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2mm "pingun"
- Thread starter MR.G
- Start date
Neat little miniatures. People are apparently still making them.
http://pinfire2.homestead.com/Misc.html
http://pinfire4.homestead.com/Patents6.html
http://pinfire5.homestead.com/SaleTrade6.html - this is cool; 2mm guns for sale
http://pinfire.homestead.com/Japan.html
http://home.attbi.com/~boburso/piccolo/4s_bobguns.html
http://pinfire2.homestead.com/Misc.html
http://pinfire4.homestead.com/Patents6.html
http://pinfire5.homestead.com/SaleTrade6.html - this is cool; 2mm guns for sale
http://pinfire.homestead.com/Japan.html
http://home.attbi.com/~boburso/piccolo/4s_bobguns.html
Hand_Rifle_Guy
New member
I own a 2mm pinfire revolver, six-shot, smooth bore, sold as a pocket/compact flare launcher. It has a cup that screws on to the end of the 3/4 inch-long barrel to hold flares that are thin aluminum bodies about 5/16-3/8 inches diameter, and about 5/8 inch long, available in red, green, yellow, and white.
It is a double-action, break-open design with an open top (to clear the hammer) held closed by the cylinder pin which screws into the pin that retains the ratchet assembly. The cylinder has seven "spaces", but only six charge holes, as the seventh space is the pin that engages the cylinder to turn it, as the ratchet assembly is fixed to the frame. The cylinder actually breaks down the middle, with the front half removable. the cylinder pin needs to be at the top of the gun in order to prevent binding when it's opened to reload. The ammo is the same as Dixie carries, i.e. 2mm pinfire brass percussion caps.
The whole gun, less the flare cup, is about 1 1/2 inches long. I believe it is made of steel, (the frame plates, hammer, and internals.) with a brass cylinder, barrel, and flare cup, all nickel plated. It came in a fitted plastic case that's about right to carry a pen set in. It had a tiny box of pinfire caps (50 or so), a spare cylinder, and spaces for 15 flares. I got it at a marine supply store in about 1987 for $25 complete, along with several sleeves of extra flares for $2 each.
It is LOUD! With the flare cup off, it's louder than any cap gun, enough to make your ears ring. With the flare cup in place, it will catapult a flare about 40 feet straight up in the air, with the cup ringing like a tiny LOUD bell. The flares usually burn out before they hit the ground, leaving no residue. recoil from firing is non-existant, but the hammer-fall is substantial, and as the grips are about 1/2 x 3/16 X 1/4 inches, keeping a grip on it can be a little tricky.
It's not exactly a pinnacle of fine workmanship. The frame is built of a stack of four plates, flare- or pop-riveted together, with the mechanism riding between the outermost plates, which also sandwich the cylinder/barrel hinge. It is a bit reliability-challenged, and the 3/8 inch-long trigger, made of a piece of stamped sheetmetal like all of the internal mechanism, is rather uncomfortable to pull against the rather substantial hammer spring and somewhat bindish cylinder pin arrangement. I THINK (without it right in front of me to check.) that it was made in Austria. It has been completely supplanted by 12 guage flare guns, if it ever was intended too compete with them in the first place.
I have seen these revolvers sold elsewhere (mail-order, high-end "Gadgety"stuff catalogs like The Sharper Image.) with an un-threaded barrel and no flare cup as keychain/novelty items, under the heading "Worlds Smallest Revolver". Don't offhand remember the retail price, but it was fairly substantial. ($40-$50, I think.)
Not at all like the antiques, and not really built with a projectile in mind, other than the lightweight flares, these qualify as expensive capguns. But they DO work, and it certainly is the smallest working DA revolver I've ever heard of. The DA part (DAO, actually. No provision for thumb-cocking.) mystifies me as too it's purpose, as you have to load the flares one at a time, and I would think an SA mechanism would have been easier to design, as well as be easier to use. (The fingertip says "ouch" after a cylinder-full.)
These are the only miniature pinfires I've seen, outside of museums. and all the museum pieces were miniature artworks, and inevitably single-shots.
It is a double-action, break-open design with an open top (to clear the hammer) held closed by the cylinder pin which screws into the pin that retains the ratchet assembly. The cylinder has seven "spaces", but only six charge holes, as the seventh space is the pin that engages the cylinder to turn it, as the ratchet assembly is fixed to the frame. The cylinder actually breaks down the middle, with the front half removable. the cylinder pin needs to be at the top of the gun in order to prevent binding when it's opened to reload. The ammo is the same as Dixie carries, i.e. 2mm pinfire brass percussion caps.
The whole gun, less the flare cup, is about 1 1/2 inches long. I believe it is made of steel, (the frame plates, hammer, and internals.) with a brass cylinder, barrel, and flare cup, all nickel plated. It came in a fitted plastic case that's about right to carry a pen set in. It had a tiny box of pinfire caps (50 or so), a spare cylinder, and spaces for 15 flares. I got it at a marine supply store in about 1987 for $25 complete, along with several sleeves of extra flares for $2 each.
It is LOUD! With the flare cup off, it's louder than any cap gun, enough to make your ears ring. With the flare cup in place, it will catapult a flare about 40 feet straight up in the air, with the cup ringing like a tiny LOUD bell. The flares usually burn out before they hit the ground, leaving no residue. recoil from firing is non-existant, but the hammer-fall is substantial, and as the grips are about 1/2 x 3/16 X 1/4 inches, keeping a grip on it can be a little tricky.
It's not exactly a pinnacle of fine workmanship. The frame is built of a stack of four plates, flare- or pop-riveted together, with the mechanism riding between the outermost plates, which also sandwich the cylinder/barrel hinge. It is a bit reliability-challenged, and the 3/8 inch-long trigger, made of a piece of stamped sheetmetal like all of the internal mechanism, is rather uncomfortable to pull against the rather substantial hammer spring and somewhat bindish cylinder pin arrangement. I THINK (without it right in front of me to check.) that it was made in Austria. It has been completely supplanted by 12 guage flare guns, if it ever was intended too compete with them in the first place.
I have seen these revolvers sold elsewhere (mail-order, high-end "Gadgety"stuff catalogs like The Sharper Image.) with an un-threaded barrel and no flare cup as keychain/novelty items, under the heading "Worlds Smallest Revolver". Don't offhand remember the retail price, but it was fairly substantial. ($40-$50, I think.)
Not at all like the antiques, and not really built with a projectile in mind, other than the lightweight flares, these qualify as expensive capguns. But they DO work, and it certainly is the smallest working DA revolver I've ever heard of. The DA part (DAO, actually. No provision for thumb-cocking.) mystifies me as too it's purpose, as you have to load the flares one at a time, and I would think an SA mechanism would have been easier to design, as well as be easier to use. (The fingertip says "ouch" after a cylinder-full.)
These are the only miniature pinfires I've seen, outside of museums. and all the museum pieces were miniature artworks, and inevitably single-shots.