Smith & Wesson Model 1 Smith & Wesson Model 1 The Smith & Wesson Model 1 was the first firearm manufactured by Smith & Wesson, with production spanning the years 1857 through 1882. It was the first commercially successful revolver to use rimfire cartridges instead of loose powder, musket ball, and percussion caps. It is a single-action, tip-up revolver holding seven .22 Short black powder cartridges. As Samuel Colt's patent on the night revolver was set to expire in 1856, Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson were researching a prototype for a metallic cartridge revolver. When they discovered that a former Colt employee named Rollin
Smith & Wesson Model 59 Smith & Wesson Model 59 The Smith & Wesson Model 59 was a double-action pistol introduced in 1971. It was developed by Smith & Wesson from the earlier Smith & Wesson Model 39 by adapting a 14-round capacity stagger-stack magazine. It was designed for the U.S. Navy as a large-capacity version of the S&W Model 39, the basis of their Mark 22 "Mark 22 Hush Puppy" silenced pistol. In 1965, the U.S. Navy commissioned a version of the S&W Model 39 that could take the 13-round magazine of the Browning Hi-Power. In early 1970, a dozen experimental all-stainless-steel prototypes were