Part of this probably has to do with the interchanging of the words "pistol" and "revolver". Up intil 1900ish everything was called a pistol. "Dueling pistols", "Pirate pistols", "Go get you pistol, pa", "Pistol whipped his dirty hide", "Pistol packing mama", "He carried a brace of pistols", "A Mexican rig with an ivory handled pistol", ect. There wasn't anything else. Enter Mr. Browning, now you have to differentiate from the two. For a while any handgun was a "pistol", "pistol" being used for "automatics" too. Then it went to "automatic" and "revolver", with the term pistol meaning "automatic", "revolver" being a wheel gun. So if someone had a "pistole" it could either be an auto or wheel gun depending on the era.
rk
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