It has been a busy week! In addition to the "Derringer", I also received a very nice Bruce and Davis double barrel percussion pistol.



Bruce and Davis was a New York retailer, the pistols themselves were made by Allen. There was no shortage of double barrel percussion pocket pistols in the 1850s-1860s, the neat thing about Allen's design was that it featured a single trigger. Pull to release the right hammer, pull further to release the left hammer.

I am guessing, given the trigger action at least on this example, it would be try to pull for one shot, but get two shots if you had both hammers cocked.



Neat example of what would have been a lot of people's choice for self defense in the Civil War era, and a few photos exist of these pistols in the hands or holsters of civil war soldiers posing for photos.

Bill R

Very nice. What caliber is it?

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Very nice. What caliber is it?

It looks about .36, from what I have read, all the known single trigger doubles were made in .36 caliber. This is the only one I’ve seen with the wood forend piece, which is kind of cool. The photos I’ve found of other Bruce and Davis marked examples all have ramrods in a metal housing under the barrels, and the Allen marked ones having neither ramrod or forend.

Bill R