Revolver - Forgotten Weapons

Scheintod Revolver: A German Tear Gas Pepperbox

August 15, 2019 Ian McCollum 13

Lot 3129 in the September 2019 RIA auction. First appearing in the decade of so before World War One, the Scheintod guns were designed to fire either flash or irritant cartridges, not lethal projectiles. The […]

Freeman’s Patent Revolver

August 13, 2019 Ian McCollum 7

Lot 259 in the September 2019 RIA auction. Patented by Austin H. Freeman in 1862, 2000 of these revolvers were manufactured by Hoard’s Armory in Watertown New York in 1863 and 1864. None were purchased […]

1885 Dimancea: A Revolver With Sprockets

August 2, 2019 Ian McCollum 27

Patented in 1885 by Romanian military officer Haralamb Dimancea, this revolver is actually a true hammerless design. Instead of simply shrouding a hammer inside the frame, Dimancea used a pair of rotating sprockets to cock […]

Milkor M32 and M32A1 40mm Grenade Launchers

July 5, 2019 Ian McCollum 18

The USMC adopted the Milkor USA M32A1 rotary multiple grenade launcher (MGL) in 2012. The history of this weapon goes back to South Africa, where designer Andries Piek was inspired to create it after building […]

Book Review Double Feature: Webley Solid Frame Revolvers

June 23, 2019 Ian McCollum 4

Joel Black partnered with several coauthors (Joseph L. Davis and Roger G. Michaud for the first and Homer Ficken and Frank Michaels for the second) to produce two volumes cataloging an immense variety of Webley […]

.577 Caliber Bland-Pryse Stopping Revolver

April 4, 2019 Ian McCollum 30

This revolver is lot #2573 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction. There were probably less than a hundred of these Pryde-Patent break-action .577 revolvers made in total, and this one has managed to maintain an excellent […]

Swing and a Miss: The Joslyn Army Revolver

March 19, 2019 Ian McCollum 8

Benjamin Joslyn patented this .44 caliber, 5 shot, side-hammer revolver in 1858. He initially contracted with one W.C. Freeman to act as manufacturer and sales agent, but Freeman was unable to actually fulfill the first […]

Forehand & Wadsworth Old Army Revolver

March 12, 2019 Ian McCollum 6

The Forehand & Wadsworth company was a better firearms manufacturer than most people tend to give them credit for. It evolved from Allen & Wheelock, with Sullivan Forehand and Henry Wadsworth both having married daughters […]

Springfield Arms Double Trigger Navy Revolver

March 6, 2019 Ian McCollum 7

The Springfield Arms Company existed only for a brief period in 1850 and 1851, making revolvers designed by its chief engineer, James Warner, before being driven out of business by Colt patent lawyers. During that […]

Colt M13 Aircrewman Revolver: So Light it was Unsafe

March 5, 2019 Ian McCollum 48

In 1951 and 1952, Colt supplied a small number of extremely lightweight revolvers to the US Air Force, designated the M13 Aircrewman. These guns were very similar to the commercial Colt Cobra; .38 special 6-shot […]