Little tiny additions.

Not to the Castle, but to the Armory Holdings. As noted, large, expensive additions to the collection are on hold, so the Armorer indulges his collecting jones with smaller stuff, in price, if not always in size. Yesterday's mail delivered a case in point. The Armorer is a Rotarian - and one of the fun things about my particular club is that they are very tolerant of their more eccentric members (among whom the Armorer, of course, is numbered). Rotary sponsors several forms of international exchange programs, both hosting international students and small groups of Rotary-sponsored people doing research, projects, etc. We are probably one of the few clubs that takes visiting foreigners out shooting, usually themed shoots, such as the US Civil War for the Japanese group last year (using member's Civil War era firearms), the South American Mauser shoot for the Argentines, etc. The Armorer has hauled some of the Castle Holdings to meetings, and we've had guest speakers bring their own Kewl and Needful Things to illustrate their talks.

Then there's my usual table and the two other geeks who sit there, Beau and Charley. Charley is a groupie. He got into collecting late, whereas Beau has been collecting for 50 years, and I, 33. We sometimes look like drug dealers or gun runners out in the parking lot, open the trunk and admiring some wondrous new acquisition. We do have some discretion - we don't routinely stroll in with pistols and rifles. But we do stroll in with pocket-sized stuff. I went home yesterday to let the Exterior Guard assume their duties, and the mail had arrived.

Which contained this wonderful bounty from France:

Lefaucheux pinfire rounds, in 5, 7, 9, and 12mm caliber, and 5 (only one shown) 6mm Longue cartidges. The Longue was interesting to me as it is another transitional cartridge (as discussed in this post some time ago) reflecting the state of manufacturing at the time - using a copper case and a brass base, because they hadn't worked out all the kinks of producing drawn brass cartridges with primer pockets in their bases. The Longue is a rimfire cartridge, meaning the primer composition is in the rim of the base of the cartridge, rather than in the center of the base - just as .22 ammunition is today.

The pinfires represent a different form of transition - that of figuring out just where the heck the primer goes. You may be surprised to learn this system was was developed by a Frenchman named Casimir Lefaucheux possibly as early as 1828, and it was certainly established on the Continent by 1840, though it was slower to jump the Channel, reaching England at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, and making it to the US just prior to the Civil War. These rounds represent the attempt to apply percussion primers with self-obturating (sealing) cartridge cases, to produce effective, reliable self-contained breech-loading ammunition.

This is how they worked - the primer was either glued to the side of the cartridge on the inside, or was embedded in molded powder compound, and the pin runs through the cartridge and protrudes from the side, as this diagram from an old book shows.

It worked fairly well, all things considered - the drawbacks being complicated assembly and the fact that there would be some blow-by around the pin - which was okay in a black powder weapon, which generates relatively low, slow-building pressure, but wasn't going to work for the new nitro-based smokeless powders.

The Arsenal does not yet contain (but will, but will) any pinfire weapons. A pinfire pistol looks pretty much like any other, with two exceptions.

And if you want to see those - hit the Flash Traffic/Extended Entry!

One, to modern eyes, is the little hole at the back of the cylinder, through which the pin protruded. Like this:

Here we see another flaw in the system - the protruding pin can be problematic when dropped, for example, hence most pistols have a rim either in the cylinder or the frame that is as high as the pin, to help protect from accidental discharge. More expensively, pistols were made with shields that covered the pin entirely, as in this pistol. All of which made for more expensive weapons. Yet another drawback was getting manufacturers to standardize the amount of pin protrusion, and the quality control to make it happen - else you were going to be restricted to using a specific brand of ammunition. Regardless, this was still preferable to separate loading of individual components. Except in a military application. Pinfires did not enjoy much luck with the militaries of the day, who saw the expense and risks far outweighing the benefits.

The last thing about a pinfire pistol that will catch a modern eye is the hammer - they seem to sit too far forward on the cylinder, and they are particularly noticeable when cocked, as in this example of a 20-chambered Belgian revolver.

Anybody got a nice pinfire for sale cheep - drop me a line!

If you liked this post, you'll probably also enjoy this one, on the Snider cartridge, and this one, on British .303 cordite rounds. Or, just for fun, this one or this one.