“The Protector” was a very discreet palm pistol developed in the late 1800s by a French inventor, produced in bulk by the Ames Sword Company, and sold by the Chicago Firearms Company. They are mechanically double-action turret revolvers with a unique grip design meant to be to be fired by squeezing. The first few were made in France by the original inventor, and later licensed to an Irish-American who sold them through first the Minneapolis Firearms Company and later the Chicago Firearms Company. Most are in an extra-short .32 caliber rimfire cartridge, but a few were also made in both .41 and .22 calibers.

Ian’s Video: [12:57] https://youtu.be/Zv4ekzpWdFk?si=

  • @ladicius
    link
    English
    1211 months ago

    Won’t that get very hot after a shot was fired?

    • @FireTowerOPM
      link
      English
      28
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      They had a low capacity and were chambered in a diminutive set of cartridges typically. Firearms typically heat up to after prolonged firing. You likely wouldn’t get this sort of piece hot enough to be of nuisance in typical usage.

      I’d be surprised if the total temperature raised by more than 10°F exhausting their full capacity. For you Celsius fans think about it as the difference of going from 26°C to 31°C. Notably warmer but not uncomfortable.

      Also this isn’t something you’d fire typically only in self defense and wouldn’t reload in a fight. So in practice you probably wouldn’t need to be concerned about that.

      • @Slowy
        link
        English
        711 months ago

        It says it protects loaded or not, is there some additional function or is that just some marketing thing I don’t get

        • @Im_old
          link
          English
          1611 months ago

          I guess worst case you could use it similar to a knuckle duster

        • @FireTowerOPM
          link
          English
          811 months ago

          I think it’s marketing unless they mean you can beat someone with an empty one. Which is a possibility.

          • Tar_Alcaran
            link
            fedilink
            English
            1411 months ago

            “When empty, this gun performs all the functions of a rock!”

          • @lemick24
            link
            English
            811 months ago

            I suppose you could threaten to shoot someone with it unloaded as you could with more traditional firearms, bluffing for self defense. But I would seriously struggle to even recognize this as a firearm in any kind of altercation, so I think that’s a stretch.

        • @FireTowerOPM
          link
          English
          3
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          Yes, for a revolver that is inline with most others. I was speaking compared to all types of firearms, not strictly just revolvers. Most modern fuillsize semi-automatic pistols for example carry over 15 rounds in a magazine.

          7 rounds just isn’t a lot of ammo to heat up a gun. Especially if you are using black powder like this would have as smokeless powder hadn’t been invented yet. You’d need an exceptional cartridge to make a firearm hot in that few black powder shots. see below comment.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            311 months ago

            You actually have it completely backwards. Black powder ammunition heated up gun/rifle barrels much faster than modern powders. The length of time it took for the much more inefficient powder to finish burning off caused the barrels to absorb more heat from each shot.

            If you’d like to test this, you can still pretty easily find black powder shotgun loads. Put just 6 shots through one with modern powder and touch the barrel. Then do the same thing after it cools off a bit with 6 rounds of black powder shells. You touch the barrel after that you might want to have some burn cream and bandages on you.