Posted April 23, 2017 9:36 pm by Comments

By James Rummel

At various times over the decades, a student would show me a tiny handgun that they would want to use for self defense. Usually they would be small autoloaders chambers for the .25 ACP cartridge, but sometimes a gun chambered for a round more suitable for self defense would crop up. I am speaking, of course, of a derringer.

The original concept is simple enough. Make a handgun as small as possible, but chamber it for a potent full sized defensive caliber. The perfect point-and-shoot instrument, shorn of any distractions, they are not intended to be used for any prolonged gunplay. If the attacker is within arm’s reach, then derringers come in to their own.

The person who had this flash of brilliance was Henry Deringer, an American gunsmith based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Come about 1825 or so, he started to offer handguns with extremely short barrels and minuscule furniture, but which would fire a ball of hefty and deadly caliber. These guns originally used a flintlock ignition system.

By all accounts, sales were through the roof in a …Read the Rest

Source:: Hell In a Handbasket

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