What the heck is this?

R

rick35ovi

New member
I don't currently have it in my possesion yet but am told it is marked 44 winchester, i am assuming it is some sort of belgian copy. my appologies for the quality of the pic, it is a cellphone picture.
revolver.jpg
 
Yes, this is what's called a "Montenegrin revolver"; after the king of Montenegro (part of the former Yugoslavia) declared that every male subject had to own a revolver chambered for the standard handgun cartridge of his army, pretty well every arms manufacturer in Europe that had any spare capacity started making these as fast as they could. Most of these were made in Belgium, but you can also see French or German examples. They're usually chambered for an obsolete 11.3x36mmR (about .44") cartridge, but some manufacturers carried the design over into other chamberings. In any event, they're not very strong, not very recent, and probably not the sort of thing that should be fired today anyway.
 
"Gasser" refers to L. Gasser of Vienna who manufactured these for the Austro-Hungarian army in the 1870s. See Wikipedia ("M1870 Gasser") for a short synopsis of the origin of this revolver.
 
After looking for gassers on the internet it seems the 44 Winchester caliber may have been imported to Mexico, does this make sense? Some of the stories I have read point to Pancho Villa importing them in this caliber to be able to use that round in the El tigre rifle and the pistol. Interesting story at least! Is there any value in these?
 
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