It has been awhile since I've posted about odd firearms, and it is about time to address the lack.
I was browsing through this excellent site and came across yet another gun that was marketed specifically to cyclists in the 1890's. This time it isn't a revolver, but a single shot handgun with a very long barrel.
(Please click on all pictures to see if there is a larger image available.)
The site features guns that are in the private collection of a Belgian firearm enthusiast, and he says here that this particular firearm was marketed under the name "Velo Dog". I have written about the Velo Dog before, but that was a revolver chambered for a rather anemic and small cartridge of the same name.
The handgun pictured above was chambered for something called the "6mm bosquette", an antique cartridge that I'm having trouble finding any data about.
I figure that it was significantly less powerful than the already crappy Velo Dog cartridge because I found mention of the round on a Spanish language web page that discusses ammunition that was intended to be fired indoors. It would appear that the word "bosquette" means "BB round".
It was all the rage in Victorian times for firearm enthusiasts to set up a backstop and target in the drawing room and plink away on rainy days with guns of this type. This was so they could keep their gun handling skills sharp while avoiding the time, trouble, and expense of going out in the fields with a full sized firearm and wasting some ammunition. Nowadays we do the same thing, but we use air guns so the neighbors won't complain about the noise.
Anyway, back to the cyclist's gun.
The purpose of guns of this type were for self protection from dogs, which seems to have been a significant problem for people riding bicycles back in the last days of the 19th Century considering all of the different types of firearms that were marketed for this purpose. Or gun manufacturers were simply playing on the fears of their customers, which is also possible.
The long barrel was probably an attempt to increase muzzle velocity and lethality, but I doubt it was very effective in the role for which it was intended. I certainly wouldn't want to face down an enraged German Shepard with one of these guns. It was a German gun, after all, even though it was chambered for a French round. Now doesn't that sound like disaster waiting to happen? I know that the first thing that pops into my mind when I think of "German/French engineering" isn't "world class efficiency".
Back, you vicious beast! I'm armed with a bosquette gun!
The gun has an interesting hinged breech face, something that the owner describes as a "guillotine breech".
Those little swivel plates would be an extremely dangerous setup for any cartridge loaded up to even moderate pressures, but it seems to have been perfectly adequate for the BB round that this thing fired.
In closing I would like to say that this little long-barreled single-shot would have been a lot of fun if someone was practicing in the basement range they set up in their home, but I really doubt it would actually discourage anything larger than a miniature Schnauzer. Give me a short-barreled Webley .455 over this any day of the week.
Comments (3)
The long barrel might have been for clubbing purposes. A little extra reach from the bike seat might be necessary after you piss a large dog off by shooting it with a bb.
Posted by Chris | April 29, 2008 3:35 PM
Posted on April 29, 2008 15:35
I saw an old catalog advertisement laquered into a pub table that showed a gentleman in a top hat riding one of those odd large wheeled bicycles while shooting an attacking dog in the top of it's head.
I think they mentioned 5.5 velo dog and the pistol was a long barreled single shot.
I guess the ASPCA and PETA weren't around to complain back then ;)
Posted by hammer | April 29, 2008 5:06 PM
Posted on April 29, 2008 17:06
I've seen & fired blank firing &/or starter pistols with that same sort of "guillotine breech". As you say it works fine as long as there's not much pressure. But I dread to think what it would be like even with a .22 cartridge.
Posted by David | May 1, 2008 5:56 PM
Posted on May 1, 2008 17:56