Before there was the Walther PP, Sauer 38, or Mauser HSc, an obscure Bohemian Czech gun designer by the name of Alois Tomiska– Tom to his friends, or so goes the story– crafted a curious little vest pocket .25 ACP that was, importantly, double action, a first for the time.
Meet the Wiener Waffenfabrik Little Tom.
Brass magazine that is inserted through the top? Czech!
More in my column at Guns.com.
Behold, the Trimese-16:
The gun, literally one-upping the infamous Siamese-16*, has three barreled uppers with interlocking gas tubes. The gas system of each feeds into the next rifle and it only has one trigger, causing it to fire three shots with one pull of the trigger, in rapid order.
More in my column at Guns.com.
Rock Island Auction company always has a collection of interesting pieces at their events, but their upcoming April Premiere auction has some seriously strange guns:
For info on just what the heck these are, check out my column at Guns.com.
Today antigun politicians throw fits about firearms capable of holding more than five, ten, or fifteen rounds. Well these modern day soapbox gun grabbers would pass into sure comas if they were around in the 1900s and got a load of the HD&H revolver.
In 1893, the world was awash in quality revolver designs. They truly were the ‘in’ gun of the day between Colt’s Single Action, Smith and Wesson’s Number 3, huge Austrian Gassers, and Webley’s top break models. The small industrial city of Liege, Belgium at the time was home to literally hundreds of gun factories. These ran from large ones like the famous Fabrique Nationale (FN) to the small firm of Messieurs Henrion, Dassy, and Heuschen (HDH).
The HDH company made a few simple revolvers, more or less borrowing the action of Monsieur Emile Nagant (yes, that Nagant) who also had a shop in Liege. Then in 1910, the company came up with a huge idea of their own. You see everyone had five, 6, or 7-shot revolvers. Well, what if they turned that up to 16? How about 20?
Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk.com