Follow up post on the SP4 ammo and in particular this weird revolver.
History
Designed in 2001 by Igor Yakovlevich Stechkin at TsKIB SOO an arms manufacturer based in Tula a city, 120 miles South of Moscow, famous for its arms manufacturing.
Purpose
The pistol was produced after a request from Russia’s security service, the FSB, for a quiet pistol capable of killing an enemy at 50 metres (55 yards).
Design
Like the Unica 6 this gun actually fires from the bottom chamber. This low bore axis design reduces muzzle climb when shooting, allowing faster follow up shots. The tube at the top is a laser sight, this is what that switch & wire on the left side connects to.
The grip is designed to balance the shooter’s desire to place their pinky finger on the gun with the need for the butt of the grip to be small, to aid in it’s ability as a concealed carry firearm.
The cylinder also swings out like a fence gate. I’m not sure if any other designs that do this, if you do please share them.
Also I believe that’s an ambidextrous safety, an odd feature on a revolver.
Source: https://www.historicalfirearms.info/post/74877616198/russias-silent-revolver-the-ots-38-the-ots-38
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deleted by creator
Yakovlevich is not a name, it is a patronym. His real name was Igor.
Thanks, I had pulled that chunk from the source but cut out the ‘konstruktor’ section not noticing that they missed a space and attached his first name to the end of it.
2001 by konstruktorIgor Yakovlevich Stechkin
It seems like some top guy watched a western cop movie and wanted a revolver, and then listed random cool features to Stechkin. Oh, and also a laser, it should have laser as an aiming aid. For him it was probably a fun experiment that he can later show at expos and brag about. With the on-request model of production, these ammo, the first thing I thought of that it’s an accesory to honor some operatives rather than a working horse they intended to seriously rely on. A sort of a ceremonial blade to gift.
An ambidextrous safety on what is very much not an ambidextrous pistol (just look at the laser control! Does the cylinder swing out in either direction?) is an odd choice for sure. Seems like a waste of time ngl
I do want to say I’m just assuming that’s a safety. It could be a decocker on the right face.
This is Wikipedia’s take on it:
A manual safety catch that allows the pre-cocked hammer to be set on manual safety, enabling the revolver to be carried cocked. (The mechanism also prevents accidental discharge with the cylinder open or not fully closed, with the revolver dropped or struck.)
