1. It is chambered for the equally rare.500 Tranter cartridge that drove a blunt nosed 350 grain bullet at 700 fps. This five shot revolver retains 90% nickel on the frame. The cylinder and butt cap nickel is mostly gone but the knurled bead and all line and foliate engraving is sharp. Checkering is all there but flat.
2. Derived from the Traxter Max, the 2004 Bombardier Traxter XL 500 5 speed is a real mechanical mule: it sports all the brawn and dependability of the base model, but brings a generous loading bay to.

• Tranters Pistols
• 500 Tranter Revolver
• .500 Tranter Cartridge

Veteran of the Regiment. Post Mar 14, 2016 #1 2016-03-14T18:40. Some time ago I posted some pictures of. Tranter revolver, calibre.500, no visible serial number GI#: 101559143 Barrel is 4 1/2', no serial number but has Assembly # 43 and 'Kynoch Gun Factory Aston' on top barrel.

William Tranter (1816 – January 7, 1890) was a British gunmaker and gun designer famous for inventing the Tranter revolver.

His youth and early career[edit]

Born in Oldbury in Worcestershire, William Tranter was the eldest son of a blacksmith. Birmingham was for many years the centre of arms manufacture in England and in 1830, at the age of 14, Tranter was apprenticed to the gunsmithing firm of Hollis Bros & Company. In 1839 a small legacy allowed him to buy out another Birmingham gunsmith.

Tranter went into partnership with his former employers, John and Isaac Hollis, in 1844. The partnership dissolved five years later, and Tranter is known to have had an extensive manufactory, together with sales offices, at 50 Loveday Street between 1854 and 1860.

Modifications and alterations on revolvers[edit]

By about the year 1853 Tranter had manufactured over 8000 Adamsdouble-action revolvers under licence. Together with James Kerr, Tranter developed modifications to the Adams action and about 1853 he made the first of his double trigger, double-action revolvers. The first model was built on an Adams frame and featured a detachable rammer which fitted onto the frame. His next model featured a rammer secured by a keyed peg on the frame and a hook on the barrel. In 1855 he also manufactured his own version of the Beaumont–Adams revolver, known as the Tranter-Adams-Kerr.

After 1856 he began production of his third model double trigger revolver, with a more streamlined frame and screw-secured rammer. At the same time he developed his fourth model, a single trigger, double-action revolver based on the same frame.

At the time the size of revolvers was typically described by the bore instead of the term calibre which is used today. The bore size equates to the number of lead balls of a particular diameter that can be cast from one pound (454 g) of lead. Tranter's most common bores were:

The use of his guns in the U.S.[edit]

With the onset of the American Civil War, the Confederate States began buying British arms in quantity and Tranter's high-quality weapons were much esteemed. The New Orleans importers Messrs Hyde & Goodrich and A. B. Griswold & Co (who later manufactured his own pistols) distributed Tranters. Tranter also produced percussion rifles that used a revolver cylinder instead of a magazine. These rifles were produced in various configurations including both single and double trigger mechanisms.

Two Tranters were carried by the famous detective Allan Pinkerton, whose detective agency protected U.S. officials prior to the creation of the U.S. Secret Service. He is said to have armed his men with Tranter double trigger revolvers. An engraved and nickel-plated Tranter model 1879, marked 'Made for W.A. Pinkerton by Thos M. Tranter. 16 Weaman St., Birmingham' is thought to have been presented to William A. Pinkerton, one of Allan’s sons.

His increasing success[edit]

Tranter continued to produce percussion revolvers well after the introduction of cartridge revolvers since many shooters were more comfortable with the old system, which was also cheaper. However, in 1863 Tranter secured patents for revolvers using the rimfire system, some of the first in Britain. Tranter's rim-fire revolvers ranged from small caliber single- and double-action revolvers to the large solid frame model 1863 revolver in .442 in (11.2 mm) caliber. Tranter began manufacturing center fire revolvers in 1868.

In late 1867 Tranter constructed a new, larger facility on Lichfield Road in Aston Cross, called 'The Tranter Gun and Pistol Factory', although business continued to be conducted at the old location for some time. At that time Tranter's was the most extensive pistol-making business in the Midlands. Tranter produced over 20 different pistols of his own design, together with other designers' guns under contract. He had government contracts for the official British Snider Rifle, and in 1878 was granted a government contract for a solid frame .450 centre fire revolver for use by the British army. He supplied weapons of every kind to the gun trade in general, including overseas markets.

Between 1849 and 1888 Tranter made 24 patent applications. Nineteen of those were for cartridge weapons including bolt-action rifles and machine guns, as well as his famous revolvers. 'Tranter was certainly in the very forefront of rook rifle development and production.'^[1]

Tranter was a substantial property owner and a founding member of the Birmingham Small Arms Company Ltd., of which he was a director in its early years. As a prominent member of the Birmingham small arms trade he was called as a witness before a parliamentary committee on small arms in 1854.

The end of his life, and his legacy[edit]

Tranter retired in 1885 and died on January 7, 1890. His factory was leased by his friend George Kynoch and was renamed The Kynoch Gun Factory. In 1888 the name was changed to the Aston Arms Factory, which had ceased by 1900 when the factory was occupied by the Clipper Automatic Tyre Co. The factory was ultimately demolished in 1961.

William Tranter's own son, William Grosvener Tranter, registered at least two firearms patents but appears to have been only slightly interested in the gun industry. However William's son-in-law, Thomas William Watson, was joined his by brother in 1884 to form the arms company of Watson Brothers. William's nephews, Walter Tranter and Alfred William Thompson and Thomas Musgrove Tranter formed an arms firm called Tranter Bros. Gunmakers in Birmingham in 1900. The firm, which also sold bicycles in the 1890s, closed in 1957.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^Greenwood, Colin. The Classic British Rook & Rabbit Rifle, 2006, ISBN978-1-86126-880-8

External links[edit]

Tranters Pistols

The Tranterrevolver was a double-actioncap & ball revolver invented around 1856 by English firearms designer William Tranter (1816–1890). Originally operated with a special dual-trigger mechanism (one to rotate the cylinder and cock the gun, a second to fire it) later models employed a single-trigger mechanism much the same as that found in the contemporary Beaumont–Adams revolver.

Early Tranter revolvers were generally versions of the various Robert Adams-designed revolver models, of which Tranter had produced in excess of 8000 revolvers by 1853. The first model of his own design used the frame of an Adams-type revolver, with a modification in the mechanism which he had jointly developed with James Kerr. The first model was sold under the name Tranter-Adams-Kerr.^[4]

Design and operation[edit]

The Tranter revolver was a 'solid-frame' design, very similar in appearance to the Beaumont–Adams revolver. Over the course of the 3 models Tranter developed, the only significant change was to the attachment of the ramrod- In the first model it was detachable, on the second model it was attached to the frame by a hook on the fixed barrel, and in the third model (1856) it was attached to the barrel by a screw.

On the double-trigger Tranter revolvers, a second trigger below the trigger guard served to cock the gun. The hammer on this model had no spur and therefore could not be cocked with the thumb. To fire the weapon in the single-action mode, one had to first press the lower trigger, which would pull the hammer back and rotate the cylinder; at this point one could fire the gun with a light pull on the upper trigger. To fire more rapidly, one could pull both triggers simultaneously, making it a double-action weapon.^[5]

History[edit]

With the beginning of the American Civil War, the demands for foreign weapons in the Confederate States of America increased, as the Confederacy no longer had access to the weapons factories in the North and had almost no local small-arms manufacturing capability of their own. At the outbreak of the war, Tranter had a contract with the importing firm Hyde & Goodrich in New Orleans to import and distribute his revolvers commercially. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, Hyde and Goodrich dissolved their partnership, and its successors, Thomas, Griswold & Company, and A. B. Griswold & Company, continued to distribute Tranter's guns.^[6]

As a reliable, functional, and proven design, Tranter revolvers soon enjoyed a great popularity among the Confederate military. The Tranter was originally produced in six calibres, with .36, .442, and .50 being the most popular, while Tranter developed an Army model (.44 calibre) and a Navy model (.36 calibre) for the American market.^[6] Maphack d2 1.14d.

After the American Civil War, production continued of the Tranter percussion revolver (despite the increasing availability of cartridge-firing designs), because many people thought percussion firearms were safer and cheaper than the 'new-fangled' cartridge-based designs of the time. In 1863, Tranter secured the patent for rimfire cartridges in England, and started production using the same frame as his existing models. As early as 1868, Tranter had also begun the manufacture of centrefire cartridge revolvers.^[6]

By 1867, his company expanded its production with a new factory in Aston Cross, Birmingham, WestMidlands under the name 'The Tranter Gun and Pistol Factory'. In 1878, he received a contract from the British Army for the supply of .450-calibre centrefire cartridge revolvers for use in the Zulu War. This was the last official use of Tranter revolvers by the British military. Tranter retired in 1885, with his patent rights -Between 1849 and 1888 Tranter secured 24 patents firearms design patents and 19 cartridge patents- as well as the Tranter factory later being acquired by munitions manufacturer George Kynoch.^[7]

Kynoch Gun Works[edit]

Kynoch renamed the factory 'The Kynoch Gun Works' in 1885 and changed the address on its packaging from Birmingham to the more posh Aston. The factory's manager, Henry Schlund, held a patent in his own name for a revolver that was similar to the double-action six-cylinder Tranter revolver.^[8] The revolver had a one-piece curved wooden grip, a shrouded hammer, a top-break cylinder with star-ejector, and a double trigger. (The first trigger, lying below the trigger guard and pulled with the middle finger, cocked the hammer and advanced the cylinder while the second trigger, which lay inside the trigger guard and was pulled by the ring finger, tripped the sear). Schlund patented and produced an improved version in 1886^[9] that had the cocking trigger inside the trigger guard.

The Kynoch Model 1 was a large-framed revolver with a 6-inch barrel that came in .430 Tranter Short Centrefire, .450 Adams, .455/.476 Enfield Mk II, and .476 Enfield Mk II. It was designed for sale to Army officers. Some came with a detachable steel wire stock to convert it into a pistol carbine. The Kynoch Model 2 was a medium-framed revolver with a 5-inch barrel that came in .320 Tranter Centrefire Revolver, .360 Tranter Centrefire Revolver, .380 Tranter Centrefire Revolver, and .400 Tranter Centrefire. It was designed as a self-defense pistol. The Kynoch Model 3 was a small-framed revolver with a 3-inch barrel that came in .297/300 Tranter Centrefire and .300 Tranter Centrefire. It was designed as a 'Saloon' pistol for indoors target practice or a 'Rook and Rabbit' pistol for hunting vermin or small game.

The boardmembers of Kynoch's company rebelled at his lack of focus and Kynoch was removed as chairman in 1888. The Gun Works was then sold to Schlund, who renamed the company Aston Arms Co. Ltd. and the brand name to the Schlund Revolver. The factory closed down in 1891. Only 600 Kynock revolvers of all versions and models were ever made.

Notable users[edit]

Famous users of Tranter revolvers included Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, the North-West Mounted Police, the Confederate General James Ewell Brown Stuart, African adventurer Paul Du Chaillu, and Ben Hall, the Australian bushranger, and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.^[10][11] It is also known that Dr Richard Jordan Gatling, inventor of the Gatling Gun owned an 80-bore (.38-calibre) First Model Tranter Pocket Revolver with a 4.29-inch [109mm] barrel retailed by Cogswell London in 1857.

Popular culture[edit]

A Tranter revolver was used by Lord John Clayton (played by Paul Geoffrey) in the 1984 feature film Greystoke: The Legend Of Tarzan.

500 Tranter Revolver

In the 1971 western Hannie Caulder, the lead character (played by Raquel Welch) carries the first model (dual-trigger version) of the Tranter. In the movie, however, the revolver is custom made from scratch for her by a gunsmith.

The 1856 Tranter Revolver and the 1856 Tranter Revolving Rifle feature prominently in the 2016 Australian film The Legend of Ben Hall, as both weapons were historically favoured by bushrangers Ben Hall (bushranger) and John Gilbert (bushranger).

References[edit]

1. ^Phoenix Antique Arms | History of William Tranter, Gunmaker
2. ^The Firearms Technology Museum | William Tranter,Gunmaker | List of Tranter Models
3. ^The Firearms Technology Museum | William Tranter,Gunmaker | Tranter cartridge models
4. ^Rosa, Joseph G. (1 October 1979). The Gunfighter: Man Or Myth?. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 171. ISBN978-0-8061-1561-0.
5. ^Davis, William C.; Pritchard, Russ A. (1998). Fighting Men of the Civil War. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 61. ISBN978-0-8061-3060-6.
6. ^ ^abcHogg, Ian V.; Walter, John (29 August 2004). Pistols of the World. David & Charles. p. 348. ISBN0-87349-460-1.
7. ^Maze, Robert (20 August 2012). The Webley Service Revolver. Osprey Publishing. p. 19. ISBN978-1-78096-886-5.
8. ^British Patent No.9084 (July 28th, 1885)
9. ^British Patent No.11900 (September 18th 1886)
10. ^Flatnes, Oyvind (30 November 2013). From Musket to Metallic Cartridge: A Practical History of Black Powder Firearms. Crowood Press, Limited. p. 225. ISBN978-1-84797-594-2.
11. ^Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan; Chui, Patricia J. (2005). The new annotated Sherlock Holmes: The adventures of Sherlock Holmes ; The memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. W.W. Norton. p. 263. ISBN978-0-393-05916-8.

.500 Tranter Cartridge