Well, of this revolving shotgun a pretty big con is jail time if it is in the US. By a weird artifact of law it is illegal to build or possess a firearm of greater than .50 caliber unless it is -specifically- deemed by BATFE as suitable for hunting or sporting purposes. If it is not so deemed it is considered a “Class 3 destructive device” or an “any other weapon” and a whole lot of paperwork and tax forms have to be filled out, including prior approval by the CLEO of your jurisdiction (chief law enforcement officer). This is why Remington Streetsweepers and Cobray Striker shotguns (and many others) are not plainly legal. They USED to be legal, but BATFE ruled that shotguns with rotary magazines or revolving chambers are not suitable for hunting or sporting purposes. Yes, old ones made before this ruling are fine, and there ARE ways for ordinary civilians to purchase new ones, but they are not dealt with the same way as ordinary shotguns.

As per why the concept in rifles never took off the main reason comes down to practical wall thicknesses and the cylinder gap. In a revolver there is typically no positive lockup between the chamber and the barrel. When fired some propellant gasses vent out the gap between them. This is the same reason why it is particularly difficult to suppress a revolver. In something the size of a handgun this isn’t that big a deal. However the longer the barrel is the more time there is for the barrel to be at a high pressure state venting gas out the gap. This is not terribly comfortable to the operator.

Secondly, if you are talking about a full power rifle cartridge (rather than a pistol caliber carbine or an intermediate low pressure carbine cartridge like the .45-70) the chamber pressures are much higher than a handgun. This does two things. One is that it makes the venting out the cylinder gap particularly violent and potentially hazardous. The other is that the wall thickness of a revolvers chamber is fairly thin compared to a rifle OR the revolver is limited in capacity. This is why some of the hand cannons like the .454 Casull revolver only hold 5 shots. In a rifle cartridge, even if you managed to deal with the gap issue a reasonable size cylinder would only hold maybe 4 shots (or less!) unless the cylinder was overly large. At this point a lever, pump or (more recently) semi-auto action makes more sense.

There WERE revolving carbines in the west way back when and to some degree they are still around for the cowboy enthusiasts. Typically they are in handgun cartridges or low pressure carbine cartridges, but really these were made obsolete by the Winchester repeater and others.

Granted, I’ve always been fond of the idea too… But, oh well.