peashooter85:The Billinghurst Revolving Rifle/Shotgun combo,In the 1800’s William Billinghurst was n
peashooter85:The Billinghurst Revolving Rifle/Shotgun combo,In the 1800’s William Billinghurst was notable for producing a number of fine quality double barrel shotguns, double barrel rifles, as well as single shot and underhammer target rifles. In the mid 1800’s Billinghurst attempted to enter the revolving rifle market with a .41 caliber nine shot percussion revolving rifle design of his own. After firing, the cylinder had to be hand rotated into place. Like most revolving rifle designs the Billinghurst was a commercial failure, mostly due to hot gasses escaping from the cylinder and burning the hand of the user. Despite the poor sales of the Billinghurst revolving rifle, William Billinghurst decided to upgrade his design; by creating a revolving rifle/shotgun over and under combo!Billinghurst simply took his revolving rifle design and added a smoothbore shotgun barrel under the rifle. The shotgun was a single shot percussion muzzleloader which had its own hammer and was fired by a second trigger.Unfortunately the modifications Billinghurst made to his revolving rifle did little to increase its popularity. Very few were made. -- source link