Posted: 2/1/2015 11:03:44 AM EDT
My wife's grandfather recently passed away and we found these stashed away in his home. I'm not much into antique arms so having a difficult time identifying what these are exactly. The top one appears to fire a 22 short and has a folding trigger. The bottom is obviously a Derringer and has the marking 'DEFENDER' on top of the frame, guessing it to use 32 rimfire? Any ideas???
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The handgun on the bottom appears to be a Johnson and Bye Defender, although it should have a cylinder pin sticking out about a half inch in front of the frame under the barrel. Since the cylinder hasn't fallen out, something is holding it in place - either a broken off or cut off cylinder pin, or some type of substitute pin to hold the cylinder in place. If you can find a cylinder pin to use as a pattern, it would be fairly simple to have a new one turned for your pistol.
There should also be a small lever on the front of the frame that also appears to be missing. It is pressed back against a V spring to release the cylinder pin so the pin can be removed and the cylinder can then be removed. The pin is then used to push the fired cases out of the cylinder so new ones can be loaded. The loaded cylinder is then placed back in the frame, the cylinder pin replaced, and it's ready to fire again. It's a very simple and effective system if a bit slow by modern standards. Again, if you can find a part for a pattern it would be pretty straight forward to make one out of flat stock and the spring itself could be made fairly easily as well, provided you have a gunsmith that knows how to temper spring steel. Johnson and Bye Gunsmiths was in business from 1871 to 1883, when the name was changed to Iver Johnson Arms Company. In 1894 they changed it again to Iver Johnson's Arms & Cycle Works under which it operated until 1975. The Defender was made in small medium and large frame sizes from 1873 to 1888, so they may be either Johnson and Bye or Iver Johnson era firearms. The small frame pistols were chambered in .22 short. The medium frame pistols were chambered in .32 rimfire. The large frame pistols were chambered in .38 rimfire and .41 rimfire. The medium frame .32 rimfire version seems to have been the most popular. In 1889 they were succeeded by the "Defender 89" which was produced until around 1899. I'm not real clear on the differences other than how they are stamped with the Defender 89 being stamped "Defender 89". Production numbers are hard to pin down, but they appear to have made a bunch of them with a new batch number (stamped on the grip frame) being run every 2-3 years, and it's believed the batches consisted of 100,000 pistols. -------- I'm not sure about the revolver on the top. It looks like the Belgian pin fire and .22 Short revolvers made in Belgium from about 1870 through the first world war - at least I've seen something similar at the NRA Museum in Fairfax VA. My understanding is that these were cottage industry firearms, so there's no maker or model per se. |