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Three Barrel Pistol

25wcf25wcf Member Posts: 43 ✭✭
edited January 2008 in Ask the Experts
This is a little long, but trust me, there is a question here. Back when the world was young and I was going to grammar school in rural northern California, I had a friend named John. He lived with his parents in an old house they rented from a widow lady who was in a rest home. The lady's husband had been a jack-of-all-trades, and the large garage and shop located on the property still had most of his tools and treasures buried in its nooks and crannies. I loved to visit John because most of our time was spent digging around in the shop. We were probably no more than ten years old at the time, and curious about everything. There was quite a bit of dirt and rat droppings and just plain trash in the shop, but I remember that we derived great pleasure inspecting the old Model T Ford, the metal and wood-working tools, farming implements, horse tack and blacksmithing tools, as well as other items that defined the old gentleman's life, including wooden duck decoys, salmon fishing gear, beer making and bottling equipment, a redwood plank rowboat and many other wonderful things. Anyway, one day John went into his father's bedroom in the house and brought out an old pistol to show me. He said his father had found it somewhere in the house. We had both been raised around guns, so there were no issues of safety involved as we keenly inspected the piece. I had never seen a pistol like that one before in my young experience, nor have I seen another to this day, over fifty years later. The pistol was old-looking even then, and it had a brown look to it with a few rust spots here and there. It had a fairly large frame, with a top break action and three stacked, or superposed barrels. It looked a lot like the Smith & Wesson single shot target pistols that were made on a revolver frame. The barrels were at least ten, perhaps twelve inches long, with a .22 barrel on top, a .38 barrel in the middle, and a .410 barrel on the bottom. I remember seeing the hammer, but I do not remember what kind of barrel selector device it used. I do not remember if there were any markings on the gun. At that time, I did not know how unusual the pistol was, and over the years I have often wondered about its story. Was it a factory gun of domestic or foreign manufacture? Or was it a custom gun, perhaps even something the old boy put together on his own? Has anyone here ever heard of anything like it?

Comments

  • ruger41ruger41 Member Posts: 14,665 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    there was a company called Marston who made 3 barrel pistols but I've only seen them in .22 and .32 rimfire like the one in this link
    http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=90386616 does yours look like this?
  • 25wcf25wcf Member Posts: 43 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    ruger41:

    Well, it has been a while and the details are fuzzy, but I believe the frame was larger and had a trigger guard. The first time I ever saw a S&W single shot target pistol, it reminded me strongly of the old three-barrel pistol I saw.
  • givettegivette Member Posts: 10,886
    edited November -1
    1. Are you able to get the gun and post pictures to this forum? The pictures will quickly tell us if it's homemade, or the product of a factory.

    Can't do research till above is known. Best, Joe
  • 25wcf25wcf Member Posts: 43 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    givette:

    Sorry, but I have not seen my friend John or the pistol in fifty years. Although I have been thinking about posting here for some time, I really did not mean for anyone to do a research project. What I was thinking is that this forum represents much collective wisdom and experience, and perhaps if someone had seen a pistol with three superposed barrels chambered in three different calibers they would say so. I certainly would have posted pictures if I had them, if only to share the oddity with you folks. Thanks for the response.
  • perry shooterperry shooter Member Posts: 17,105 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Hello I think you are talking about a German pistol called a SCHEINTODT This was a three barrel over under configuration. The name translated is Apparent Death or Simulated Death in German[:p][^][}:)]
  • Bill DeShivsBill DeShivs Member Posts: 1,264 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I doubt it was the Schientodt-it was a pocket gun.
    I can think of no commercially made gun in the configuration that you describe.
  • rhmc24rhmc24 Member Posts: 1,984 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Seems like this is based on a stroll down memory lane. Maybe we should each open a thread about the "a gun I should have bought".
  • 25wcf25wcf Member Posts: 43 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Although I am no stranger to hunting, shooting, reloading and gun collecting, I would not presume to pass myself off as an expert in these things. I enjoy watching this forum because of the depth of information available and the interestings posts. That old three-barrel pistol has been the subject of many an Internet, library and gun show search on my part, but my guess is that it may forever remain a mystery, as I have not been able to come up with anything close to it with all the looking. Many thanks to those of you who took the time to post serious replies to this thread.
  • Bill DeShivsBill DeShivs Member Posts: 1,264 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I just remembered an article in a gun magazine from probably the 1970s about a custom-built gun like you described. It seems like it was only a double barrel, with a cylinder for pistol cartridges pivoting on a central .410 shotgun barrel.
    Did this gun have a cylinder, or were the barrels chambered?
  • 25wcf25wcf Member Posts: 43 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Bill:

    I believe the barrels were chambered. I appreciate your persistence. Thanks.
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