Velo-dog "little revolver"

B

blacksheepone

New member
Here's my 5,7 mm Velo-dog made somewhere in about 1895 in the city of Liège Belgium.
The Velo-Dog was a pocket revolver originally created in France by Charles-François Galand in the late 19th century as a defense for cyclists against dog attacks. The name is a portmanteau of "velocipede" and "dog".
Surviving examples vary considerably in appearance, but have certain features in common.All have short barrels and originally fired the 5.75 mm (.22 calibre) Velo-dog cartridge, although many of the Velo-Dogs produced after 1900 accepted .22 LR or .25 ACP rounds. Another feature on many late models Velo-Dogs is the lack of a trigger guard, and a trigger that folds into the body of the weapon when not in use. For the more humane, there were cartridges loaded with cayenne pepper or dust. Later came the hammerless velo-dogs.
The original revolver uses the 5.75mm Velo-dog cartridge, a centrefire 5.5 mm (nominally 5.75) cartridge slightly less powerful than the 22 Long Rifle, using a jacketed bullet. The cartridge is, or was until very recently, still made by Fiocchi.
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...it still works perfectly. Test fired it when I first bought it. Unlike what some sources say it works both in single and double action.
Nice little historical piece...
 
I have one... I'll see if I can round up a pic... bought several boxes of ammo a while back... even made a modern version on a Taurus 8 shot 22 magnum, & had some cases lathe turned for that gun...

it's too bad someone doesn't do another run of cartridges... I was trying to set up to reload them, as those are boxer primed cases, but I've never had dies made up yet... looks like I don't have a good close up pic of my "dog" but it's the 2nd from the top on the right side in this picture...

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Nice one too Magnum Wheel man. A close up would be nice. Yours is a French model I believe....
Sweet little revolvers those velo-dogs ain't it ?
Nice collection of revolvers by the way.
:D
 
it looks bigger than it actually is, since the gun just under it is an Iver Johnson bicycle gun in 32 S&W... which is about as small as American guns got...

I've never traced it's origin... what clues make it look French ??? if I remember correctly, it has scoop flutes, & is punch dot engraved, & nickel plated... it is double action, with the folding trigger ( which is quite large )... it has a pretty hard pull, I assume the overly large trigger is because of that heavy trigger pull... I always shoot it single action, so I don't break something...
 
That's nice micromontenegro. Looks close enough to a real velo dog.
Hey Magnum Wheel I'm guessing french make because of the shape of the grips.... Does it have any markings ? It looks to be in very good condition.
Nice !
:)
 
Sable Baby Hammerless Top Brake 22short. 1954 Beretta import made in Belgian.
 

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Count me among those who say "Velo Dog" is a cartridge, not a kind of gun. So a "Velo Dog revolver" is not in .22 Short, ..25 ACP, .32 ACP, 7mm or any other caliber, any more than a ".38 Special revolver" can be in .44 Magnum.

Millions of those little pocket model revolvers were made throughout Europe from around 1880 to around 1914, most of them NOT in 5.7 Velo Dog.

Jim
 
The Velo Dog is a style of small revolver and the 5,7 cartridge is one of the calibers that where chambered in these type of revolvers.
The Velo Dog is the name of the revolver not the cartridge ... ;)
 
Nope. "Velo Dog" (or variant spellings) was the cartridge, not the revolver. That kind of revolver was in existence for years before the Velo Dog cartridge was introduced by Galand of Paris in 1894. It was first chambered in a Galand Vest Pocket Model revolver with an elongated cylinder.

Since at that time, the gunmakers of Liege would copy any successful design, the Belgian guns became the best known, but those revolvers were made in France, Germany, and Spain as well, in several calibers including, of course, the 5.5mm Velo Dog. The cartridge terminology never did settle down, so the designation is given variously as 5.5mm Velo Dog, 5.6mm Velo Dog, 5.7mm Velo Dog, 5.75mm Velo Dog, and 5.8x30 Velo Dog.

For all of its length, the cartridge was less powerful than the .22 Long Rifle, which had been introduced earlier in the U.S. The Velo Dog cartridge died out, killed by a combination of the better and shorter .22 Long Rifle, handgun laws following WWI, and the advent of the automobile which ended (for a time) bicycling as a sport.

Jim
 
Great pictures guys. A cool little gun from a vastly different time.

How loud is the cartridge, generally speaking of course?
 
I don't know about the ones made here, but I don't think the European loads ever went to smokeless powder. Still, to have a hope of killing or seriously injuring a large dog they must have had a fair amount of power.

Jim
 
Kinda on the subject,but I used to have a gun that was given to me by my grandfather,that was stolen from me several years ago.
The only markings on the gun was 5mm,and Puppy.
I recall the ammo that he had with it looked like 22 cb cap,that I did shoot up when I was a kid.
The gun was very small,could be hidden in the palm of your hand,had a folding trigger,double action,and nickel plated.
Anybody seen anything like this?
 
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