Rifling Twist: First World War Pistol/Revolver

JMB1943 · 2025-10-09T14:09:37-0400

I am interested in learning what were the rifling specs of the military handguns during the Great War period.
Currently only have info for Webley .455 & Colt M1911, and would appreciate data for German Luger & Mauser and whatever the standard side-arm was of the following nations French/Italian/AustroHungarian/Japanese/Russian/Swedish/Spanish (and any other nation that designed their own side-arms).
Either 1-full turn per inch/mm or calibers per full-turn.

Regards,
JMB

Kiernyc · 2025-10-11T08:10:00-0400

Austro-Hungarian Pistols, data from original manuals:

M.98 Rast & Gasser Revolver: 152mm = 1 : 5.98"

M.7 Roth Pistol: 250mm = 1 : 9.8"

Steyr Hahn Pistol: 200mm = 1 : 7.8"

JMB1943 · 2025-10-13T19:19:32-0400

@Kiernyc ,

Many thanks for posting this info; I was beginning to think that nobody was watching…..

I am interested in whether 1-turn in 30 calibers is an acceptable generalization for WW1 handguns.

Your three examples use 8, 8, 9 mm cartridges, resp., which correspond to 19, 31, 22 calibers.

Obviously I need more data-points before I can answer my question.

Have found that for Webley .455 and Colt M1911 the values are 44 and 32 calibers, respectively.

Again thanks for your valuable input!

Regards,
JMB

Kiernyc · 2025-10-13T19:29:13-0400

No problem!

The Rast & Gasser is something of an outlier with its actually quite fast twist rate. The bullet is fairly long for caliber though, being a 125 grain flat nose .321" bullet.

Rifling Twist: First World War Pistol/Revolver

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