Chichester Pinfire Revolver
- Category
- Revolver
- Barrel
- 127 mm
- Weight, empty
- Not recorded
- Introduced
- 1859
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Chichester Pinfire Revolver is a mid-19th-century six-shot revolver of the Lefaucheux pinfire type, chambered for the 9mm Lefaucheux (9mm a broche) self-contained metallic cartridge. It belongs to the large family of British-styled, Belgian-made open- and closed-frame pinfire revolvers that flooded the European and American Civil War markets around 1859-1879. The hammer strikes a small pin protruding radially from the cartridge case, driving it into an internal primer to ignite the charge. Representative examples carry a 127mm (5-inch) round sighted barrel, a six-round cylinder, a flip-up loading gate and an ejector rod, with a flat-bottomed grip, top strap and lanyard loop in the British Adams idiom; most were proofed at Liege in Belgium and sold unmarked or under retailer names through the English gun trade. It represents the affordable personal-defence revolvers that briefly bridged cap-and-ball percussion and the later rimfire and centerfire systems.
Pinfire cartridges had to be loaded with each protruding pin aligned upward through the cylinder; a careless knock against an exposed pin could discharge a round outside the gun, a hazard that contributed to the system being superseded by rimfire and centerfire designs by the 1880s.
The 'Chichester' attribution is unreliable and likely conflates two unrelated guns. Documented sources show no British pinfire revolver verifiably marked 'Chichester': the only firearm of that name is the American Chichester Rifle Company (Jersey City, NJ), a retail brand for Hopkins & Allen that fitted 28-gauge smoothbore 'pocket shotgun' barrels and rifle barrels to the .38 rimfire/centerfire XL No. 5 revolver frame circa 1880-1890 (per Forgotten Weapons) - not a pinfire and not British. This entry instead documents the class it was filed under: an unmarked British-style 9mm Lefaucheux-pattern pinfire revolver of circa 1859, Belgian (Liege) manufacture. The specifications (260mm overall, 127mm barrel, six-shot, double action) are taken from a representative IMA-USA example rather than a single catalogued 'Chichester' model. Weight, muzzle velocity and energy are left null because no source gives verified figures for this specific gun.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- Chichester
- Category
- Revolver
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Status
- Out of production
- Produced
- 1859 to 1880
DimensionsAs issued, without a magazine or an optic.
- Barrel
- 127 mm
- Overall length
- 260 mm
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Action
- Revolving
- Firing mechanism
- Hammer fired
- Trigger
- Double action
- Capacity
- 6
- Magazine
- Revolving cylinder
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
- Stock
- Wood
- Finish
- Blued
BallisticsFrom the service cartridge, not a handload.
- Effective range
- 20 m
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Pinfire cartridge ignition
Revolving cylinder
Loading gate
Ejector rod
Self contained metallic cartridge
Standing
How it compares
Each figure against the firearms of the same type and cartridge that record it, or of the same type where that cartridge has too few. Positions are read to the nearest tenth.
| Measurement | This firearm | Median | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall lengthAmong 415 revolvers | 260 mm | 260 mm | Near the median |
| Barrel lengthAmong 431 revolvers | 127 mm | 127 mm | Near the median |
| Magazine capacityAmong 434 revolvers | 6 | 6 | Holds more rounds than about 60% |
Answers
Questions about the Chichester Pinfire Revolver
What caliber is the Chichester Pinfire Revolver?
The Chichester Pinfire Revolver is chambered in 9mm Pinfire.
How many rounds does the Chichester Pinfire Revolver hold?
The Chichester Pinfire Revolver holds 6 rounds, fed from a revolving cylinder.
How long is the Chichester Pinfire Revolver?
The Chichester Pinfire Revolver is 260 mm (10.24 in) long overall, with a 127 mm (5.00 in) barrel.
Who makes the Chichester Pinfire Revolver?
The Chichester Pinfire Revolver is made by Chichester (United Kingdom). It was designed by Casimir Lefaucheux.
When was the Chichester Pinfire Revolver introduced?
The Chichester Pinfire Revolver was introduced in 1859 and discontinued in 1880.
How does the Chichester Pinfire Revolver operate?
The Chichester Pinfire Revolver uses a revolving action, and its firing mechanism is hammer fired.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
Provenance
Confidence in this record
55%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/chichester-pinfire' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "chichester-pinfire", "name": "Chichester Pinfire Revolver", "manufacturer": { "id": "chichester", "name": "Chichester", "countryCode": "GB", "foundedYear": null, "website": null, "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "updatedAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "version": "5afe76441efa330608a85a3a10133031b99e97d02f9e3d65ede658572b436687" }, "category": { "id": "revolver", "name": "Revolver", "description": "Handguns with a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers" }, "country_of_origin": "GB", "year_introduced": 1859, "barrel_length_mm": 127, "weight_empty_g": null, "action_type": "revolving"}