Largest Revolver in the world

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[Revtwo]

PFEIFER ZELISKA REVOLVER Largest Revolver in the world. 28 mm Mr. Ryszard Tobys revolver, a copy of the Remington model 1859. Length 1260 mm. Guiness Record Award in 2005

[Elle Bee]

Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? (rimshot)

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[Shooter 2.5]

He has an early one and a late one both in .45 Winchester Magnum. He said they were both unreliable and troublesome.
He added the .475’s were supposed to be a little more reliable.

He did point out to me that the Wildey isn’t an AutoMag. That’s an entirely different Make and Model.

[El Gato]

Velocity is very much affected by barrel length - I don't think any handgun has a long enough barrel to allow the powder to burn completely - hence lower velocity ("power").

Probably strictly true, but not practically speaking. Why bother to load powder that's not going to be burned anyway? Load less but faster burning powder. Handgun ammunition is designed to be fired from handguns, rifle ammunition in rifles. Both are designed to be used in the most typical barrel length. Reloaders can tune their loads to a particular length, and even to a particular gun.

[El Gato]

True or false: The best handgun in a given caliber is less powerful and accurate than the best rifle firing the same round.

Generally true, but not absolutely. I've seen tests done where they started with a very long barrel, measured the velocity of a few rounds, and then shortened and re-crowned the barrel. With a really long barrel, you lose muzzle velocity due to friction. But that's pretty long. Generally a rifle shooting pistol caliber ammunition will have a slightly higher muzzle velocity than a pistol with the same ammunition. Of course operating mechanism matters too. Semi-autos, either rifle or pistol, recoil or gas operated use some of the energy of the fired round to operate the mechanism. Revolving cylinder weapons (there once were revolver rifles, I've seen examples in the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco), lose something in the cylinder to barrel gap.

I think the tests I mentioned above were done with Thompson-Contender, but I could be misremembering that. Neither effect is present with a break action.

[norton]

If done properly,
the right load for a 2" Colt Detective wouldn't need a silencer(?)

(I have heard a few shots that went 'poof' instead of 'bang'. It's scary when the shooter pulls the trigger a second time - hoping the bullet at least went out the other end.)

If you have the time, experience, love of experimentation, and are willing to go for it - you are absolutely correct. Most of us do, or in my case - did, enough research to get a favorite or two for their most frequently used weapons - or for the deer gun they use once a year. Everything after that is a labor of love or maybe a worrisome obsession.
(Even though it never occurred to me to load specifically for a Commander or Officers Model, when I count it up that way I still get a minimum of nine plus various for 12 gage).

Also, the original (and still) definition of a sub-machinegun is that it uses pistol caliber ammo.
Carbines were traditionally been built around pistol caliber to allow for longer ranges & better punch without carrying specialized ammo.
Carbines also come by simply shortening the barrel of a rifle to make it make it less cumbersome while using the same (longer burn - big flash) ammunition.
(But) M1 carbine is an orphan sub-rifle round for which some pistols were subsequently chambered - reversing the norm and never even suggesting a rifle.

More to the point, the average shooter goes out and buys his or her ammunition from commercial offerings or from the local range. "Results may vary" and barrel length is a totally independent variable. In the latter case, range loads, they probably loaded what was handy so dirty is the norm, consistency is in your dreams, and check the casing before loading each round.

[Still Thinking]

Does that thing come with batteries?

[ReignOfError]

Generally true, but not absolutely. I've seen tests done where they started with a very long barrel, measured the velocity of a few rounds, and then shortened and re-crowned the barrel. With a really long barrel, you lose muzzle velocity due to friction. But that's pretty long. Generally a rifle shooting pistol caliber ammunition will have a slightly higher muzzle velocity than a pistol with the same ammunition.

What I failed to take into account is that everything we're talking about here, weapons designers have long known -- so when they design a round for a handgun, they don't include the powder that would go to waste.