Trantor Model 1879 Revolver, .450CF

William Tranter's final revolver design

William Tranter was one of the giants of British gunmaking. From his double trigger percussion revolvers in the mid 1850’s, through early breech loaders in the 1860’s and 1870’s Tranter was at the forefront of firearm and particularly revolver technology. Despite all his success, which also included manufacturing rifles & shotguns, Tranter was never successful in gaining a long-term military contract for his revolvers. He did supply the War Department with a small number of his Model 1878 revolvers but a large contract proved elusive. By the late 1870’s it must have been clear that the future of revolvers lay in self-extracting designs. William Tranter’s last revolver, British patent No. 2855 of 14th July 1879 was his first and only top break revolver.

This example, despite its splotchy appearance is in fine mechanical condition with an excellent bore and a cylinder that locks up rock solid on firing. The most notable feature is the large locking lever on the left side that forms an extremely strong bond with the top strap on closing. A rebounding hammer lock ensures trouble free operation while a groove machined into the hammer face bonds with a step on the rear of the top strap on firing to provide additional security.

When opening, a star extractor lifts the fired cartridges before snapping back to allow them to fall free. If required, the extractor can be disabled by pressing the small button below the hinge on opening. The other notable feature is the small lever in front of the cylinder. Pressing this lever with the action open allows the cylinder to be pulled straight out. No screws or hammers required. It just slides out. It must have worked a little to easy however as only the first 100 or so guns are fitted with the lever in a vertical position. Later guns were fitted with horizontal lever which may have been successful in preventing accidental removal of the cylinder.

The 4½“ barrel is engraved with the retailer Cogswell & Harrison, 42 New Bond St, London.  It’s likely that the barrel has been shortened at some point as all others seem to have 6” barrels but this shorter barrel may have been a special order.  The revolver is marked on the left frame with W. Tranter’s Patent over the serial number 4056. It’s believed the serial numbering began around 4000 with the lowest numbered example I’ve seen being 4019. I’ve recorded almost 100 of these revolvers over the years. The highest serial I have listed is 5219 and the first with the horizontal cylinder lever is 4114.  The earliest revolvers were all chambered in .450CF but .455CF and 476CF was more common in later examples.

There was also a smaller frame five shot version produced in .380CF. These are a very rare model but do show up in the main 4000 serial number range.

William Tranter retired in 1885 and leased his factory to his friend, George Kynoch. There does exist some Model 1879 revolvers with their own serial number range that are marked as The Kynoch Gun Factory. It’s thought that Kynoch made up a few revolvers using left over parts. Further to this, the Schlund hammerless revolvers made by Kynoch after 1885 have a barrel and cylinder arrangement almost identical to this Model 1879.

William Tranter never got any military interest in the Model 1879. By this time the British War Department was totally committed to its own in-house revolver design, the Enfield Mark I introduced in 1880. This of course proved to be a disaster. It wasn’t until the late 1880’s that the War Department finally got a real self-extracting revolver with the Webley Mark I. In many ways the Tranter 1879 was a better gun than the early Webley and was a decade ahead of everyone else.  I’ve owned all of Tranters large frame breechloading revolvers including Models 1863, 1868 and 1878. But I think this Model 1879 is the finest he produced.

Further Reading:

1. Berk, Wolfgang; William Tranter, Birmingham; Privately Published, 2008.

2. Black, Guerin, Michaud; Tranter Cartridge Firearms; Privately Published, 2007.

3. Stewart, Ron; The Firearms of William Tranter, Birmingham Gunsmith; Privately Published, 2007.

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