mentioned above, or a custom job. However, Taurus is coming out with two (a J-frame sized snub and a Tracker) in 9mm, .38, .357 and I think it may be good for one or two more calibers as well.

[loandr.]

Probably the Medusa

Loandr.

[Anibal]

Now we are Talking about revolvers .357/9mm. I have a question:
Would it be possible do the same we can do with a Manurhin MR73 with a 686 o 586 S&W?, I mean changing the cylinder to fire 9mm in it.

Anibal.

[ATW525]

Now we are Talking about revolvers .357/9mm. I have a question:
Would it be possible do the same we can do with a Manurhin MR73 with a 686 o 586 S&W?, I mean changing the cylinder to fire 9mm in it.

Since the 9mm is .355 compared to the .357, it won't have a problem going down the barrel, so it's possible. The real problem would getting a 9mm cylinder... it would most likely be a custom job.

[shep854]

A shop here in the Birmingham area has a Medusa for sale; in the $700 range. It has flexible "fingers" on each chamber that will grasp the rim or extractor groove of any 9mm/.380/38.357 round. After looking it over, I Googled "Medusa revolver" and read where S&W bought the rights to it. In fact, aside from the heavy, slab-sided barrel, it looks like a Smith K-frame.

[41special]

The real problem would getting a 9mm cylinder... it would most likely be a custom job.

Why would you need a 9mm cylinder ?

You would just have to have the current cylinder relieved to accept moon clips.

And possibly relieved a little to accept the slight taper on the 9mm brass.

[RsqVet]

It was called the Medusa, made by Phillips and Rodgers initally then bounce around like a white elephant, Yes colt was going to pick it up, even saw a little blurb write up in one of the gun rags about that, then it fell through then Gary Reeder Custom guns I believe made some at one point not sure if it was with their tooling or left over parts they bought, remeber seeing on their website as recent as 6 or 8 months ago, but did't find it in a quick visit there but below is an excerpt from one of Mr. Reeder's "Gun Notes"

"I have had several people call or e-mail me in the last week about the status of the Phillips and Rodgers Medusa. I have been working with Roger of P&R for a couple of months now and will probably pick up the Medusa line. Due to legal considerations the name of the gun will change and some of the lines will be softened and sleeked up. If all goes well. we can look for that one by next summer. We will be buying the tooling from Roger and building the guns ourselves at my shops. For those of you that are not familiar with the Medusa, it is the revolver that will shoot over 30 different cartridges in one cylinder. It was intended for survival situations where just about any ammo in the 38/9mm range would fit in it and fire"

The 30 cartriges were something of an exageration because it included a lot of very rare or defunct rounds.

I beleive it was pateneted so you could search the US Patent office database as well --- I beleive the secret was some kind of funky spring clip extracter star that would eject regular rimed round or catch the rim of an auto cartrige.

IF I recall correctly it had some odd ball number of lands on it's barrel due to a request from the ATF to make it distingisable because of it's "extream" muti-cartrige capacity.

If it was one of the Reeder pistols I would have a lot more confidance in it as I have seen and handled examples of his work and it's first rate, could nto coment on the others who have made it.

When I was thinking about buying one I did find some threads on them various places on line, maybe even here --- acuaracy was reported to not be great as could be expected given all the comprmises that had to be made to make the thing work at all. I decided it was one curiosity I did not need to own.... though if one came along at the right price......

Seems to me an idea that was about 50-60 years too late --- In the 1940's someone who was traveling the world and posessed a revolver that could take 38 spec. 9mm or 380 among others would have something truly useful --- these days with restrictions and so forth who really travels so far from sources of the commonly available calibers and does not bring their own supply?

[Sir William]

IIRC, Arcus had a similar design revolver.

[defjon]

Read an article about this awhile ago.

The Medusa has been updated by Gary Reeder to the "Scorpion". Amazing gun that retails MSRP at around 1500, I believe. It can fire anything from a .32 to a .357, that is of course, including .38's and 9mm's, etc. The velocity and accuracy suffers with anything other than .38, 9mm, and 357, but it can shoot the others in a pinch.

I'd love to get one someday, amazing concept. They sell like hot cakes in Europe where the numbers of guns you can own is limited. Not so catchy here in the USA though.

[Anibal]

Exactly Defjon, this kind of revolver maybe is not so atractive for Americans because you can have all the guns you can pay, but it is very atractive to others countries with limits in the number of guns you can have or like some Latin Americans countries where the ammo is hard to find.
With a revolver like Medusa you can use almost any ammo you can find.

Anibal.

[ATW525]

Why would you need a 9mm cylinder ?

You would just have to have the current cylinder relieved to accept moon clips.

And possibly relieved a little to accept the slight taper on the 9mm brass.

As I said, it would be a custom job.

[jonathon]

Probably not the gun you're thinking of, but the Ruger .357 Magnum Blackhawk/Vaquero is capable of this with an interchangable 9mm cylinder.

Does Ruger still make that? After I get that 645.. might be my next gun..

[ATW525]

They still make the Blackhawk...

357/9mm Blackhawk

[jonathon]

Hmm.. cool.

Wonder if it comes in stainless

[Chui]

"It was called the Medusa, made by Phillips and Rodgers initally then bounce around like a white elephant, Yes colt was going to pick it up, even saw a little blurb write up in one of the gun rags about that, then it fell through then Gary Reeder Custom guns I believe made some at one point not sure if it was with their tooling or left over parts they bought, remeber seeing on their website as recent as 6 or 8 months ago, but did't find it in a quick visit there but below is an excerpt from one of Mr. Reeder's "Gun Notes"

"I have had several people call or e-mail me in the last week about the status of the Phillips and Rodgers Medusa. I have been working with Roger of P&R for a couple of months now and will probably pick up the Medusa line. Due to legal considerations the name of the gun will change and some of the lines will be softened and sleeked up. If all goes well. we can look for that one by next summer. We will be buying the tooling from Roger and building the guns ourselves at my shops. For those of you that are not familiar with the Medusa, it is the revolver that will shoot over 30 different cartridges in one cylinder. It was intended for survival situations where just about any ammo in the 38/9mm range would fit in it and fire"

The 30 cartriges were something of an exageration because it included a lot of very rare or defunct rounds.

I beleive it was pateneted so you could search the US Patent office database as well --- I beleive the secret was some kind of funky spring clip extracter star that would eject regular rimed round or catch the rim of an auto cartrige.

IF I recall correctly it had some odd ball number of lands on it's barrel due to a request from the ATF to make it distingisable because of it's "extream" muti-cartrige capacity.

If it was one of the Reeder pistols I would have a lot more confidance in it as I have seen and handled examples of his work and it's first rate, could nto coment on the others who have made it.

When I was thinking about buying one I did find some threads on them various places on line, maybe even here --- acuaracy was reported to not be great as could be expected given all the compromises that had to be made to make the thing work at all. I decided it was one curiosity I did not need to own.... though if one came along at the right price......

Seems to me an idea that was about 50-60 years too late --- In the 1940's someone who was traveling the world and posessed a revolver that could take 38 spec. 9mm or 380 among others would have something truly useful --- these days with restrictions and so forth who really travels so far from sources of the commonly available calibers and does not bring their own supply?"

Hey, thanks for the detailed information.

[Russ5924]

The Taurus that is coming out late this year is suppose to shoot .38/,357 9MM and .38 super will have to see if can do it accurately??????????

[G4331]

Greetings everyone!
I am new to this website, what i have got to say is this:
I have seen many Medusa revolvers sell on Gunbroker, even had a rare 3 inch model.
Unfortunately, i couldn't afford the hefty price tag.

If any of you has one, i would be willing to trade the following:

1-Russian Makarov IJ-70, stainless barrel in .380. 3 ten shot single stack mags. mags have a +2 extender. Wolf springs in slide and mags. Heavy duty adjustable sights. Like new, 100% blueing and very deep at that!

2-Enfield #4, .45 acp. Canuck Longbranch receiver, made in 1944.
Takes GI mags, comes with a stainless chip mccormick 10 rounder. 16" barrel,williams sights.
to see this gun, www.rhinelandarms.com

3-Special Interest Arms M-10 Enfield "308K" i.e. 7.62x39. It is also on a Longbranch receiver, dated 1944.
It takes single stack AK mags. 20" montana rifleman barrel, williams sights.
in a sporterized wooden military stock, but i have a synthetic stock i'll toss in.
look at www.specialinterestarms.com

If anyone is interested let me know, and i'll run the transaction thru Gunbroker to protect both party's butts.

[The British Soldier]

I recall reading an article in Guns & Ammo about a German revolver, which looked very similar to a Python, called the Korth. As a company they made this one revolver but to an incredible build standard - it retailed at $several thousand! Like many .357 magnums it would shoot .38 too, but one could order a spare cylinder for 9mm - it had a clever clip to retain the cartridges in place.
The wild thing was that if you chose not to buy the spare 9mm cylinder straight away, which cost you an extra few hundred [more like not much change out of a T-Bill], and commissioned them later to machine one - the costs were incredible. Korth retained the machine settings for that revolver on file and would have to reset a machine to engineer a cylinder for you - to exacting specifications.
Of course today with CNC machines capable of machining consistently to a tolerance of microns, I imagine such expensive revolvers may be no more - has anyone seen or owned a Korth revolver?

[John C]

I've never seen a Korth, but they're available in the US. I know they're currently on sale for $5500-8000, depending on configuration.

Check it out:

http://www.korthusa.com/revolver_en.htm

-John