TWIST BARREL POCKET PISTOL
Need more shots? Add a barrel
ILOVE old guns, the more unusual the better and the beautiful little Wender pistol I recently had in my hands was no exception. Small pocket pistols (called coat, pocket, or hide-out guns) have always fascinated me. As each new style of firearm was invented, usually for military use, ordinary folk always wanted a scaled-down version to carry as a personal defence weapon. Heck, I have even seen photographs of Japanese pocket-size matchlock pistols although it beats me how anyone could carry a hideout gun with a smouldering match cord without setting their kimono alight.
During the wheel-lock era, gunmakers made scaled-down versions called Dags. However, the odd shaped wheellock was a rather cumbersome weapon and difficult to produce as a really small pocket-size gun. With the invention of the flintlock mechanism the first true pocket pistols could be made small enough to conceal in the palm of a man’s hand or a lady’s purse.
I once examined a pair of 18th century flintlock pocket pistols. These little guns were works of art and looked almost toy-like in appearance – I found it hard to believe they were deadly weapons. Since then I have fired quite a few pocket pistols of the caplock type and concluded that they are strictly close-quarter weapons. Unless an assailant is within arms length, you have little chance of putting a ball into him. Gunmakers of the day also realised this and began making pistols offering more than one shot by simply adding another barrel, sometimes even three or four barrels. However, the firing of multi-barrelled muzzle-loading handguns was pretty complicated because each barrel had its own firing mechanism. But, this tale has a surprising twist...
The first thing I noticed was that the pistol was extremely well made by a London gunmaker named D Gass. I have never heard of this fellow and could not find his name in any of my reference books. The pistol has turnover or twist barrels – meaning that it has over and under tubes that can be swivelled around. Once the top barrel has been fired, the bottom barrel is quickly turned up into place under the hammer, ready for a second shot. Both barrels have their own nipple.
This configuration makes the pistol flat, comfortable to carry and smoother to draw out of a pocket. Overall length is 8¾ inches and the 4-inch smoothbore barrels are both .54 calibre. The hammer has a sliding safety catch so the pistol could be carried fully cocked and ready to fire – although it’s not really a good idea to walk around like that.
Guns with fixed over and under barrels have been around for a long time. There is a German-made wheel-lock with such barrels in the Windsor Castle collection dated 1588. I have actually fired a caplock pistol and rifle with fixed over and under barrels – both guns used separate hammers for each barrel – but this was the first time I had ever seen an over and under turnover barrelled gun.
No one knows who originally devised the clever turnover system. According to Flayderman’s book on antique American guns, the twist barrel system was introduced in the very early 1800s and the book features a twist barrel Kentucky flintlock rifle as well as one converted to percussion lock. However, when doing my research for this article, I came across an illustration in the Encyclopedia of Rifles and Handguns by Sean Connolly that shows a four-barrelled turnover pistol made in Belgium in about 1750. The unusual gun was originally a flintlock but later
converted to a percussion piece. It’s an ungainly looking pistol and certainly would not be comfortable to carry in a pocket.
Delving further into the history of firearms revealed an even earlier twist barrel gun referred to as a Wender. Wender guns were popular in Germany and Austria during the 1600s. At first I thought Wender was the inventor’s name but discovered that the word ‘wender’ simply means ‘turnover’ in German. German immigrant gunmakers in America soon began making rifles using the so-called Wender system, or style, hence the twist barrel Kentucky rifles featured in Flayderman’s book. The oldest surviving wender-style guns are a pair of flintlock pistols made in Northern Italy before 1636. The beautiful guns are both .52 calibre and their overall length is 22¼ inches which makes them more like carbines than pistols. The idea of the wender system caught on and similar guns were also produced by well-known makers in other European countries.
The turnover pistol owned by my collector friend was in excellent condition and we were eager to fire it. Unfortunately, at the time we had no .54 calibre balls so, just for the thrill of having a couple of shots, we chose to use .45 calibre balls with two patches. We had no intention of using a heavy charge of powder as it was not needed to launch loose-fitting balls from the short barrels at a target only eight or ten paces away.
A good habit that applies to all muzzle-loading double-barrelled guns is that when firing a loose-fitting ball from the first barrel, the ball in the second barrel should always be checked to ensure it is still firmly seated against the powder charge.
I learnt this lesson many years ago when I began bird shooting with a doublebarrelled muzzle-loading shotgun. I always fired the right barrel first, then reloaded it and fired again with the right barrel. A while later I became aware that I could hear the shot in the left barrel rolling back and forth. When I ran my ramrod down the tube, I discovered the recoil had loosened the charge. The same thing could happen when firing a big-bore double-barrelled rifle taking a hefty charge of powder behind a heavy conical bullet of the minié type. On firing, the recoil could dislodge the charge in the second barrel causing airspace between powder and missile. Firing a loose load like that could have unpleasant consequences.
On the range, the owner of the twist barrel pistol had the first two shots. Next our lady guest, Sure Shot Kirsty, smoked things up and finally it was my turn. Although we all enjoyed firing the neat little pistol, the results were disappointing. Firstly, we were shooting at about ten paces from the target which was too far for a short-barrelled pocket pistol. And secondly, the folly of shooting a .45 ball out of a .54 calibre barrel soon became apparent – the hopelessly undersized missiles flew all over the place.
Determined to test-fire the gun properly, we searched through our supply of lead balls and happily discovered a few missiles that were the exact bore size or just a smidgen under bore size. The balls fitted so closely that even a thin patch could not be used. No matter though; because the barrels were smooth-bored we could use a running ball – meaning the powder charge would be followed by a tight fitting felt wad on top of which would go the bare ball followed by another wad to keep the load altogether. This load filled the 4" barrel to the halfway mark. Because pocket pistols were intended as close-quarter self-defence weapons, we were not expecting pin-point accuracy.
We now set the pistol up on an adjustable loading stand and the barrels were turned to a sideways position which made loading much easier. Thirty grains of powder went down each barrel followed by a felt wad. While this was being done I rolled the balls between my lightly-lubed fingers in an effort to ease their passage down the barrels. Because the tight-fitting balls had to be hammered down using a brass rod and mallet, there was no need to use an over-shot wad. The nipples were then capped and my friend took up a defensive stance in front of the target some eight paces away. He raised the pistol, aimed, fired – and missed. Then, with his left hand, he swiftly twisted the bottom barrel up into place and let go the second ball – and missed. Growling with frustration he said, “We’ll have to stand much closer.” The pistol was reloaded and, closing the gap, we took turns firing at about two arms lengths from the target. Well that sure did the trick and, when we saw the big holes in the paper, we felt satisfied that the pistol could do its deadly work provided the man pulling the trigger knew its limitations.