The Mars Gun

N

Nightcrawler

New member
Can anybody tell me about this gun? All I know about it is the little blurb they have about it on SecurityArms.com.

"Mars Gun

The "Mars" was the most powerful 9mm made because it used a more powerful cartrage designed by the gun inventor, Mr. Gabbet-Fairfax. The gun also has a "long recoil" in which the barrel and breech bolt, firmly locked together. Recoiled two inches across the gun frame. In 1900, Webbly made the gun in 8.5mm, 9mm, and .45 calibers. The 8.5 mm Mars was also the most powerfull handgun in the world until the Auto Glock came out. This gun was never accepted by any major armies because the officers felt that it was too powerfull and uncontrolable to use."


I don't know how accurate this is. Anybody got the info?
 
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I don't understand what they mean by "most powerful handgun in the world until the Auto Glock came out". No Glock has ever been the most powerful handgun in the world.
 
I think the .357 Magnum was more powerful than the Mars calibers, but have not checked lately. The .44 Magnum outclasses them all. I have no idea why anyone would put a Glock into the "most powerful" category, since all are chambered for standard ammo, and no more powerful than any other gun in those calibers. Sounds like ignorant TV nonsense to me.

The British Mars pistols are so rare, I can't find anything on value, but I would guess at $15k. I have only seen one and it was in .45. One big gun, folks.

FWIW, there was another "Mars", a cheap Spanish pistol in .25 (or .32?) caliber.

Jim
 
The Mars automatic was the first "magnum" auto (long before the term magnum was used with guns). It roughly resembled a .44 Automag but was more ungainly. The long recoil mechanism cycled both the bolt and barrel for a distance longer than the rounds it was feeding. From what I`ve read about it the .45 version was the most powerful and it was never adopted for military service because it was so unpleasant to shoot. A reporter present at one test firing said something to the effect that when fired the muzzle invariably ended pointing straight up and refered to it as a "young cannon". :eek: It`s bore center was pretty high and the long recoil system was probably kinda clunky so I`d imagine in an era where .38 Webleys and such were considered powerhouses that it was probably most disconcerting to shoot. ;) All I`ve ever seen are drawings of them though, I`d love to see one in person or even a decent photo. Marcus
 
Nightcrawler, with all due respeck, you need to get some decent reference books if you are interested in guns the way I think you are. One such book is "Textbook of Automatic Pistols," by R.K. Wilson. All the pre-1930 pistols I've seen you inquire about are exhaustively examined in this book. I highly recommend it for anybody with a sincere desire to learn about guns.

The Mars pistol was pre-1900, IIRC, putting it in the category of among the very first autoloaders ever invented. Others are the Borchardt, the Mannlicher, the Bergmann, the Borchardt-Luger, the Maxim, and the Colt. You will not get a lot of pertinent info for these guns on the Internet unless there are some sites I haven't found yet.

All suitable apologies to the resident TFL experts, of course. :)
 
I remember a couple articles about them...

I'll second Marcus' information.

The 45 Mars was seriously similar to the 45 Winchester Magnum. It threw a good sized chunk at 1300 or 1400 f/s. (Unless that's all ad writer's hokum.)

I'm sure the gun was less than "ergonomic" to use a bussword. Probably had, for the time, "state of the art" sights and trigger; ie, wretched.

Not commercially sucessful. Kind of a description in itself, no?
 
You guys are ALL wrong here.......

The "Mars" gun was a liquid plasma stream generating pistol with a blast so powerful that immediately incinerated it's target, even vehicles. :)

laserpistol.gif


There was also a rifle version, but I doubt it's recoil could be tolerated by humans...
gun.gif


Sorry, it's kinda slow today.... :D
 
Hellow Nightcrawler: Just for your info. I actually saw one of the real Mars Pistols. It is in a collection. The workmanship was something to take your breath away. The bluing was the old fashioned rust type bluing. It really was blue not black. If memory serves me right it was in a .45 caliber. I cannot remember the exact figure that it was insured for but it was in the thousands. W.R.
 
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