David Bradshaw Photos - Vol. LX, Flobert & Remington

[Lee Martin]

LX - Flobert & Remington Derringer

Flobert ("flow-bear") single shot .22 rimfire with octagon barrel from 1880-90. May have been influenced by Remington Rolling block. Flobert hammer doubles as breech block. Hammer/breech contains built-in firing pin. Hammer/breech block flies forward to fire.



Combination hammer/breech block of Flobert pistol has built-in firing pin, a bar which mashes a groove across the head of the rimfire. Upside----it doubles chance of ignition over a single point firing pin.



Tab, which on a Rolling Block would actuate breech block (with extractor), operates extractor only on Flobert.



Flobert .22 rimfire extractor



Flobert with NIB pre-WW II Colt M1911.



Remington over/under derringer, .41 Rimfire. Produced 1868 to 1935, this one probably dates to 1870's.



Original box.



Remington .41 Rimfire O/U derringer in blue.







Elliot's patent Remington derringers. Nickel is very early E. Remington & Sons. Blue variant made after UMC (union Metallic Cartridge Co.) bought Remington. Both from same plant in Ilion, NY. Aesthetically the most elegant pocket pistols ever made. Made from 1868 to 1935. Popularity doomed by "bicycle guns"----pocket revolvers by S&W, Colt, Iver Johnson, and others; and by pocket autos, primarily designed by john Moses Browning.

 

[contender]

I have seen a Flobert in years past in a firearm display. Never got to hold it. Neat gun.
But the 41 Derringers by Remington have always been a favorite of mine. I don't own one, but "maybe someday!"
NICE!!!!!!!

 

[David Bradshaw]

By forming a rim on a percussion cap in 1847, and sticking a little lead ball in it, Louis Flobert invented the .22 CB or BB cap. and it isn't difficult to see a conceptual resemblance between the Flobert breech and Remington's Rolling Block. The Rolling Block closely followed the Civil War and may predate the Fobert pistol.

As to the Remington over/under derringer, introduced in 1866, it stands beside Colt's Peacemaker as a complete aesthetic statement.
David Bradshaw

 

[ncrobb]

I have a Flobert rifle and talked myself into shooting it one day last summer. I put a .22 short into the chamber, took aim and when I fired it got splattered in the face by blowback. Good thing I had eye protection on! The hammer dropped so hard it punched through the primer. I read somewhere later that they are not the same chambering as a .22 as we know it.

Robb

 

[David Bradshaw]

Robb.... thanks for the cautionary tale. I, too, wouldn't consider touching off one of those without eye protection. Ben "Bear Man" Kilham alluded to the variety of rimfire cartridges produced in the late 1800's. Reckon most were black powder and apt to be of larger diameter than .22 CB, Short, Long, Long Rifle as we know it. Recall dusty old cartridge boards at Winchester in New Haven festooned with a bewildering variety of rounds, including many rimfire.

Ben Kilham describes the Flobert hammer fall... "it just mashes the primer."
David Bradshaw