Why no top breaks

[silentpoet]

I was talking with a co-worker and we got to wondering why there are no top breaks being made today.

 

[Trebor]

The top break design is not as strong as a solid frame design. That's the main reason for the switch away from top breaks at the turn of the 20th Century.

There are some repro top breaks in production and the Russians have a commercial top break revolver I've seen some photo's of. As far as I know, none have ever been imported to the states.

 

[timothy75]

Uberti offers the schofeild, russian, and laramie, and bond, cobra, and american derringer offer tip ups if it helps.

 

[silentpoet]

I know the frame wouldn't be as strong, but you would think with advances in materials that it could be done. Didn't they have .45 colt top breaks back in the 1800s? Well that ain't a weak round.

I would buy a modern topbreak in say .45 acp designed for moon clips. Or even a .357 topbreak.

 

[cane]

No .45 Colt topbreaks in the 1800's. There was the S&W Schofield that was chambered in .45 Schofield, which is shorter than the colt. All the other S&W break top pistols were chambered in the various .44s. The modern replicas are chambered in .45 Colt but the frames have been lengenthed. They are usually shot with "cowboy loads" in CAS matches. Many of the Webley MK VIs were converted to use .45 ACP with half or full moon clips. They can be shot with .45 Auto Rim without the clips.

 

[Marko Kloos]

It's not so much the strength of the frame, it's the lockup method. A top-break needs to have at least a little play in the latch...if it's too tight, you can't open it easily. That play means the gun will shake itself loose at some point with modern high-pressure rounds.