105

A Salesman Shot One in Teddy Roosevelt's Office - Burgess Folding Pump Shotgun (1893) (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The pivoting pin at the bottom and the spring-loaded latch that Burgess added to the design allowed the gun to be carried in a folded state and snapped into a locked firing condition with a flip of the wrist. In fact, Burgess sold a belt holster for the shotgun to allow one to carry it under a coat in just that manner.

Burgess salesman Charlie Dammon – an impressive exhibition shooter – made an appointment with then New York City Police Board President Theodore Roosevelt in 1885, and arrived concealing a loaded Burgess in a holster under his coat. After exchanging a few greetings, Dammon thoroughly startled Roosevelt by whipping out the gun, snapping it shut, and blasting six blanks into the ceiling of the office. Roosevelt, always one to be enthusiastic about weapons technology, promptly order one hundred of the guns for use in the New York State Penal System

Ian's Video: [7:20] https://youtu.be/HXvmGtLYwKA?si=

top 12 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago

The steel balls to just whip it out and start blasting into the ceiling is nutty.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

Only rivaled by Teddy's. Good thing for our salesman Roosevelt was more impressed than surprised.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

True, he did like his big sticks lol.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

And tiptoeing

[-] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

I may be in the minority but I think this is a rare example where an attempt to not infringe on a patent resulted in a design better than the patent that never got adopted.

IMO you'd have an easier time remaining on target shifting your rear hand. Where as pumping your fore hand would jostle your sights.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

This thing just begs for a 3D printed update. I’m actually rather surprised just how few 3DP shotguns are out there considering 12 gauge is basically 1/2” pipe. I’m imagining a pivot pin from an AR would work and then it just needs a good latching system. The rest is fairly simple, I imagine, and maybe it would use a revolving cassette like the Six Twelve that never arrived.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

I mean, making your own guns is a pretty good way to cause a whole bunch of problems

[-] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

MYOG is a time honored tradition, and the conflict in Myanmar is doing a bang up job of showing how it can cause real problems for a despotic government.

From a builder’s perspective, if you think about a shotgun all the parts that contain the bang can be bought at Home Depot or Lowes, which just leaves the printed parts and CF Nylon looked to be the leader for frames and lower receivers last I checked. You can order that from Amazon. Firing pin could be for an AR, they’re $7 if you catch a good sale online, and the trigger could be an easy drop in AR trigger or something printed itself with a few off the shelf metal pieces for reinforcement.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

I should probably state the obligatory "I'm not in America" but hey, if it's traditional...

[-] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

America is not the only country with a tradition of homemade weapons, but some of the others use them ceremonially, like the Afghan long gun on this community a couple days ago.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Shards of hot plastic beg to disagree

[-] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Shotguns use relatively low pressure compared to rifle rounds, but yes, you’ll likely need some pipe from a hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes to contain and direct the small explosion and the slugs/buckshot. In terms of the design I’m suggesting, there will of course be metal parts but like most modern firearms, polymers can make up a lot of the firearm and its ammunition feeding system. A shotgun designed to be used in shooting competitions or duty use isn’t wood stocked, wood is just too heavy by comparison to plastics.

this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023

105 points (98.2% liked)

Forgotten Weapons

1599 readers

1 users here now

This is a community dedicated to discussion around historical arms, mechanically unique arms, and Ian McCollum's Forgotten Weapons content. Posts requesting an identification of a particular gun (or other arm) are welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/@ForgottenWeapons

https://www.forgottenweapons.com/

Rules:

1) Treat Others in a Civil Manner. This is not the place to deride others for their race, sexuality, or etc. Personal insults of other members are not welcome here. Neither are calls for violence.

2) No Contemporary Politics Historical politics that influenced designs or adoption of designs are excluded from this rule. Acknowledgement of existing laws to explain designs is also permissable, so long as comments aren't in made to advocate or oppose a policy. Let's not make this a place where we battle over which color ties our politicians should have, or the issues of today.

3) No Advertising This rule doesn't apply to posting historical advertisements or showing more contemporary ads as a means of displaying information on an appropriate topic. The aim of this rule is to combat spam/irrelevant advertising campaigns.

4) Keep Post on Topic This rule will be enforced with leeway. Just keep it related to arms or Forgotten Weapons or closely adjacent content. If you feel you have something that's worth posting here that isn't about either of those (and doesn't violate other rules) feel free to reach out to a mod.

5) No NSFW Content Please refrain from posting uncensored extreme gore or sexualized content. If censored these posts may be fine.

Post Guide Lines

These are suggestions not rules.

-Provide a duration for videos. eg. [12:34]

-Provide a year to either indicate when a specific design was produced, patented, or released. If you have an older design being used in a recent conflict provide the year the picture was taken. Dates should be included to help contextualize, not necessarily give exact periods.

-Post a full URL, on mobile devices it can be hard to tell what you're clicking on if you only see "(Link)".

-Posts do not have to be just firearms. Blades, bows, etc. are also welcome.

Adjacent Communities

If you run a community that you feel might fit in dm a mod and we might add your's.

Want to Find a Museum Near You? Check out the mega thread: https://lemmy.world/post/9699481

founded 10 months ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]