Gun Digest 2011. Dan ShidelerЧитать онлайн книгу.
the official handgun qualification target currently used by many law enforcement agencies is the NRA, TQ-19, man-size silhouette. On the TQ-19 the area of the torso where a hit is considered disabling measures 11-1/2 inches wide, by 15 inches high (not including the neck and head). The kill zone (heart and upper thorax) measures 6-1/2 inches wide by 4 inches high. All three of the Hand Ejectors kept their hits within those parameters. Even though the vintage revolvers might not win any competitive matches, they certainly posses a level of functional accuracy adequate for their intended purpose.
CONCLUSION
These three Smith & Wesson revolvers and their contemporaries are tangible pieces of history, having earned this distinction through stalwart service with British, Canadian and American forces during the first global conflict of the 20th century. Their duties long completed, the guns now quietly reside in my modest collection. Occasionally they are brought out to be admired for the craftsmanship that went into their manufacture, or to be subjects of conjecture over their role in past world events. However, this was the first time in untold years that they have actually been fired. Shooting the old Smiths was both enjoyable and enlightening. The experience also evoked a sense of personal connection with the Allied soldiers who fought, and in too many cases, made the ultimate sacrifice during the Great War.
Their range session finished, the three World War I veterans were packed up to be taken home, given a good cleaning and put away. Most assuredly they will not be forgotten, nor will the generation of young men who carried them. Over nine decades have passed since peace was declared on that first Armistice Day, November 11th, 1918. Virtually all those who fought in the “War to End All Wars” are now gone. But these three revolvers and others like them remain as an unforgotten link to that time and those men.
THE LITTLE
BROWNIE THAT
CHALLENGED
THE WORLD:
The Mossberg Brownie (1919-1932)
BY JACK A. MYERS
HOW THE BROWNIE CAME TO BE
Before the world-wide sales success of its little Brownie pistol launched the O.F. Mossberg & Sons company to its well deserved world-wide recognition, Oscar F. Mossberg had already gained knowledge and experience in the field of gun manufacturing and sales.
Oscar was an industrious young Swede of 22 when he immigrated to America in 1866. And 53 years later, in 1919, he introduced his Brownie pistol, the first and only handgun his small company ever produced. That small company continues today and now holds the distinction of being America’s oldest surviving, family-owned, gunmaking company. In my opinion, the little Brownie is as much an example of the American gunmaker’s art as Sam Colt’s earliest revolver or Oliver Winchester’s first lever action rifle.
A truly unique little pocket pistol, Mossberg’s Brownie was a four-barrel double-action handgun that weighs in at just 10 ozs. and is 4.5 inches overall, with a cluster of four 2.5-inch barrels. A single pull of the trigger cocks and fires the first barrel and on the same stroke revolves the firing pin to the next barrel’s chamber. It is chambered for the .22 Short, Long, or Long Rifle cartridge. Every Brownie left the shop with a small manual extractor rod fitted in a small well behind the left grip. The top of the gun has a very small rectangular opening at top left to accommodate this rod. (Extractor rods are usual missing from the older guns, but new reproduction rods that cannot be distinguished from the originals are readily available on the internet.) Although all of the estimated 33,404 Brownies produced shared the same appearance, with a rich, blued finish and ridged black walnut grips, some were roll stamped with different patent information on the right side of the barrel cluster.
An original Brownie, as drawn by Canadian illustrator Palmer Cox (1840-1924).
Contemporary writers have reported that due to its diminutive size, ease of concealability, and near superiority to other designs available at the time, the Brownie was an attractive and appealing all-purpose handgun. It was named after a similarly-endowed mythical character which was very popular in that era’s literature: the Brownie, a fictitious elfin character created in the late 1800s by Canadian illustrator Palmer Cox (1840-1924). Though perhaps hard to appreciate today, Cox’s Brownies were as popular in late-Victorian America as Smurfs would be a century later, and their name inspired a number of popular consumer products. The very popular Kodak “Brownie” camera is a good example; another is the junior division of the American Girl Scouts, founded in 1912, which added a branch for younger girls in grades two and three called “Brownies” with this explanation: “Our Brownie age level gets its name from folk tales of little brownies that would enter homes and help the occupants with housework. This sets the tone for Brownie Scouts who are learning to help others.”
The information we share here will not be a detailed report of the company’s early years, but more a synopsis of discoveries about the variations of Brownies that have surfaced over the ensuing years. Both collectors and dealers want to know more how they can recognize an unusual, rare, scarce, or oddball Brownie from the more commonly found specimens, than to study the company history. I feel sure there are more discoveries to come of heretofore unrecognized variations of the Brownie.
Early writers have described Oscar’s involvement with the design and production of other small, easily concealed handguns sold by the the C.S. Shattuck Co., stating he was first awarded a patent in 1906 for a four-barrel pistol which came to be known as the Shattuck “Unique” or “Invisible Defender.” We know the name “Novelty” has also been used in connection with those early pistols. Those early researchers have also detailed how he toiled alone in his one-man shop in a loft at Hatfield, Massachusetts, to produce those guns for his employers. Mossberg subsequently worked for the Stevens Arms Company and Marlin-Rockell in a variety of production management positions.
In 1919, at the tender age of 75, Oscar – under the auspices of his newly-formed company, O.F. Mossberg & Sons – started producing his new Brownie pistol, almost a full year before receiving the patent for it. Oscar filed an application for his Brownie with the U.S. Patent Office on Aug. 28, 1919. His patent (number 1,348,035) was awarded July 27, 1920. It’s interesting to note that unlike most such patent applications of that era, the guns he produced actually matched the drawings he had submitted! It is recorded that Oscar moved his gun production facilities to New Haven, Connecticut and still later moved again into larger facilities in New Haven and hired a few mechanically knowledgeable helpers from among his Swedish friends.
“Unique” palm pistol made by Mossberg for C. S. Shattuck. Note misspelling of “Shattuck” on roll marking.
NUMBER OF BROWNIES PRODUCED
Since there are no known surviving factory records to verify the actual number of units produced in Oscar’s 13 years of fabricating Brownies, guesstimated figures for a total number range from 32,000 to 37,000. Since I’ve been keeping a database on observed and reported serial numbers on these guns, the highest serial number I would consider reliable is 33,404, found on a gun in Florida. And although I was told of a serial numbered gun lower than any other reported, I never saw it except in a couple of photos, and the person who reported it did not answer my request for additional photographic proof. Therefore, the lowest number I can personally attest to is in my collection and is number 212.
This leads to some interesting speculation. Oscar Mossberg began production of the Brownie in 1919, before receiving the patent he had applied for in August of that year and which was not granted until nearly a year later, on July 27, 1920. Now, do the math. For Oscar to have produced my estimated 33,404 units from 1919 to 1932, as reported, the output of his shop facilities would have to have averaged 2,569 units annually. That averages out at 214 units per week, or 31 units per day. Therefore my Brownie numbered 212 could conceivably have been produced the first or second week of production and