Erika 4.25mm Pistol 

Just for fun, this pistol puts out between 23 and 28 Joules. I was curious about that, so I looked up some airsoft tables (it used to be a half hobby of mine), and I found one table, where the maximum Joule output for an airsoft gun was around 7.53 (this was for a .45 gram bb, moving at 600 fps.) The table was color-coded, and listed the numbers in this range 'Hot Gun!'

The magazine is so cute, it looks like a baby 1911 one.

Hi Ian, Thank you, for delving into my, 1914/1915, 4.5mm, Erika. I currently own one of these Erikas', and about a dozen rounds, well 18. They were manufactured in Austria in 1914 & 1915 only. They were sold as Bussel gun (as in a Bustle for a woman's dress). It came from my Grandfather's Cousin. Who's Aunt lived in Austria. At the outbreak of WWI, All Austrian men were called up for duty, unless they were in any type of manufacturing job relevant to the War effort. My relatives Father,and Brothers were called to duty, in late 1915 Leaving behind his wife,and his youngest son (10 y/o) So he purchased the ERIKA, for his wife's safety. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE a 4.5mm! The typical wear of the day for a man was a wool jacket, then a heavy, woolen overcoat. About an inch, and a half of wool. It became the norm for Gypsies and petty thieves, anarchists, and communists to be at train station. All waiting for women to say farewell to their Husbands, sons, lovers. Once loaded on the trains, the women were an easy mark for anything. The Erika I have saved my very distant Aunt, not because it went through clothing (the lead would have been stopped by all the thick wool). As luck would have it, Julia didn't keep her's in her mink hand warmer, but in her the Bustle of her dress. Nor did she aim at the men threatening and assaulting her and her son. Instead she pulled it out, and stuck it just inside the jawline under where the man's tongue would be,dropped the safety, and fired. The 4.5 going directly through his upper palate, and into the man's frontal lobes, then bouncing around, inside his skull. In what seemed like forever 3 seconds. The fellow dropped to his knees, and keeled over, dead! When his compatriot heard the small blast, he quickly tried to find who had a weapon! He was still holding her 10 year old boy by his collar, as the boy's mother fired the Erika into the back of his neck, just under his skull,and up, down he went as well! Witnesses told Police they could hear the scraping sounds coming from inside the 2nd man's head as his brain was blended into a mush, by the 4.5mm projectile! After an extensive Police investigation, she was given back her Erika. After the War her son came to the US, his mother having died from the Spanish influenza 1918/1923, or as the rest of the World called it, America's 1ST, Biological weapon! It's quite a nice little piece of history. Even the 100+ year old ammo, still makes one hell of a crack, and semi reloads very smoothly as promised! Cheers!

That is almost flat enough to use as a bookmark.

I love this little gun. Franz Pfannl was really a genius and invented many other interesting miniature guns. Thanks for posting this video Ian!

So Ian, what you're telling me is that if I removed that tiny little piece of metal, I'd have a teeny tiny itsy bitsy _full-auto_ 4.5mm pistol? I think that's one of the most hilarious and adorable mental pictures. *Ever.*

Oh my god! That thing is adorable!

I kinda like this gun. It's so small and weird looking. I'm pretty sure if someone did a re-fabrication of this to accept .17 HMR it could make a comeback.

funniest comment i ever read was on one of these super small handguns.... "what does this pistol want to be when it grows up?" "shwerer gustav" brutal

This pistol, a Cricket .22, a sunny afternoon in the desert. A two gun challenge up against a wrist rocket and a Red Ryder BB gun. I think the Cricket would take the Red Ryder, but my money would be on the wrist rocket for over all firepower.

My air gun is (legally) limited to half of this and is just fine taking rabbit and wood pigeon at 30-40 yards.

Still don't think id fuck with someone pointing a 4.25 mm at me

i love these pistols, all the tiny intricate parts remind me of a watch... that can kill you.

im really enjoying this videos. i've only been subscribed for a few days now but the content is great and in depth about each item. really enjoy these

rifled barrel?

These are also known as 'bicycle' guns, marketed to cyclists as a defence against aggressive dogs- so not necessarily a self defence gun against people, as such.

17-21ft/lb is 1.5 to 2 times the maximum energy legally allowed for an air rifle in the U.K. and quite frankly, I’d not want to be shot by one of them! They’ll easily kill a rabbit at 40 yards.

This is quite interesting, the internals remind me of the inside of an Airsoft spring pistol.

dissembling the guns makes for a much better video. Please keep up the good work.

Your gonna put someone’s eye out with that thing!!! 😂

Jesus Ian the videos, they never stop :)

Nice pistol. It is on the weaker side of effectiveness, but i wouldnt consider it non-lethal. A small diameter bullet with a decent velocity have a potential to reach vital spots even after some clothing. You can compare it to air rifles and they are known to be lethal.

I would have laughed my ass off if this gun had a long recoil mechanism like the 1910 Frommer :DVery interesting firearm.. Thank you Ian.

the mag location is kinda neat because of how different it is

Look at that cute little magazine!

I'm not too much into guns, but you always manage to interest me

It would be so awesome to see that pistol being shot. just to see a slow motion video of how it functions IRL.

Interesting tiny gun I've never heard of before

@Forgotten Weapons. Thank you for doing these videos. I really enjoy watching some of the older weapons tech info. Even on the ones that didn't make it anywhere often you can see how they would influence later weapons. Again thank you for doing this.

Target Practice on mice? They would make a great moving Target!

"on really REALLY tiny pistols" I didn't even notice there was a pistol since the ad at the bottom was hiding it.

That is incredible it probably took twice as long to build it's a art peace

It's so tiny and adorable that it's not even threatening :O I wouldn't want to get shot by it though XD

I thought the army standard for being able to kill someone was 59 ftlbs. Why do you believe it is able to kill someone? I've also heard that it's not the energy but the speed a bullet is travelling for instance I read that because those tiny "toy" Swiss pinfire revolvers have bullets that travel at 400 fps they can potentially kill you

This is just like my friend erica, small and cute ❤️

Too cool! Tiny, too small by half (or more) but a valid part of gun history! Thanks for bringing it to us for our study. Interesting to see what gun makers were doing, often a mystery to us today, but apparently valid in their day. Often wondered if a solid copper hollow-point .17 caliber bullet (something like a 'Controlled Chaos' slug) set into a necked down 9mm case could offer a small but potent self defense pistol? It might be less recoil with the lighter slug, but with serious velocity to make the small round almost explode after entry.

Are thre still cartridges around for that gun? And I would love to shoot it, just for the heck of it. I want to hear the cute little plops it makes when fired ;-)

But, can you put a scope on it?

Aaah... Baby's first pistol :)

Cute ! I think I'll get this one,,,,, for my cat.

Naming a gun after your old lady is a strong flex 💪🏼 🔫

Top mounted recoli spring and ultra slim concept. Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is copied. The slim concept from Heizer defense. We will see many slim pistols in the next years.

Hmmm, a loud BB pistol. 800 fps in a tiny pistol, you could pop a squirrel at 5 yards. xD

Holy crap, that thing is about as thick as some smartphones!

4:18 "It holds six cartridges...you're gonna need 'em!"

I imagine most people back then wouldn't be familiar with firearms,so a loud bang and a wallop from a little bullet would do the trick. Doubt it most people carrying these wouldn't want the hassle of dealing with a murder charge and miss out on the next round at the club lol.Great vid as always.ThankQ. TkEZ>UK

Ian, I wish you'd have pulled the trigger while it was partially disassembled; to hear the hammer's sound... I like this sound :P (but maybe pulling the trigger would have made springs bounce outwards of the gun and get lost)

Hey Ian have you ever come across a key gun before?

Hey Ian, I was thinking, have you ever done any videos on things like the world's worst designed safeties? Some of them look so flimsy and easy to break, I would guess that there were plenty of guns where the safety was more dangerous than not having one.

Man I’d love to have this little gun .. it’s so cool. I really wish Ian could have found ammo for this to shoot it

The brits used to produce .177 Cal Rook Rifles. As the name implies they were for shooting those birds when they were just sitting in the trees and you are basically talking about an air rifle caliber but with gunpowder added

that is so frikkin cute! i have a new baby browning .25 (a few years old, never fired from Precision Small Arms) that's a little smaller. i'll have to watch the Menz video you have, that looks cool as well!

I'm amused that this tiny little gun is somewhat reminiscent of a microscopic ancestor of the Laugo Alien -- with it's fixed barrel and non-reciprocating top rail. Just need to somehow add the world's smallest skinniest red dot somehow to it ;)

M1 Bandage?

Keep up the good work. Allways looking forward to your videos.

I really wouldn't mind if you made more videos showing the internal mechanisms of various guns. Even the much more common ones. :-)

Such a tiny caliber and yet only 6 rounds? I'd want more rounds than that specifically due to the tiny caliber, and adding ammunition capacity doesn't appear to be that difficult. With such small ammunition they'd be easily able to fit 20-ish rounds in a simple single-stack magazine in the grip by simply extending the magazine well to a similar length as the grip. This would have improved the ergonomics as well, you wouldn't be trying to hold on to a firearm with grips that look to be roughly the size of a broom handle or smaller. All in all, this little pistol's design seems quite rough around the edges, no matter how well executed a particular example may be.

They may not be practical but they sure are cool. Thank you.

You gave the ballistics on it, but I don't know what those numbers mean, so in layman's terms, how bad of a thing is getting shot with this?

"You'll shoot your eye out"

Still more powerful than the legal limit for an air rifle in the UK (12 ft/lbs).

I don't suppose there are any examples of 4.25 mm ammunition left? (Not that one would want to fire something so collectible, but it would be interesting to see.) Is it rimfire, or did they somehow manage to make it centre-fire? (If 2.7 mm was centre-fire, it's possible.)

I'd totally be pissed off if someone shot me with that 🤣

The gun for people who don't want a gun?

4.25mm Ant Hill Destroyer might have been a more suitable name.

Nice Video..and Happy Thanksgiving...

Great video. That is one I wouldn't want to disassemble.

What's the minimum amount of ft/lbs to provide a lethal wound? In general.

interesting, thank you

Franz Pfannl was so successful he had to move into smaller premises.

Micro bullpup, neat!

Id like to see a side my side comparison between this and and a CO2 pellet gun to see which projectile can do the most damage to a stationary object or the depth of penetration into ballistic gel.

Must be the coolest pew pew gun ever.

Reminds me of my ex-gf (and yes her name was Erica) tiny and somewhat deadly :D

Wait a minute, this is an actual bullpup pistol!!!

You'll put your eye out, kid!

another great video. many thanks

I would without a doubt carry one of these if it was in .22lr

The ammo is so small you'll need a tweezer to load the clipp?

Ian , why are your hands always so jacked.You must be tough.

Is it centerfire or rimfire? I'd guess centerfire from what the firing pin looks like.

BTW, I do have 4.25mm centerfire ammo if you know of any 4.25mm pistols for sale.

In point blank muzzle stuffing range 17ft/lb no joke

Nut gun, ram it in to the nads of your attacker empty mag

A semi-auto pistol with a sideplate? Curious, are there any other designs like that?

I am looking to purchase Franz Pfannl Erika 4.25mm, Menz 4.25mm Orzel, or Lilliput pistols. Please contact me if you have one available for purchase.

When a watchmaker makes a gun.

wait if that lever disconnecting the trigger is what "forces this to be a semi automatic pistol" removing or damaging that turns it into what? a single shot pistol? I'm not super knowledgeable about guns so I don't know the answer

Isn't a BB gun .17 caliber? "You'll shoot your eye out!"

It could put an eye out.

5:27 WTF is that round end hex bit you are holding?

Is there a disconnector?

This is Erika

Very cool.

Where do you even get ammo for this sort of gun?

That's not even a mouse gun, ha

800fps? That's pretty good for a .177 BB gun! (Oh, it's a what? My bad!)

Pistols were the smart phones of their time.

Perfekt for hunting musquitos?

Is there an actual measurement done as to how many foot-pounds of energy it takes to break human skin?