An Inexpensive Pinfire Pistol

I'm not sure exactly why I bought this. I walked into my favorite sporting goods store around twenty years ago, and the son of the owner, who knew me well, said "I've got just the thing for you..." This usually meant there was something under the counter that he had put aside, waiting for one of his regulars who couldn't resist an unusual bauble. One time it was a blowgun, another an AR-7 Explorer pistol, and on that day it was an old pinfire pistol.

The pinfire system was the first successful metallic cartridge system, and a great many guns of varying qualitie were built on the pinfire system  between around 1850 and the end of the 19th Century. Pinfire shotguns were popular from around 1850 to 1860, but pinfire revolvers were made for many decades after. While some very high quality pinfire guns were made, pinfire handgun cartridges were of very low power when compared to both muzzle-loading revolvers and the new cartridge revolvers.

Pinfire guns pretty much disappeared by the early 20th Century, except for one category: Blank guns. 2mm pinfire blank guns are still being made, and earlier examples are highly collectible. New old stock or sometimes newly made versions of the Xythos pinfire blank revolver and the Berloque single shot blank pistol still  pop up for sale now and again, often with flare firing attachments.

This gun was in better condition when I bought it than the way you see it here. I oiled it and put it away, and there it sat, in a corner of the safe, for over a decade, ignored. When I came across it again it was covered with a good deal of new rust. I gave it a coat of phosphoric acid gel, let it sit overnight, and then rinsed off the gel and gave it another good coat of polarized oil.

It never was worth very much, and today I doubt a collector would pay more than a few dollars for it. There are plenty of inexpensive French and Belgian pinfire revolvers in much better condition on Gunbroker.com, most of which never receive a single bid. Maybe I'll clean it up a bit more, mount it in a shadow box, and hang it over the fireplace.