Shooting rarities
It was small, pocket-sized
three-strike revolver, old device;
there are still two charges and one primer left in it.
You could shoot once.
He thought, put the revolver in his pocket,
took his hat and went out.” Fyodor Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment."
three-strike revolver, old device;
there are still two charges and one primer left in it.
You could shoot once.
He thought, put the revolver in his pocket,
took his hat and went out.” Fyodor Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment."
stories about weapons. It is clear that in his novel Fyodor Dostoevsky again confused a pistol with a revolver, because what kind of revolver could it be with three charges and three capsules? But a pistol with three barrels, and of an old design, had a right to exist. And just today we will return again to the interesting topic of “shooting rarities”, of which, by the way, there were a lot and very different.
But our story will be about the rarities of the era of cartridges, when gunsmith designers strived with all their might to make a pistol fire not just once, but... many times, just like a revolver!
Pistol "Reform". Right view. Photo by Alain Dobress
Well, we’ll start our story with the Belgian “Reform” pistol, very beautiful, nickel-plated and therefore shiny, decorated with engraving and, on top of everything, also four-barreled!
The pistol shown here in the photograph appears to have been manufactured in Liege. But there are no markings or any icons on it that would allow us to identify its manufacturer. However, there is a gun. Its caliber is 6,35 mm, and it is quite possible to shoot from it.
It is designed very simply: a block of four barrels is inserted from above into the frame like a clip and, by the action of the trigger, rises higher and higher after each next shot. And then you remove the first one and insert the second loaded block, and continue shooting!
Pistol "Reform". Left view. The crown on it is very beautiful, but what it means is unknown! Photo by Alain Dobress
The imagination of the weapon creators of that time was truly limitless! For example, here is a pistol from the American gunsmith Frank Wesson, who made a career for himself on .22 caliber sporting rifles with two triggers. But they were such only at first glance, because one of them served to release the folding barrel.
The same thing happened with his pistol...
In this photo, left side view, the Frank Wesson pistol has three barrels, doesn't it? Photo by Alain Dobress
But in fact, see the next photo, there are only two barrels on this pistol. Between the upper and lower barrels there is not a barrel, but... a pencil case for a retractable bayonet.
Photo by Alain Dobresse, which clearly shows the structure of this pistol if you look at it on the right!
I fired two shots from such a pistol, quickly swapping barrels and cocking the hammer, and then you can go hand-to-hand with it!
The Belgian company Francotta produced a wide variety of weapons, but it became especially famous for its revolvers with an original system for locking the upper frame mounting using two levers with corrugated buttons. However, she also produced very unusual weapons, for example, shooting daggers!
Moreover, if most shooting knives and daggers had only one barrel (people were happy about that!), then Francotte’s dagger had two barrels at once.
Francotte's shooting dagger. Left view. The trigger, representing one of the crosshairs, is released. The triggers, accordingly, are located in the handle. Photo by Alain Dobress
The same dagger with cocked hammers. The triggers extended from the handle. Photo by Alain Dobress
This photo clearly shows that this was a percussion weapon... Photo by Alain Dobress
Shooting knives were produced by many companies, so it makes no sense to include them all here. But some of their samples are very interesting.
For example, a knife-pistol from English manufacturers the Linsley brothers from Leeds. It had a .28 caliber octagonal blued barrel with markings at the top. The bolt and handle were decorated with floral scrollwork. The trigger is foldable. Ivory handle grips. All this is quite common in such designs.
But this addition is truly original and interesting. The fact is that the side plates are removed by pressing forward. By removing them, you get both a knife and a fork. That is, with their help you can have breakfast or lunch, and then shoot someone!
Knife pistol of the Linsley brothers from Leeds. Photo by Alain Dobress
The Linsey brothers' knife-pistol, disassembled. Photo by Alain Dobress
And this is his marking, engraved on the barrel. Photo by Alain Dobress
Gunsmith Adolf Frank, owner of the Alpha company, unlike all other designers, did not think long and did not strive for special originality in the design... But he still came up with something new and previously non-existent: here is a single-shot pistol of 12 mm caliber.
But the size is very small! His appearance was not so great, one might say, nothing at all or even terrible, but despite this, people bought him. Although it is not in the catalog of this company for 1911, as well as in the catalogs of the 20-30s of the last century. They certainly say that the ways of the market are inscrutable.
Single-shot pistol by Adolf Frank. Photography by Alain Dobress
And the Alpha company also produced for export such a 12 mm caliber pistol, which fired... tear gas. The pistol bears a German hallmark, which was used to mark weapons until 1939. Photography by Alain Dobress
The French also made their contribution to the production of shooting rarities.
And among them is an expander revolver with a horizontal drum in the body, designed in 1883 by inventor Jacques Turbot. Moreover, he even managed to get a patent for it. Which is not surprising, since this pocket weapon of his turned out to be very strange indeed. The name was given to him Le Protector, that is, “The Protector”.
"The Defender" by Jacques Turbot. Photo by Alain Dobress
The design of the “Defender” was very simple: a round body, shaped like a lady’s powder compact with protrusions for the fingers, and a spring-loaded lever.
Inside the body there is a disk-shaped magazine with radially arranged chambers for cartridges. There are recesses on the surface of the disk, falling into which one of the levers inside the body caused it to turn and stand with the chambers against the barrel. When this happened, the trigger located inside the disk struck the cartridge primer, firing a shot. Each squeeze of the lever is one shot, with the barrel passing between the fingers. That is, it was necessary to shoot almost point blank.
"Defender" from the inside. Nearby are the case cover and the disk magazine. Photo by Alain Dobress
Another French shooting invention: Charles Bayle's multi-barreled pistol. Six barrels, six spring-loaded firing pins, six trigger jaws. By pressing the trigger, the cams released the firing pins, they hit the cartridge capsules and the gun fired! To reload, the barrel block was rotated inside the frame. The pistol was completely flat, so it had to be carried in a vest pocket, since it only fired 5 mm cartridges. There are very few of these pistols left. So this is truly a real rarity! Photo by Alain Dobress
Well, what was the most multi-shot pistol of the XNUMXth century and how many shots could it fire without reloading?
It’s hard to believe, but even then there was a 40-round pistol, patented by the French engineer Paulin Gay and his partner Henri Geno on January 17, 1879. Today it is commonly called the Guycot chain needle pistol, and it is truly an exceptionally original weapon.
"Guycot's Chain Needle Gun." Length 305 mm. Caliber 6 mm. 1878 Photo by Bolk Antiques Company
The same pistol with the body cover removed. Photo by Bolk-Antiques company
He shot with bullets that first appeared in the USA and were used in Vulcanic pistols.
In fact, these were the world's first caseless ammunition, the bullet in which had a powder charge in the internal cavity, and it was initiated by a charge of mercury fulminate. The charge was covered with a thin paper membrane, coated with varnish, which protected the propellant charge from moisture. When fired, it burned without a trace.
Inside the body of the pistol and the handle, when the trigger was pressed, a chain similar to a bicycle chain moved. From 20 to 40 small “cups” with a hole in the back could be attached to it. This was exactly his store.
The chain had guide rollers and a tension mechanism. Each pull of the trigger placed another “cup” in front of the breech of the barrel, and the trigger with the needle struck and pierced the membrane through a hole in the bottom of the cup.
They were charged through a door on the top panel of the case.
The disadvantage of this pistol, like the Vulcanic pistol, was the weakness of its ammunition.
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