On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:01:12 -0700, Gerry wrote:



LLoyd
From Wikipedia, FWIW
"In American usage, the term "pistol" refers to a handgun whose
chamber is integral with the barrel, making pistols distinct from the
other main type of handgun, the revolver, which has a revolving
cylinder containing multiple chambers." After 20 years of gunsmithing,
that is the I see it as well

It's a fine point sometimes observed by those who strongly prefer
revolvers and call semiautos "bottom feeders". The Federal Cartridge
ammo ballistics charts are catagorized as pistol, rifle, rimfire,
shotshell, etc. Revolver ammo is included in the pistol category.

If you hit Google with define: pistol, you'll get five definitions
with cites. Only one of them makes any distinction between revolvers
and other handguns, says "that distinction is often lost today".