Derringer
A derringer is a small
The original Philadelphia Deringer was a
The term "derringer" (
Precursors
The ancestor to the deringer of the
Philadelphia Deringer
The Philadelphia Deringer was a small percussion handgun designed by Henry Deringer (1786–1868) and produced from 1852 through 1868. A popular concealed carry handgun of the era, this pocket pistol design was widely copied by competitors, sometimes down to the markings.[9]
For loading a Philadelphia Deringer, one would typically fire a couple of percussion caps on the handgun, to dry out any residual moisture contained in the tube or at the base of the barrel, to prevent a subsequent misfire. One would then remove the remains of the last fired percussion cap and place the handgun on its half-cock notch, pour 15 to 25 grains (1 to 2 g) of black powder down the barrel, followed by ramming a patched lead ball down onto the powder, being very careful to leave no air gap between the patched ball and the powder, to prevent the handgun from exploding when used. (The purpose of the patch on the ball was to keep the ball firmly lodged against the powder, to avoid creating what was called a "short start" when the ball was dislodged from being firmly against the powder.)
A new percussion cap would then be placed on the tube (nipple), and the gun was then loaded and ready to fire. (The half-cock notch prevented the hammer from falling if the trigger was bumped accidentally.) Then, to fire the handgun, the user would fully cock the hammer, aim, and squeeze the trigger. Upon a misfire, the user could fully re-cock the hammer, and attempt to fire the handgun once more, or switch to a second Deringer. Accuracy was highly variable; although front sights were common, rear sights were less common, and some Philadelphia Deringers had no sights at all, being intended for point-and-shoot use instead of aim and shoot, across poker-table distances. Professional gamblers, and others who carried regularly, would often fire and reload daily, to decrease the chance of a misfire.[6]
Deringer's production records, and contemporaneous records of his imitators, indicate that these pistols were almost always sold in matching pairs. (A typical price was $15 to $25 for a pair, with silver-inlaid and engraved models selling at higher prices.) The choice of buying a pair, in part, was to compensate for the limited power of a single-shot, short-barreled pistol, and to compensate for a design considerably less reliable than subsequent cartridge derringer designs. Original Deringers are almost never found still in their matched pairs today.[3]
Initially popular with military officers, the Deringer became widely popular among civilians who wished to own a small and easily concealable pistol for self-defense.[6] In the Old West, derringers were commonly known as vest-pocket pistols, sleeve guns, and boot pistols.[10][11]
In total, approximately 15,000 Deringer pistols were manufactured.
Because of their small size and easy availability, Deringers sometimes had the dubious reputation of being a favored tool of assassins. The most famous Deringer used for this purpose was fired by John Wilkes Booth who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth's Deringer was unusual in that the rifling twisted counterclockwise (left-handed twist), rather than the typical clockwise twist.[9]
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Close-up of Philadelphia Deringer's markings
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Right side of the Philadelphia Deringer Booth used to assassinate Lincoln
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Left side of the Philadelphia Deringer Booth used to assassinate Lincoln
Colt Deringer
Daniel Moore patented a single-shot metallic cartridge
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Colt Deringers, at right 1st Model (1870–1890), at left 3rd Model (1875–1912), all .41 rimfire
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Colt 2nd Model Deringer
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.41 Rimfire cartridge
Sharps Deringer
One of the more common deringers found in the Old West were the
Remington Deringers
Remington Arms manufactured more than 150,000 Model 95 over-under double-barreled derringers, also called the Model 95 Double Deringer, from 1866 until the end of their production in 1935.[14][15] The gun was made only in .41 rimfire. The Remington derringer design doubled the capacity while maintaining a compact size, by adding a second barrel on top of the first and pivoting the barrels upward to reload. Each barrel chambered one round, and a cam on the hammer alternated between the top and bottom barrels. There were four models with several variations. The .41 Short bullet moved very slowly, at about 425 feet per second (130 m/s), around half the speed of a modern .45 ACP.
Remington also constructed the .32 short Rimfire "Rider Magazine Repeating" pistol. The magazine tube under the barrel held five rounds of ammunition, plus one in the chamber. Muzzle velocity was between 675 and 700 F/S with a 60-grain .32 bullet. This particular model featured a hammer that also drew back the breach block and lifted a new cartridge out of the magazine upon cocking. Relaxing one's grip on the hammer closed the breech block, but left the hammer cocked.
FP-45 Liberator
A military pistol that is truly a deringer design is the
Modern designs
While the classic Remington design is a
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A modern .45 Colt and .410 bore Bond Arms derringer
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COP .357 Magnum derringer
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DoubleTap .45 ACP derringer
The
See also
- Cobray
- Davis Industries
- Deer gun
- Garrucha
- Mini-revolvers
- Protector Palm Pistol
References
- ISBN 978-1-57607-268-4.
- ^ "Henry Deringer | American gunsmith". January 2024.
- ^ ]
- ISBN 978-0-486-42161-2.
- ^ Handgun safety
- ^ ]
- ^ Omaha Indians
- ^ Harold Peterson, The Book of the Gun, 1964
- ^ ISBN 0-8032-8903-0.
- ^ Gettysburg Museum
- ^ Jeff Kinard
- ISBN 978-0-89689-534-8.
- ]
- ^ "Remington .41 Double Derringer". American Rifleman. March 24, 2014. Retrieved 2017-07-22.
- ]
- ]
- ISBN 978-1-84908-836-7.
- ^ S., Jeremy (2013-07-01). "Gun Review: DoubleTap Tactical Pocket Pistol". The Truth About Guns. Archived from the original on 2016-09-05. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". Heizer Defense LLC. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
- ^ "Announcement". Heizer Defense LLC. 7 November 2012. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
External links
- The Booth Deringer – Genuine artifact or Replica?, a report of an FBI analysis of the Booth Deringer, made after rumors that the original had been stolen and replaced with a replica.
- Derringer