New Range Toy . . .

P

Prof Young

New member
Got a Davis derringer for $90. Chambered for 22 mag. Has a safety even. Fun to shoot. Takes a small herd of elephants to pull the trigger. I'm sure it was designed that way for safety. Could be a BUG I suppose. I think it will mostly go to the range just for the fun of it. See pic below.

Live well, be safe
Prof Young
 

Attachments

  • Derringer.JPG
    Derringer.JPG
    109.2 KB · Views: 146
I used to pay $32 for Davis derringers when I had my FFL.. Now they are Cobra out of Utah. You get what you pay for.
 
Last edited:
Peggysue, yes and . . .

Peggysue, I hear ya. It's not a quality fire arm, and if you read up on them all over the net they get very mixed reveiws. There was at least one serious warning of potential for accidental discharge. The guy I got this from said he'd never fired it. It clearly had been fired, dirty barrels, but not much. Looks almost new. Anyway, it's mostly for the fun of having it.

Live well, be safe
Prof Young.
 
"Takes a small herd of elephants to pull the trigger."

I've never fired a Davis derringer, but others I have fired seemed to require pulling "down" on the trigger, more so than pulling back. Like if 3 o'clock is pulling straight back, pulling to 4:30 or 5 o'clock worked much better. It felt as though the geometry of the related parts worked more as a trigger lock when pulling straight back. That might help with yours, don't know.
 
Okay so . . .

Carmady
So if I'm looking at the gun in profile with the barrel pointed left, 3 o'clock is straight back and 4:30 or 5:00 is more pull on the lower part of the trigger? Do I understand this correctly?

Thanks for the tip regardless.

Live well, be safe
Prof Young
 
I'll try to explain it better.

If you're standing up with your arms straight out and pulling the trigger towards your eye, that's 3 o'clock.

Try holding the derringer the same way, but pulling the trigger towards your belt buckle (instead of your eye), or in the 4:30 direction.

That might help, might not. It helped me with the American Derringer M-1.
 
I don't know about Davis, and how they are manufactured, but I do remember reading about the inherent danger of this style of derringer. If there is no transfer bar type of safety, accidental discharges are VERY common if the handgun is dropped.

The design/weight of the gun almost guarantees it will land on the hammer if dropped, and if there is nothing to prevent the hammer from hitting the firing pin... boom.

I had a friend that had a cheap .38sp derringer. He and his wife were cleaning up the bedroom, and they shook the sheets on the bed, flipping the gun up in the air.

They were lucky that they only shot a hole in their water bed.

I advise more than normal caution when using it.
 
I have a Cobra derringer in 9mm and is a cool little gun. They do come with a safety that blocks the hammer. If I can't carry my dedicated carry gun because of dress requirements, I won't hesitate to at least carry the derringer. It's reliable after 150 rounds through it and is accurate enough to put (2) COM. I must say, carrying the derringer is a last resort and I've only had a few occasions where my carry gun just wouldn't work. I almost always am able to dress around the gun.
 
Last edited:
Carmady . . . got it . . .

Carmady:
I think I got it. Will give that a try.

Hornetguy: it does have a safety that blocks the hammer. In fact, it's designed to have the hammer at half cock, with the safety on for loading and unloading. Saftey won't go on unless hammer is at half cock.

Don't know that I'll every carry it, but I guess I might on certain dress up occasions.

Live well, be safe
Prof Young
 
It works . . .

Carmady - I tried it and can see a difference. Giving a downward pull makes the trigger break much easier.

Also I shot some 22LR and 22 short through it. The fired just fine, but were a real pain to extract. The brass expanded to fill the 22 mag diameter chamber and the heads don't engage he extractor flange hardly at all.

Still a fun gun to shoot.

Live well, be safe
Prof Young
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top