Magazine small arms are those shoulder pieces and pistols whose systems of construction enable them to fire several successive rounds without reloading. They are divided into two general classes, revolvers and repeaters, the former firing their charges from several chambers from which, till the successive discharges take place, the cartridges are not moved; the latter firing from a single chamber into which, by the mechanism of the piece, the several cartridges are successively loaded, from an attached magazine.
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