Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! In 1910/1911, Manufacture d’Armes et Cycles de Saint-Etienne (Manufrance) introduced “Le Redoutable,” a unique 20-shot revolver in 6.35mm caliber. This innovative design featured two superposed barrels working with a staggered double-ring cylinder, allowing 20 rounds in a manageable package. Based on Henrion, Dassy & Heuschen’s (HDH)1910 patent, the revolver used a single hammer with dual firing pins to alternate between inner and outer chamber rings. Despite firing two barrels, it shot one round at a time. The top-break design incorporated an ejector plate for simultaneous extraction of all 20 cases. Priced equal to premium semi-automatic pistols like the Luger or C96 Mauser, Le Redoutable represented Manufrance’s most ambitious pre-WWI revolver offering. Production ended with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and the model never returned to the 1920 post-war catalog, making it a rare example of early 20th-century firearms innovation.
“6.35mm caliber, with two 4.5″ superposed barrels. The left side of the barrels are marked Genschow & Co. Hamburg Germany. The right side is marked with the caliber and several Belgian proof marks. The lower right side of the frame is marked H.D.H. for Henrion Dassey & Heuschen, based in Liege, Belgium. These pistols were sold via mail order throughout Germany in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. They were marketed under various names, but commonly referred to as the HGH. The double-action pistol fired sequentially through dual superposed chambers lined up with the large cylinder with two rings of ten chambers. With safety latch and trigger guard with finger spur. An ejector plate made reloading fairly easy. Walnut grips, with lanyard ring on the underside of the butt.”
Lot 461: HDH Twenty-Shot Double-Action Revolver. (n.d.). Invaluable.com. photograph. Retrieved November 21, 2024, from https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/hdh-twenty-shot-double-action-revolver-461-c-46540838a5.
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