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In the 1880s, bolt-action mechanisms were the rage in rifles. Perhaps, seemingly thought Erwin Rieger, this might work in a pistol, too?
The question was how to propel the bolt backwards and forwards. If that could be accomplished, the details of extracting the spent case, ejecting it, and stripping a new cartridge for loading were well understood. Since pistols were assumed to be one-handed weapons, a side mounted bolt actuator would not do.
Herr Rieger solved this problem by a lever actuated by a ring in front of the trigger. Pushing the ring forward opened the bolt, ejecting the spent cartridge. Pulling the ring back closed the bolt, chambering a new round. It might be more accurate to call this a lever action pistol, but the very limited information I've been able to find (nothing on the Internet (!); a short reference in Ian Hogg's The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Firearms) describes it as a bolt action, inspired by military rifles.
It was perhaps inspired by the Passler & Siedel model of 1887, but the inspiration very well may have gone the other direction. The Passler & Siedel looks more advanced, with a removable magazine. It's a bit of a stretch to think that Rieger would have dropped a feature like this.
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Alas for this marvelous design, it seems to have only worked well when the pistol was clean and oiled. When dirty or dry, the lever took great physical strength in the finger to cycle the action. Newer designs that used the energy of the fired round to work the action swept the field.
But there is a pleasure in the hunt for the fossilized remains from the Pleistocene Age of self-loading pistols.
what a butt-ugly design. I'm glad that never caught on. Could you see Clint Eastwood carrying that in 'Dirty Harry'
ReplyDeleteGotta admit it IS an interesting design... But that would be HELL to conceal!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a steampunk pistol.
ReplyDeleteWowsah. I am not even sure where to start with this one.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I'll say this: Dam good job on the gun pRon recently, especially the historic stuff - it is imminently interesting and I enjoy it a lot.
Second, I have never understood the predilection of 19th century pistol designers to leave out trigger guards. I mean, even back then in the bad old days of "Firearm safety? We don't need no steenkin' FIREARM SAFETY!" it just seemed like a really, really, really bad idea. I guess it isn't AS bad with this particulr pistol because the cocking ring kind of protects the trigger a little bit - I guess.
Third, I'd be more likely to refer to this as a lever action pistol than I would a bolt action. The mechanism is a lot more like a lever gun than it is a bolt gun. THere were true bolt-action pistols made - still are, IIRC - I think Thomspon Center makes them. They are chambered in rifle rcalibers so bolt action is really the only pistol frame that will hold up. i saw a guy with a .30-06 pistol once. All I could think was "OUCH!" when I saw it.