A crude visual of how Henry's new pistol works

Henry thought about a magazine through the grip, and dismissed it for a few reasons. 1. Box mags allow him to shoot bigger bullets. He doesn't really need to deal with recoil all that much, so bigger slugs = more power especially as his magic gets more powerful. There is actually a limit to how fast he can shoot gold bullets or they deform while travel. I've been debating a scene explaining this. 2. Henry is basically working with his hands and any tools or jigs he cobbles together. Even if he had a full workshop, he wasn't a machinist before coming to Ludus, and all of this stuff is self-taught for him. As I mentioned in a post above, I personally would have approached the entire engineering problem differently, but I'm not Henry. :)

Blaise Corvin

Revolvers can be very accurate. An important aspect is "timing" and "alignment," making sure the cylinder is perfectly lined up with the barrel.

Blaise Corvin

The magazine should go in at the very rear of the barrel presumably through a hollow grip. The arguments against a bullpup design will go away if you have no charge and no trigger.

Oliver

Asking just to sate my own curiosity, since I don't know anything about guns. But are revolvers not as accurate as semi-automatic pistols? Because as I understand it they just hold the bullet in line with the barrel and it briefly travels through air before going into what I always assumed was a rifled barrel.

Completely forgot about the rifling! XD

Brandon Pio

The simple answer is rifling. In order to be accurate, firearms need to have correct head spacing. If Henry pushed the bullets directly forward into the barrel and they were being accelerated the entire way, the shots would be all over the place. The bolt allows for consistency by placing the bullet in the same place each time, properly seated in the chamber. Coil guns have similar issues, but for different reasons. This is why there is usually a "pusher" that pushes the ammunition forward into the barrel before the coils are triggered.

Blaise Corvin

That's a good point Zachary Henry doesn't need casings at all because of his magic

Jimmy

Why bother with a bolt at all? If the barrel simply has a slot above the magazine the bullet in the chamber would held in place by the force of the spring or rubber that feeds the bullets up. That's similar to how a nail gun works. Fire arms only need a bolt because they have to be able to eject to spent casing.

One thing worth noting is that the rounds and the barrel's chamber are both slightly tapered so the rounds will enter the barrel easily, but also stay in there. The bolt holds them in.

Blaise Corvin