
Antique Sharps derringer, four barrels, jaspersoftqld.siteĪccuracy was highly variable although front sights were common, rear sights were less common, and some Philadelphia Deringers had no sights at all, being intended for point and shoot use instead of aim and shoot, across poker-table distances.

Upon a misfire, the user could fully re-cock the hammer, and attempt to fire the handgun once more, or, equally commonly, switch to a second Deringer. Then, to fire the handgun, a user would fully cock the hammer, aim, and squeeze the trigger. The half-cock notch prevented the hammer from falling if the trigger were bumped accidentally while carrying the handgun in one's coat pocket.
#Butler derringer serial numbers Patch
The purpose of the patch on the ball was to keep the ball firmly lodged against the powder, to avoid creating what was called a 'short start' when the ball was dislodged from being firmly against the powder.Ī new percussion cap would then be placed on the tube what today would be called a nippleand the gun was then loaded and ready to fire. One would then remove the remains of the last fired percussion cap and place the handgun on its half-cock notch, pour 15 to 25 grains 1 to 2 g of black powder down the barrel, followed by ramming a patched lead ball down onto the powder, being very careful to leave no air gap between the patched ball and the powder, to prevent the handgun from exploding when used.

For loading a Philadelphia Deringer, one would typically fire a couple of percussion caps on the handgun, to dry out any residual moisture contained in the tube or at the base of the barrel, to prevent a subsequent misfire. The Philadelphia Deringer was a small percussion handgun designed by Henry Deringer - and produced from through A popular concealed carry handgun of the era, this pocket pistol design was widely copied by competitors, sometimes down to the markings. With the advent of metallic cartridges, pistols produced in the modern form are still commonly called 'derringers'. In total, approximately 15, Deringer pistols were manufactured. The original Philadelphia Deringer was a single-shot muzzleloadingpercussion cap pistol introduced inby Henry Deringer. Do you see the word 'Butler' on them? The term 'derringer' has come to refer to any small-sized handgun that is neither a revolver nor a semiautomatic pistol, although mini-revolvers are commonly called derringers. Came in a red display case with the Colt Logo. Our Assessment: This is a very small single shot derringer, similar to the Colt Lord and Lady set, made by Butler, who manufactured them for Colt until when Colt discontinued them.
