05 Austrian Gendarme Pistol 1850 Model

Fotogalerie

On 27 March 1780, Vincenc Augustin (1780−1859), later General of the Artillery and Director General of the Austrian Artillery, was born in Pest. From 1848 onwards, he directed the construction of the Vienna Arsenal, but he made his mark in the history of the arms industry mainly as the designer of his own type of percussion lock. His design was based on the possibility of transforming the older Austrian Army flintlock rifles and pistols into an ignition system using a percussion cock to ignite a chemical fuse. The cock, used in place of the original flintlock, had a smooth, hammer-like surface and the original battery was replaced by a hinged cap protruding into a metal mandrel pointing into the ignition channel, into which the cylindrical fuse was inserted. By striking the tap on the cap with the mandrel, the fuse was ready for initiation and then the projectile in the barrel was fired.

Augustin’s lock was introduced in Austrian short and long handguns and was produced in two variants. The “large lock” was intended for the remodelling of Austrian army flintlock rifles and Model 1798 pistols (about 80,000 rifles were transformed). According to the order of the Court War Council of November 1841, new Augustin locks of a smaller size were introduced and fitted to new army weapons.

The Model 1851 cavalry pistol with the Augustin system lock was the only pistol with a tubular percussion lock that was introduced as a service weapon. However, a year earlier, this pistol had been introduced into the armaments of the Austrian gendarmerie with only slight differences. It was manufactured by the Vienna arms factory Ferdinand Fruhwirth.

Length 440 mm, barrel length 262 mm, calibre 17 mm, weight 1,584 g.