Revolver from Montenegro
Officers of the Montenegrin army (in the middle lieutenant, Prince Petr Petrovich-Negosh), with revolvers of the Gasser system arr. 1870/1874, Cetinje, 1909 Photo from the private collection of Miladin Marković. Magazine "Weapon» No. 5/2013
Caliber - easy to get scared
Lose peace for good
By eye - thirteen millimeters,
More precisely - twelve and seven ...
Adam Lindsay Gordon (October 19, 1833 - June 24, 1870)
Lose peace for good
By eye - thirteen millimeters,
More precisely - twelve and seven ...
Adam Lindsay Gordon (October 19, 1833 - June 24, 1870)
Weapon stories. In the previous article “In the Shadow of the Revolver”, we talked about the Rasta-Gasser eight-shot revolver, which was adopted by the Austro-Hungarian army and did not differ much from the same revolver, except for the capacity of the drum. Well, what kind of revolvers did Leopold Gasser himself make and did he do at all? It turns out - yes, he did, and he became famous not for this model at all, since he died in 1871. No, he became famous for a very special revolver, called the Montenegrin. That's what we're going to talk about today.
Drawing of a revolver of the Gasser system arr. 1870, Kosta Milovanovic, "Artillery", Belgrade, 1879. Magazine "Arms" No. 5/2013
However, start this history it would be best not from a revolver, but ... from geography. "Montenegro", "montenegrin" - the names are sonorous, even beautiful, but what do they mean in Russian?
And in Russian, “Montenegro” is the name of a well-known country for all of us, which we all know as ... Montenegro! This is a very small mountainous country with a population of less than half a million people, where many of our people go on vacation with pleasure. But, despite its small size, it has a very turbulent history of wars and revolutions. The country was independent from 1868 to 1920 when Yugoslavia absorbed it. When Yugoslavia collapsed in a bloody civil war in the 1990s, Montenegro again chose self-government. It is also the only country in the world whose name has ever become synonymous with a certain type of firearm. So the Montenegrins in this regard were lucky like no one else!
Gasser's six-shot revolver arr. 1870 Length 325 mm, barrel length 185 mm (115 mm). Weight: 1 g. Caliber: 300×11,2 mm. Right view. Photo littlegun.be
The same revolver. View from the left. Photo littlegun.be
It was the same with Gasser himself. He was born in 1836, and then, when he was already 22 years old, that is, rather late, in 1858, he began working as an apprentice gunsmith Josef Scheinig in the city of Vienna in the Ottakringw region. In 1861, on the basis of the Beaumont-Adams revolver, Scheinig designed his capsular five-shot revolver with steel rods inside the drum chambers according to the Etienne Thouvenin system, known for use on French fittings, but used for the first time in a revolver. The bullet, put on the rod, expanded with the help of a lever mounted on a hinge on the right side of the barrel.
On March 9, 1861, Josef Scheinig applied for a patent for invention No. 9246 to the Imperial Patent Office in Vienna. Scheinig's "rod revolver" of 13,9 mm, 11 mm and 9 mm calibers was tested, but the Austrian army did not accept it due to the high cost - 60 guilders per revolver. And his revolver turned out to be not small: for example, the length of a 13,9 mm revolver was 320 mm, with a barrel length of 156 mm, and it weighed 1 grams without cartridges.
1870 revolver, cartridge belt and holster. Photo hungariae.com
The first patent in which the name Leopold Gasser appears was Patent No. 8999/(606) of 1862, filed by Josef Scheinig. It was a traditional five-shot capsular revolver, characterized by accelerated reloading. The barrel was movable and had a lever for tight bullet driving on the left side of the frame under the drum. Thanks to this, by moving the barrel forward, the drum could be easily removed. And it was possible not to remove it, and put the capsules on the drum hoses through the charging door located on the frame on the left side.
Four years later he became a master, and Scheinig ... married him to his daughter. Then Gasser inherited his workshop. It often happened before, it happens now, although with different results. He gradually expanded production and eventually created a whole factory for the production of revolvers. And in 1869 he designed his own revolver of the original design, which was adopted by the Austrian army in 1870.
Gasser's six-shot revolver arr. 1870 "Montenegrin". Total length 380 mm, barrel length - 240. Photo by littlegun.be
Moreover, at the end of his life, Leopold Gasser already owned two factories: one in Vienna and the other in St. Polten, and the production turned out to be very successful and profitable. True, he himself did not wait for such success, but on the other hand he transferred his enterprise to his younger brother Johann, and he continued his business. By the way, the revolvers they created were not only adopted by the Austro-Hungarian army, but also widely distributed in Central Europe and the Balkans. At the same time, in the Balkans, the Montenegrin Gasser model (that is, the Montenegrin Gasser) was especially popular (why - this will be discussed later!) However, the same patents were used by him and his brother in a later standard army revolver "Rast and Gasser", after the death of Leopold Gasser himself.
The same revolver. Right view. The safety lever is visible under the drum. Photo littlegun.be
In 1903, the company was named "Rast and Gasser", and no later than 1912 ceased to exist. But ... revolvers of its production remained and were used for a long time by Montenegrins and other representatives of small Balkan peoples. And all because (although this is just an assumption) that, although these peoples were small, the caliber of the revolver of 1870 and its later modifications was simply very large - 11,25 mm. And he fired cartridges from the Fruvirt carbine. This company also had an interesting trademark - "heart pierced by an arrow" - very much in the taste of hot southern guys!
The fashion for "Montenegrins" led to the fact that many European firms made them, simply fitting their own models to the "Montenegrin design". Here, for example, is the Montenegrin revolver of the Varnan company of the Price system. Photo littlegun.be
But the funny thing is that the "Montenegrin revolver" was produced anywhere - in Austria, Belgium, Spain, but not in Montenegro itself! But almost all the men had it there! And all because they were ordered by the Montenegrin king himself! And this, again, is the only case in history when a national leader ordered the population to arm themselves with a very specific firearm.
And it happened that after Nikola Petrovich was proclaimed Prince of Montenegro in 1860, he tried to turn his small state into a formidable force that would instill fear in such hostile neighbors as Albania and Austria. One of his reforms along the way was the requirement to own revolvers to the entire male population of the country.
"Every male citizen of Montenegro is a member of the militia and, therefore, not only has the right, but also the obligation to have at least one revolver of the Gasser model."
Nikola I Petrovich Negosh. Portrait by an unknown artist. 1910s Museum of King Nikola (Cetinje)
True, it is believed that he himself also owned shares in the company of Leopold Gasser and therefore made good money on his order. Well, the production of Montenegrin revolvers helped the Austrian manufacturer to maintain its business until the end of the First World War. Moreover, in fact, the company was faced with such a large demand at the international level that it could not fulfill all orders and transferred the license for the production of its revolvers to other companies.
As a result, Gasser models were produced by many European firms, primarily from Belgium and Spain. But even these licensed models did not fully satisfy the demand, which led to the production of many unlicensed local models, the quality of which could be both good and very bad.
An improved model of the Gasser revolver of the 1873 model with a one-piece frame. Overall length 242 mm, barrel length 127 mm, drum for five charges, caliber: 11,2 × 29,5 mm. Photo hungariae.com
Moreover, it was the revolvers of 1870 that came to Montenegro. And all because they were produced in Austria in 1870–1878. and when they were replaced by the Gasser M1878, some of the earlier examples, which were still in production and well established in production, began to be sold to Montenegro.
"Door Abadi" on the model M1873. Photo hungariae.com
In any case, the Montenegrin revolver, wherever it was made, had to look in a very special way, and have a huge cylinder that could hold 11,25 × 36 mm cartridges, and a rounded handle, reminiscent of the grip of the Mauser pistol of 1896.
That is, in principle, it was enough to take your own revolver, attach a long barrel and a drum chambered for 11,25 mm to it, put a “broom handle” (the handle from the “Mauser” had such a funny nickname) and ... You could announce that you Selling Montenegrin revolvers.
Drawing of an army revolver of the Gasser system arr. 1877, Kosta Milovanovic, "Artillery", Belgrade, 1879. Magazine "Arms" No. 5/2013
To be continued ...
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