Tuesday 20 September 2016

The British Bulldog Had A Puppy:

The British Bulldog was generally speaking a solid frame large bore revolver with a short 2.5 inch barrel. - The original  Royal Irish Constabulary Model was made by Philip Webley & Son around 1870 and its Trademark was registered by Henry Webley in 1878.
The R.I.C. model dates from 1868

- Meant to be carried in a coat pocket for use against the Irish - these were built in .44" and .450" calibers and were much copied worldwide - particularly by European makers from Belgium (Liege), & France, Spain, USA, Pakistan, etc. - Indeed, every man and his dog seem to have made them! (- At one time there were recorded to be as many as 200 gun manufacturers in Liege alone.)

Webleys themselves built some smaller caliber five shot versions in .320" and .380"
 Webley No.2 Model in .320" Bulldog.

I came across an online question by someone who'd found a .320 Bulldog example for sale and was asking what they might shoot from it should they buy the old revolver. - One reply states very confidently that 32 Auto (32 ACP) will work fine - BUT I'm not suggesting that is safe to do. - For a start the 320 Bulldog bullets are .317" diameter and 32 ACPs only measure .312" - you might get away with it.

Anyway - those smaller "Bulldogs" soon were called 'Baby-Bulldogs' or even 'Puppies' - and they were popular with the ladies for purse or close body carry as "GET OFF ME" guns.

.22" Rim-fire Baby Bulldog.

Around the same late 19th Century era - cycling was becoming very popular and small guns came to be carried to protect cyclists from predators and dogs - "Revolvers de Poche" became all the go and the 5.75mm (5.5mm) velodog cartridge guns were called "Velo-Dog" guns (early bicycles were called velocipedes).
"Those damned urchins throw sticks at ones wheels - don't you know"


While wandering about researching this topic I stumbled on an extensive site about Velo-Dog handguns by Jerry Friedmanhttp://www.velodogs.com/  - well researched and interesting with great illustrations.

- And how about this for a novelty - a concealable revolver with a folding stock?

There's always something new to see eh.

The 5.75mm VeloDog cartridge was a proprietory cartridge designed by Charles-Francois GALAND - it was a rimmed centre-fire round in the .22 black powder class - longer than the current rim-fire .22 L/R.

Marty K.

After researching & writing 1,036 blogs I've got something NEW to try .. I've signed-up to Patreon. - In over five years I've not made one cent from this .. NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1. to get all this stuff from New Zealand - over a year that's nearly the price of one Shooting magazine. - Am I worth it?

https://www.patreon.com/posts/24075745

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