.22 caliber Soviet Nagant revolver…

[len s]

This unusual Nagant came my way recently. It’s a Tula product made in ‘36 in .22 caliber. The exterior is in rough shape and I detect the faint smell of cold blue. Thankfully the pistol’s in great mechanical shape and bore is bright with good rifling. What’s the back story on these beasts? There’s not much on the web about them.

Len

[AndyB]

Certainly a nice and scarce piece, anyway is strange that all visible parts have a different serial number.

[Kilian]

In my view this revolver was made in 1936 as a normal Nagant revolver with serial 14251. It was then factory converted to .22 in 1936 and received a new number 2389, which should correspond with the number on the cylinder. As the cylinder has a different number this must have come from a different .22 Nagant revolver.

[AndyB]

Strange that the piece would be made from a normal 7,62, the barell should be serialed too , there should be changed the cylinder moving lever and hammer, as this is rand ignition.

[MG42UK]

I know the Nagant, due to its self-sealing chamber when firing, was a very effective weapon with a silencer fitted (NKVD and KGB used them regularly), so could this be a assassination weapon from those times? The .22 calibre seems infamous for its use for headshots etc as it does not come out of the target, but 'bounces around' on the inside doing maximum damage.