I don’t know why that 20 round revolver is in the list, or the Le Mat. Both of them are useful.
"Made by the French (of course it was)...almost every facet of this weapon seems utterly useless."
Much like the French, actually.
Of all the items in this roundup, I’d have to say the LeMatt’s probably not one I would have chosen. It’s not to say there’s not some really bad design in the system...
From personal experience, the gun fowled something awful rather easily - getting through all nine shots in the cylinder was something of a miracle with the amount of fowling that would gather on the central pin. The loading lever was weak and poorly designed, and the central smoothbore is better suited as a deadman cylinder than anything else.
I personally shot a patched roundball from the ‘shotgun’ more often than not. And could not ever imagine trying to ride and not have the ‘shotgun’ load dislodge.
But all in all, the other seven are real stinkers, whereas the LeMatt can actually hit a target.
GYROJET. I fired two rounds in 1966 from a Gyrojet pistol when Bob Mainhardt and Art Biehl came to an Army Post to test their weapon. No recoil, a slight warm breathe on your hand from the jet, fair accuracy. Really nice guys.
An idea before its time. Too bad.
"The .88 Magnum...it shoots through schools."
Anybody who does not want their LeMat can sell it to me.
I’ll Pony up $250 to take it off your hands.
why is the old lady making the devil horns sign?
AF2011-A1:
“hey dawg I heard you like guns, so I put a gun on your gun”
Many years ago, in the Turkish Military Museum in Istanbul, I saw a collection (!) of duckfoot pistols. One of them had 9 barrels, covering 180 degrees. I guess you were just supposed to kick open the door and pull the trigger.
;-P
I’m no expert, but the LeMat sounds like a handy pistol design to have for unexpected close encounters with snakes and other small varmints.
One that would make my list in the LeMat’s place: the FP-45 “Liberator”. Neat idea, but the intended use never really came to pass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator
BTW, the Liberator has the unique (as far as I know) distinction of being the only handgun that takes longer to fire than it did to make. It was expected that loading and firing the single-shot weapon would take an average of ten seconds, and the Anderson, Indiana company that made them clocked an average production time of about six seconds to complete the assembly of the stamped parts on each weapon.
Where’s the Dardick pistol with its triangular plastic “trounds” (”the firepower of an automatic with the simplicity of a revolver”)?
How about the German “Reform” pistol with its four stacked barrels in .25 cal? Flat for carrying in evening wear.
Or the Mossberg .22 “Brownie” pepperbox?
Then there’s the Jap Nambu Type 94 pistol which could be fired by pressing its external sear? Great for false surrenders.
Finally, the Whitney Wolverine .22 pistol with its swept back space age looks? Lots of weird ones out there.
Le Mat was a beautiful pistol. Definitely the prettiest of it’s time. I always wanted one to play with. They even used one (because they are so pretty) in “The Twelve Monkeys”. Who cares if they got dirty? Ever shot a cap and ball? They ALL get dirty. That’s what grease is for.
I've always thought that the LeMat was the type of handgun that I would have carried had I lived during that era ...
If the makers of any of these guns were buying advertising in G&A, they’d write articles about what great guns they are. The popular gun mags are devoted entirely to advertising.
You could do worse. Spanish instead of French, for instance. One revolver, made in Spain, 3 barrels, 18 shots, 3 firing pins, .25 ACP pistol cartridge.
