S&W Model 3

Smith & Wesson No. 3 Revolver
A Smith & Wesson No. 3 on display
Type	Service revolver
Place of origin	United States
Service history
In service	1870–1915
Used by	United States, Russian Empire, Kingdom of Montenegro, Argentina, Empire of Japan, Ottoman Empire, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, South Australia Police, Spain
Wars	American Indian Wars Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) North-West Rebellion, Spanish–American War, Philippine–American War, World War I (limited)
Production history
Designer	Smith & Wesson
Manufacturer	Smith & Wesson
Produced	1868–1898
Specifications
Weight	1.3 kilograms (2.9 lb)
Length	305 millimetres (12.0 in)
Barrel length	165 millimetres (6.5 in)
Caliber	.44 Russian, .44 S&W American, .38 S&W, .44 Henry, .44-40 Winchester
Action	Single-action
Muzzle velocity	244 metres per second (800 ft/s)
Feed system	6-round cylinder
Sights	Fixed front post and rear notch

The Smith & Wesson Model 3 was a single-action, cartridge-firing, top-break revolver produced by Smith & Wesson from circa 1870 to 1915, and was recently again offered as a reproduction by Smith & Wesson and Uberti.

It was produced in several variations and sub-variations, including both the "Russian Model", so named because it was supplied to the military of the Russian Empire (41,000 No. 3's were ordered in .44 caliber by the Imperial Russian Army in 1871), and the "Schofield" model, named after Major George W. Schofield, who made his own modifications to the Model 3 to meet his perceptions of the Cavalry's needs. Smith & Wesson incorporated these modifications into an 1875 design they named after the Major, planning to obtain significant military contracts for the new revolver.

The S&W Model 3 was originally chambered for the .44 S&W American and .44 Russian cartridges, and typically did not have the cartridge information stamped on the gun (as is standard practice for most commercial firearms). Model 3 revolvers were later produced in an assortment of calibers, including .44 Henry Rimfire, .44-40, .32-44, .38-44, and .45 Schofield. The design would influence the smaller S&W .38 Single Action that is retroactively referred to as the Model 2.

Smith & Wesson produced large numbers of the Model 3, in three distinct models, for the Russian Empire by special order. The first was the 1st Model Russian (the original order design), with the Russian Ordnance Inspector mandating a number of improvements to the design, resulting in the 2nd Model Russian, with a final revision to the Russian design being known as the 3rd Model Russian.

Smith & Wesson nearly went bankrupt as a result of their Russian Contract production, as the Imperial government assigned a number of engineers and gunsmiths to reverse-engineer the Smith & Wesson design, and then began to produce copies of the revolver—both in their own arsenal at Tula and by contracting other manufacturers in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to manufacture copies of the revolver (a common practice at the time—Webley & Scott's British Bulldog revolver was widely copied, too, by European and American gunsmiths).