Frontier Army’s First Pick

Many think of the Schofield as the first of the frontier army’s top-break revolvers. In reality, the model was nothing more than an improved version of another Smith & Wesson (S&W) top-break revolver: Model No. 3, First Model “American” revolver. (The top-break design was considered an advantage for the U.S. Army by some because they felt it allowed for faster loading of fresh cartridges, as opposed to ejecting and loading them one at a time.) Few realize, though, that the army