After 123 years, S&W re-introduced the famous Schofield in 2000. While not a perfectly faithful replica of the original, the 2000 is a very shootable revolver.

by David R. Chicoine

When it was introduced in 1875, S&W’s top-break .45 Schofield model was the cat’s meow of single action revolvers. This remarkable revolver was based on designs by US Army Cavalry officer Major George W. Schofield that improved Smith & Wesson’s Model No. 3 American for military use. A novel feature is a barrel catch that is pulled rearward to open the revolver allowing it to be opened for loading with one hand, a real advantage for mounted cavalry troops. The Schofield shared other advanced features with all other S&W top-break revolvers, such as simultaneous, automatic ejection of the spent cases. Another Schofield feature the Army liked was the extraction system, which was far simpler and more dependable than the mechanisms used on earlier S&W’s, notably the American and Russian models the Army had previously tested.