This gun, loaded like a trap door, launches expended shell out like a M1 Garand, disassembles like an AK, all with the class of a modernized flint-lock...I Iove this gun!!
It seems like the history of some of these firearms went from just plain werd, to evern Werder, to outright werdest before things got completely Wänzl resulting in the Werndl....
The unit marking 2. A.r. 2. 68. means that this pistole was used by the royal bavarian field artillery regiment no. 2, mounted battery no.2, pistole no. 68. Great video Ian, as always. Cheers, Vincent.
@@peteraugust5295 The lower case "r" stands for "reitende" (eng. mounted) battery. If the "R" would have been stamped in upper case letters then it would translate to a "Rekrutendepot" (eng. recruitment department). Cheers, Vincent.
@@fnym9rdsavsffdik9a25 Thank you very much! My Grandpa was collecting british rifles and bayonets so i grew up with that kind of thing arround me, i just "chose" the prussian/german side later on.
@@defaultusername123 Then take a look at the trigger unit of a Mauser C-96 M1930 "broomhandle"pistol (often called M712). Not a single screw in it and a technique so complex that a watchmaker might get jealous.😁😁😁
@@defaultusername123 Ian mentioned the rifle version being in short service. Perhaps the pistols were taken out of service when the Mauser rifle round replaced the Werder rifle?
a revolver, which came out decades before this, would be way quicker to shoot than this. although revolvers of that era were muzzle loaded, whereas this used cartridges.
What happened to the Werder: Long answer: When a series of small kingdoms come together as a single nation state, it really is the best idea for those kingdoms to standardize on a single pattern of primary military arm. In this case, that arm just happened to be the Mauser. Short answer: Prussia
Hey Ian. Just wanted to say that I absolutely love these videos. Please keep it up as long as you can. In all honesty if I cant sleep at night because its too quiet. I turn on your videos and watch them until i fall asleep. I reference these videos all the time for information. In fact, these videos have inspired me to start my own collection. Ive not been collecting too long so my collection is pretty limited. However so far I’ve managed to get a Remington model 81 in 300 sav. A Winchester 1897 in 16 gauge. And a damascus double barrel Baker from Batavia. I reload my own shells for each gun. ESPECIALLY for the baker as it is black powder. Okay realizing I’ve rambled on too far. So I’ll just finish with ,I love these videos and please keep it up. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
I too watch through Forgotten Weapons on the Ipad often before bed, then the next morning I go back to see where I knocked out and pick the learning up from there. Thank you Ian for all you do.
kolt ray keep collecting I started in early 70's when most surplus was 20 to 50 dollar range and I bought anything I could find now it;s much more expensive and I target a gun and wait and search till the deal comes along and great deals are still out there got a dryse needle for 250
Ian has confirmed, dozens of times (in his Q&As) that he prefers no gloves, as there is less chance of dropping the gun or getting rubber or cotton snagged in moving parts etc. His choice of gloves, and their material is entirely due to the preference of the collector/auction house/museum... and has nothing to do with the age/value/quality of the gun.
@@BatCaveOz Bingo. Gloves are often an outdated idea that turns out to be more harmful than beneficial in a lot (but not all) circumstances. They're becoming more and more out of fashion as time goes by. But as they say, when in Rome, do as Romans do.
Number of Werder Rifle in the "Franco-prussian war": July 1870: 6.000 December 1870: 32.414 January 1871: 40.843 Build overall: ~127.000 (+ 4.000 carbines & 4.000 pistols) Source: book by Dieter Storz
@@taggartlawfirm Let's assume it is this one: Deutsche Militärgewehre Band 1: Vom Werdergewehr bis zum Modell 71/84, German Military Rifles Volume 1: From the Werder Rifle to the M/71.84 Rifle, Publisher: Verlag Militaria
Beautiful engineering! I was half expecting to hear that the Werder had been designed by a watchmaker. Simply, this pistol mechanism is a work of art. I love it when Ian gets to tear down a piece. 😏 When I was a kid I used to take things (like my father's windup alarm clock!) 😆 apart. (What a little PITA I must have been, LOL!) I think it's likely I'd enjoy this kind of design work.
I too began my "career" of being a mechanical "nerd" by doing an "autopsy" on a wind-up alarm clock.⏰ I never got it back together,but that did not deter me! I took apart locks🗝,light fixtures,radios...If it had screws, it was NOT SAFE AROUND ME, 😊
Me to, it ended when I tore the heads off dad's 1944 International Farm Truck he had parked behind the garage. I learned to valuable lessons, 1 always ask permission before you tear apart farm implement, 2 that damn razor strop STINGS like hell on the bare ass. I was 8 at the time.
being an engineering student and seeing these designs, simple as they are, designed in the 19th century with no CAD programs or anything of the sort, is really mind blowing
When he popped the internals out at 05:20 I was reminded of the G11. The stereotype that German engineering is overcomplicated has a grain of truth to it!
In the early 70's I got to clean and shoot a werder pistol for Uwe Mai's Gunshop in Bremen, West-Germany. Cleaning antique Guns was my job as a benchman, one cartridge for the Werder was my bonus for the job. Uwe had made the cartridge from existing brass, i believe from cut down 71 Mauser. I still recall how pleasant the gun handled and pointed. Thank you for jogging my memory bank.
Jeramy Whitwell I was thinking .38 Special / .357 Magnum. Popular and proven cartridges, readily available from just about anyplace that sells ammo, and fun to shoot.
sthenzel Looks a lot like the grip on most revolvers too me. Obviously, I’ve never handled one and certainly never shot one... But you could be right. Guess my theoretical firearms company will have to do some R&D on my hypothetical gun. ;^)
Man can you imagine, 160 years ago without technology, pulling this design from imagination and creating something that should have been revolutionary?? Outstanding! Good show!
Just as a note, Bavaria had it's own army after 1871, until 1919. There were a few kingdoms in the German Empire, which is part of the definition of empire actually, and they were able to maintain certain rights. Not as decentralized or fragmented as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which actually had three different armies with different funding, it was still there and they swore their fealty to the King, not the Emperor. Reminds me a little of the Lord Lovat, who was leading the 1st Commando Brigade, when he was coming ashore on D-Day he told his personal piper Bill to start up the bagpipes he was told there were army regulations against using them the Lord Lovat stated "Ah, but that's the English war office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn't apply". For an aristocrat with a name like "the Lord Lovat" he was a pretty cool dude, also let the French Troop of the Marine Commando land in France first, retaking their country and all.
I love the way you show us the functioning of all these complicated stuff... It´s really instructive. In each of your videos I learn a lot. Many thanks..!
This is one of my favorite videos of yours recently. The action was very interesting and you did a great job making it understandable for the layman. Thanks Ian.
That is a magnificent piece of engineering for the 1860s. Model of 1869 but I feel certain that it took at least 2, if not more, of the preceding years to actually develop this firearm. The amazing thing about it, to me, is that looks like it was designed/developed in the 1880s to 1890s. Great video Ian!
Ian, how are you not afraid to dismantle all these rare guns? And how do you end up being so confident knowing every little detail about them? Mind blowing…
If I were a gun collector I would collect guns like these. Every time I am amazed by the ingenuity of gun designers. How they come up with new ways to load and unload a gun over time..very fascinating..😊
You have a good idea. This gun would lend itself as blaster/plasma/laser, for sci-fi setting. Insert ammo battery like cartridge. After it´s empty eject like original.
I just recently found one of these actions in my late father's parts. He was a 3rd generation gunsmith. I have a newspaper clipping of me great grandfather developing a magazine gor the 03 springfield to hold 25 rounds. If your ever in Louisiana I'd love for you to stop by for an hour. My collection is predominantly percussion that will take me a life time to identifying not to mention parts. Your always a first stop go to
4 года назад
Brilliant explanation with "exploded" parts. Thanks Ian.
On some level, the way this comes apart reminds me a lot of the C96 pistol, gotta wonder if there was some inspiration drawn from this for it. Also, I totally want a repro carbine of this system in .45 Colt or .44-40.
Shoot considering how well designed this thing is, and how much materials have improved since the mid 1800's. I bet you could get this thing to fire some pretty powerful stuff.
I have been waiting forever for you to cover this breach system. I became a fan because of a series written by SM Stirling. It sounded fascinating it the book and proved cool in real life. Evidently SM Stirling and Ian would be blood brothers if they ever met. They both appreciate unique gun lore.
The Victorians never cease to amaze me these guys were made of different stuff the amount of innovation they produced in firearms made the previous 500 years look like a snails pace with a few exceptions
This is a wonderfully Bavarian piece of mechanical artistry. I would love to have something like this chambered for a modern cartridge as a range toy or a hunting pistol.
If we ever just lost our current technology, this is the kind of stuff I'd want to go back to. When everything is still kind of developing and everyone is trying to make the new best thing even if it only gets used for the next 10 years.
I wish there was still companies developing cool single shot pistols, rifles and shotguns. They're really neat and I've always liked the simplicity in a gun with just a few moving parts
that pile of parts immediately shouted 'bits of martini henry', a look in the breech seems very similar.and the similarity ends there, that fire control group is an engineering work of art.
I study pretty much anything to do with late Reniassance/early Industrial era production. I could picture a clockmaker adding an early fixed skeletonized magazine to the top, making it roughly .22 and selling it as a parlor gun. Also with a "rougher" version with an enclosed magazine as an early repeating pistol.
This is quite possibly the coolest single shot action I've ever seen, let alone in a pistol. I'd love to see a modern variation of this chambered in something like .357 Magnum, .45 Colt, or maybe even .223
It would make this thing really easy to clean because you don't really need to disassemble it further than just taking the sideplate off the FCG. Dunk it in hot water to get rid of the black powder salts, dry, oil, and you're done.
Maybe? The action is hand-fitted as usual for that era, but the question then becomes whether the side plates and breech face were standardized enough. I sure would like to think they were, but I wouldn't be surprised either way...
@@AnimeSunglasses I am by no means an expert on this era, but I'd guess the receiver and fire control group (FCG) module sizing is standardized, but the internals of the FCG are hand fitted. Just a guess though. That would be a logical interface to standardize.
Wouldn't a common flintlock mechanism fit that same definition? Think of the expression "lock , stock, and barrel" , 3 major components often fabricated by separate makers in earlier gunmaking endeavors. The lock was the complete fire control group of it's day and usually a single unit/assembly mechanism that could be used in a variety of firearms.
Goddamit, I missed the usual, and fondly loved, introduction by Mr. McCollum because I was laughing, loudly and unsightly, at the sight of the handgun. It's an odd one indeed. Time to watch the rest of the episode!
I love that gun as well, I went through a single shot pistol phase with a Remington nylon Fireball in .223, and a Thompson Center Contender in .41 magnum. Both were fine handguns, in fact my nephew purchased the Fireball and still uses it for teaching his grand kids gun safety. Wish I had the money to pick up one of those, I love that martini type action, like to have one of those in perhaps 45-70 with the pistol in probably .45LC or even .44 mag if the action would handle the pressure (probably not, sigh.)
