22 pistol

Ahhh. My Ruger 22/45. Got the rail for a scope/red dot. Got the nice wood grips and the stainless steel. This baby is smooth like butter. Not as nice, mind you, as my old Smith and Wesson Model 41, which I sadly had to sell off a few years back when money was tight. But nice

Smith and Wesson 625

A formidable beast, chambering .45 ACP ammo in what are known as "full moon clips" (lower left). These function as a speed loader, enabling a fast, 6-chamber reload. I used to be able to toss a moon clip of full metal jacket round nose into the chamber from a foot away. Reloads are FAST. I mean FAST.

Semi-auto delight!

Smith & Wesson 4506 (.45 ACP). Stainless steel with skateboard grip tape on the grips (my addition). Fast, accurate, comfortable to shoot, and hella easy to field strip. Get one while you still can.

Little big man

North American Arms Mini-revolver in .22 magnum. The whole thing is less than 5 inches long. Concealable, handy, and convenient, with just enough punch to do the job in an emergency. I don't have a CCP, but there are times and places where a little friend in some backpack or pocket is worth the risk. As the man once said, "It's better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6".

I do a lot of hiking, kayaking, beachcombing, etc. all by myself - sometimes, one feels the need to have some 'defense in depth' in teh more desolate areas of our environs. This is also my "hotel gun" when I'm on the road. I never travel with a loaded cylinder, or even with the cylinder and the frame togehter in the same bag. Once I'm checked in, however, all bets are off...

While you're waiting...

For my sorry ass to come up with another Friday-based theme, here's a compact 1911 by Llama, the Spanish gunmaker. It's not a Colt, even though it's a clone, and it's a fine shooter. .45 ACP.

Old Slabsides

Nothing to see here. Just a standard Colt 1911 in .45 ACP, with an aftermarket 2-port compensator in place of the stock barrel bushing. Nice shooter. Big holes. All from a design that'll be 100 years old in two years.

What's with the little guns?

There's something about a dinky little small caliber pistol that amuses me greatly. Maybe it's the thought of loading that tiny little ammunition into that tiny little breech with my big ham hands. Maybe its the idea that these low powered rounds are utterly useless for anything other than punching holes in paper or (maybe) killing a wild mouse. Whatever...


Here's another parlor pistol, German makers mark on the right side of the barrel. Like a few others, it's got a funny little breech block mechanism and extractor. The half octagon barrel's about 10" long, and the piece has wooden grips.

Parlor pistol redux

Yet another German made parlor on the same frame as the one I blogged about last week, but with a longer 10" barrel. The action's a little sticky on this one, but it does work. By the way, that's a US quarter down below of scale, but the flash made it hard to see because of reflection.

Another little parlor pistol

Like this post, this little fella is a parlor pistol, designed for indoor and/or gallery shooting. It's got German proof marks on the right side of the barrel, and has an elaborate little breech loading system to keep the itty bitty 6 mm (.22 caliber) CB or BB caps in the chamber. As soon as I get some Flobert cartridges, I'm going to give it a shot. This little guy will also probably be the piece I use to introduce the kid to shooting - low noise, single shot, no recoil, "safe" muzzlle velocities, little cartridges for little hands, and a little frame. This he will appreciate more than a shot with my S&W 625.

Flintlock's Flintlock

Here's an old British flintlock pistol. The lock plate has the traditional stamp of the TOWER arsenal as well as the Seal of King George (with G.R. for George Rex) stamped under it. The puts it in the late 1700's or early 1800's. There are a few replacement parts on this piece - one of the lockplate screws has been replaced, as has the plate on the left side of the pistol - it's now brass sheet stock that is not original. Otherwise, the pistol is in pretty good shape with a functioning action, frizzen, and ramrod.

Might this have been a pirate's pistol? A fella can dream, right?

They broke the mold...

With all the fun of this, and this, and even this, one has to wonder where all those little .36 inch balls come from.

Well this little handy is a .36 caliber bullet mold. It's designed to make .36 caliber balls out of melted lead - one round at a time. Certainly not a mass production device, but probably adequate for passing time around the campfire. You could make a couple of dozen rounds in an evening, provided a source of lead, a hot fire, and a melting pot.

The sprue would have been cut off with a pocket knife or file.

Now...if only you could make black powder...you'd have just about everything you'd need.

BELGIUM is not a dirty word...

...except in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.


By all accounts, this old percussion pistol is from Belgium, although I can't find a mark one on it. It's similar in style to a lot of pistols of the period (c. 1840's). Like another piece I recently posted, it was probably for sea service based on the (swiveling) iron ring on the buttcap. It's .75 caliber, so it packed a real punch.

I invite you to compare it to a very similar, but slightly earlier piece here.

I'm now obligated..

..to follow yesterday's junk with the crown jewel of my collection.


This piece is (or at least could have been) a pirate's pistol. Demonstrably.

It's an old flintlock that was definitely designed for sea service. How do I know this? Two reasons...

First, the brass barrel and fittings tell me so. You see, brass is much more resistant to the ravages of corrosion that the salty ocean inflicts on iron and steel. If you want a gun to last at sea, you use as little iron as possible.

Second, another pistol almost identical to this one, was excavated from a real 1717 pirate shipwreck. No shit.

To read up on the find, I highly recommend reading Barry Clifford's excellent book "Expedition Whydah". I've excerpted a page here without permission from the publisher (I claim "fair use" for the purposes of academic study, but I will gladly take down the image if anyone takes exception).

The similarities are such that these pieces are not only from the same period, they may have been made by the same maker. If that doesn't send a shiver down your spine, you just don't get it.

Clifford's find is a bit more elaborate, and appears to have had an iron barrel. Otherwise, the pieces are virtually identical - the escutcheons with the heart motif, the trigger guard, and the brass furniture opposite the lock. But notice the face from the buttcap of Clifford's piece next to a photo of the buttcap from mine:

The faces differ to be sure, but look at the eyes, the forehead, and especially the scalloped border around the face. It's as if the benign face of the Sun King on Clifford's find has become totally enraged on mine. These works or art could have easily been made by the same hand. (insert more spine chills here).

If you do not yet feel the power of history, you are totally lost here. I got a tear in my eye just seeing these images together...

Repel Borders!

Repel Barnes & Noble, too!


OK, that was bad.

Now THIS piece could have been a pirate pistol. For real (although it probably wasn't). It's original flintlock (not reconverted from percussion). As far as I can see, it's completely unmarked. It's probably a European martial contract pistol, perhaps French or Belgian. The ring on the buttcap suggests that this may have been made for sea service - a sailor would have tied it to his person with rope or a sash. The caliber is about .75, so it's a biggie.

Stylistically, this piece is probably from the early to mid 1800's, and would have been made around the transition period from flintlock to percussion - a major technological leap that was made around 1830 or so. I have this pistol's sister in percussion - I'll post it soon so that they may be compared and contrasted...

Given it's date, it was made and used after the golden age of Caribbean piracy, but it may have nevertheless been used as shipboard defense in places where piracy was still (and is still) common - Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean.

It's time to be Frank with you...

Frank Wesson, that is. Here we have a Frank Wesson and Gilbert Harrington (aka Wesson and Harrington) Number Two .22 caliber revolver, First Type. It's thought that, along with it's predecessor Number One, less than 10,000 were made.


This little revolver is kind of cool, because the cylinder is bored for seven rounds instead of the typical six. Of course with .22 short, that seventh shot may have made a world if difference in a defensive situation. Let's just say that you wouldn't want to throw down with Doc Holliday with just this...

This little pistol (I say little because its only 6 1/4 inches long) was also made in that gem of a city, Worcester, MA, sometime between 1874 and 1879.

Here's an old relic...

Much like this old blogger, this piece has seen better days. It's most likely an Allen & Thurber center hammer pistol in .30 caliber, although any factory markings have long since rusted off. It's probably the little brother of "Double Trouble", and appears in my 7th edition Flayderman directly above the double barreled variant. Like it's brother, it was made in limited quantities in various barrel lengths (a few thousand).

The reason it's so decrepit is simple - this is a dug relic. The reason the wood's intact is that is was dug up in a barn in Maryland. This kept the piece dry enough to preserve the wood grips AND the functionality of the mainspring, but small pieces (e.g. sear, trigger guard, trigger return spring, etc.) and fine details (barrel stampings) have been lost.

By the way, here's a safety tip. Old muzzleloading firearms, even dug relics, have the potential to be dangerous. An old charge and ball may remain in the barrel and be viable hundreds of years on. If you ever find, buy, or inherit an old muzzleloader, do the following before doing anything else:

First, with the muzzle pointed away from you or anything/one you value, use a wooden stick or dowel at least as long as the barrel and that fits loosely into the barrel to probe the barrel's depth.

Second, note how deep the penetration is my marking the stick at the muzzle.

Third, remove the stick and lay it alongside the barrel (it's still pointed away, right?) so that the mark you made lines up with the muzzle. If the end of the stick that you inserted reaches beyond the touch hole, you are probably safe from remnant charge. If, on the other hand, your stick cannot reach beyond the touchhole, STOP! Something's in the barrel. You're best and safest bet is to take the piece to a competent gunsmith, treating the thing the whole while as if it was loaded, cocked, and primed. Accidents of this sort are rare, but they have happened.

Double Trouble...

What's this, you ask? Why it's none other than an Allen & Thurber double barreled, single trigger pistol, made in the 1850's. According to Flayderman, only an estimated 500 - 1000 were made...
...at the Ethan Allen factory in my favorite little city, Worcester, MA.

This one is marked "Allen & Thurber Worcester" on the top between the barrels. It's a percussion weapon, meaning that it was made with technologies post-flintlock but pre-cartridge (if you don't know what that means, use Wikipedia or go read something geared more toward your intellect). Even though it's double barreled, it would have been loaded with balls (like a pistol) rather than shot (like a shotgun).

The caliber is .36, and the rifled barrels are 6" long. The hammers can fire one at a time, or together, depending upon the order in which they are cocked. The so-called bag handle is surprisingly comfortable to hold, and the "ergonomics" of this piece seem well-designed. Modern manufacturers of small pistols would do well to take another look at some of these old sidearms.

This would have been a nice, concealable handgun for use as a primary self-defense weapon, or as a last-ditch back-up.


By the way, I friggin' love Worcester, MA. I know this is probably anathema to those who actually live there, but Worcester has seen me through some of my best and worst of times. Someday, I'll regale you about the time I drunkenly improvised some "free jazz" on a borrowed guitar at "open mic" night at the now-defunct Zara jazz club. But not tonight...

Honey, go play with that outside...

Actually, don't.


This funny guy is a late 19th century "parlor pistol", chambered in .22 caliber "caps". These cartridges were even shorter than the diminutive .22 short, and were basically the bullet propelled by the fulminate primer in the rimfire cartridge.

Believe it or not, pistols like this were very popular in Victorian times and were used indoors as part of "parlor games", knocking over tiny metal targets or making holes in paper. This activity was probably less dangerous than darts, although chronic lead and mercury poisoning may have resulted in long term health issues.

Imagine: it's the late 1800's - you and your closest friends get together in the living room after supper and drink brandy, play charades, smoke cigars, play cards, have a seance, and then bust out the parlor pistols for a friendly target competition with the fireplace as your backstop. Of course, this was long before "Twister", or even "Naked Baby Oil Twister" was invented...

And to think, nowadays you yobs sit around watching "American Idol" and eating "Hot Pockets".

So much for modern conveniences...

My, what a LITTLE pistol you have...

And now for the very small...

This little guy standing next to the standard U.S. Quarter is a single shot, breech loading .22 caliber (short, not long rifle) "vest pocket" pistol. It is unmarked except for a serial number, and the barrel is not rifled. The frame is brass and the grips look like rosewood.

Based on the frame design and the push-button plunger opening mechanism, this piece is probably a Marlin (although copies of this design abounded). If it's a Marlin, it would have been made between 1863 and 1867, according to Flayderman.

I've actually shot this piece (I know, I know...but it's mine and I'll do with it what I like). Even though it's so tiny, there's no recoil just because of the diminutive size of the shot and load. There's a short list of what a .22 short round will punch through, and human flesh is on it. A piece of 1/4" plywood is on it too, although a piece of 1/2" plywood is not. Pages 1 - 89 of a hardcover book are on it, but pages 80 - 345 are not. Anyway, the bottom line is that this piece could hurt someone (you'll put an eye out with that thing!) but is not likely to be lethal...unless it's 1865 and you've never heard about the germ theory of disease. In fact, due to the state of medicine, back then this pistol was probably a lot scarier and potentially dangerous in the Civil War than it is today.

I always imagine the original owner of this pistol was a prostitute or showgirl who kept it tucked into her garter. She'd probably be able to put down an over-rowdy client with it "real-quick like" given her proximity to his hurty bits...