Volcanic Pistol

S

SpeedyCrab12

Inactive
I was recently doing some research into the Volcanic Arms company, and came across the rarely seen Volcanic Pistol, (basically a pistol version of the Henry Rifle), Does anyone know if this pistol has been reintroduced by chance? i.e. by Uberti, Cimmaron, etc...? I've found a couple authentic pistols, but i'm not ready to shell out $12,000+ for one...
 
For those who was unsure of what i was referring to here is a link

http://www.militarytrader.com/upload/images/volcanic pistol.jpg

after doing a little more research, it looks like the pistol used a hollow, powder-filled bullet, therefore, if it were to be reproduced for everyday use, it would have to accept modern metallic cartridges. I like the idea of a .22lr, possibly a .32 would be a good target cartridge, and thus also allowing for a greater number of rounds in the magazine... What do you think?

I personally think we should hound Uberti to make one of these guys...
 
The problem with reproducing it is the originals had problems and reliability issues. If anyone made a clone they would have the same problems as the originals.
 
Volcanic pistol. hollow lead bullet filled with gunpowder, sealed with a cardboard disc containing a percusiion cap for ignition.

had several issues. first off is that the muzzle velocity kinda sucked. as a result they were not the most popular things around. however very many models were produced from 4 inch pistol barrel to 20 inch carbines.

when the bullet cartridge leaves the magazine tube, it isnt actually restrained from falling out of the weapon by anything other then pointing the barrel in the correct direction and using your finger.

a company did make a 22lr version in the 1990s. it was a short lived flop. not many people wanted to pay that much money for what was in effect a sbr of a henry rifle they could buy for 500, pay 200 for a stamp and convert into a pistol for about half the price.
 
Like was pointed out at one point in the linked thread at the Leverguns forum, the Henry and the rest of the toggle link Winchesters were basically improvements off the Volcanic design. Anyone that is going to make a repro today has all that improvement work to draw off of before doing step one of the process. There's been a fascinating recent thread over there involving a scratch-built Volcanic rifle: http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22477&sid=a1c09ff558d1c997d6c402ab2fe94492
(edited to add that there's now a pistol in there, too!)


Fellow I work with has done a lot of gunsmithing as a helper in other folks' shops. At one point, he worked with the guy out west that tried to market that .22 version. Still goes out that way to visit the old stomping grounds and shoot prairie dogs and such once or twice a year. After one of those trips he had acquired most of a set of parts that hadn't made the grade for one reason or another and spent a ridiculous amount of time and effort getting it to where it worked. I've shot the thing myself. It's a cool looking design, but it makes a pretty poor repeating pistol; it needs to be gripped somewhere up front to get the leverage to work the action and the single-finger lever loop doesn't work so great, either.
 
That Volcanic was actually developed by a couple of chaps named Smith and Wesson. They were building on previous designs and patents and made it work even better.

Then they were bought out by one of their partners, a fellow named Winchester. He got rich on the lever guns (with the help of the US Civil War and his main designer, B. Tyler Henry) and they got rich on revolvers.

Bart Noir
Who thinks gun history is so interesting.
 
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