The Rast & Gasser M1898, also known as the Rast-Gasser, is an Austro-Hungarian service revolver.
History[]
The Rast-Gasser was designed by Leopold Gasser and August Rast, and replaced the Gasser M1878 on its introduction in the army. The Rast-Gasser itself was to be replaced by the Roth-Steyr M1907 in the Kaiserliche und königliche Armee cavalry and by the Steyr M1912 in the infantry, but because production of the newer pistols were insufficient at the time, the Rast-Gasser remained in service and was used by many NCOs and officers and was even used as a secondary weapon for machine gunners. The Rast-Gasser's excellent build quality and the strength of its solid frame design has earned it much praise among troops, and is considered a reliable and consistent military weapon. As the Austro-Hungarian service revolver, many Rast-Gassers were manufactured; well over 180,000 of them were produced from 1898 to 1912 by Leopold Gasser Waffenfabrik. The Belgians later decided to copy the Rast-Gasser and chambered it for 7.62×38mmR Nagant.
Design Details[]
Chambered in 8mm Gasser, the Rast-Gasser combined new elements and old elements already deemed obsolete by the time it was manufactured. It is a solid-frame double action revolver with a loading gate which allows one to load cartridges into the weapon; cartridges are extracted individually with the help of an extractor rod. The loading gate is unique in that it acts somewhat like a safety; when the loading gate is opened, the hammer is disengaged from the trigger, but still allows the hammer to rotate if the trigger is pulled. This feature makes loading significantly faster than most revolvers of this type. The weapon has rear V-notch sights and a front post sight, and rifling is four grooves with a right-hand twist.