Edge Arms has hit the Interwebs hard in the last few days, trying to build some blogosphere buzz around their forthcoming four-banger ‘Reliant’ derringer. I try not to badmouth new gun ideas until I can actually try them–or at least watch some YouTube videos of their catastrophic failures–but there’s really not much ‘new’ about this gun at all.
Nonetheless, I shall reserve judgment while we retrace the phylogeny of the four-barreled rimfire derringer.
Riverboat Gamblers Loved Them
First, of course, was the rimfire Sharps Derringer. It was a single-action pocket pistol with a then-unique rotating firing pin that all subsequent 4-barrel derringers have copied. These card-sharp Sharps were notoriously inaccurate, Mark Twain having once described Derringers as so dangerous that the only safe place in the room was directly in front of the muzzle.
And So Did Mafia Hit Men
The two-barreled High Standard Derringer was chambered in .22 LR and .22 WMR, with a more useful double-action trigger mechanism. The High Standard has been in nearly continuous production for more than fifty years, even though nobody but Mafia hit men ever found them useful. They were small and cheap, with just enough accuracy and power to whack a snitch or uncooperative union boss.
Most 50+ year old patterns would earn the designation as ‘classic’ gun designs, but I’m not sure anybody would describe the High Standard that way. Why not? You can find out for yourself pretty cheaply: they sell used for less than $200.
Cops Didn’t Like The COP
The next big leap backward in Derringer technology came in the form of the brutally uncomfortable, extremely heavy and very expensive COP (Compact Off-Duty Police) .357 backup pistol. It weighed nearly two pounds loaded, delivered poor accuracy, and had a slow rate of aimed fire due to its poor ergonomics and extremely heavy trigger. Muzzle flash with anything but tame .38 Specials was reportedly awe-inspiring.
The COP’s commercial failure was a surprise to nobody, because it weighed (and cost) nearly twice as much as a five-shot aluminum frame .38 snubnose.
On the positive side, it delivered solid ballistics from .357 Magnum 125-grain JHPs, and it was utterly impervious to corrosion because it was milled from solid stainless steel. It would have excelled as a pistol-whipping weapon once it ran empty.
Double Tap: Two Blasts From The Past
Most recently there’s the Double Tap. This new 9mm and .45 ACP pistol provides two very reliable and potent shots in a very small package…at the cost of heavy recoil.
Where does this leave the Edge Arms Reliant? At the tail end of a rather uninspiring 150-year legacy of multiple-barrel American pocket pistols. It’s not likely to be an accurate firearm, because it has always been extremely difficult to regulate the point of impact of multiple firearm barrels. This is even more difficult when the barrels are all bored out of a single block.
The fact that the Reliant is CNC milled and available in .17 HMR probably won’t make much of a difference to the millions of shooters who won’t be remotely interested in it. I wish it well, but I’m very skeptical.
I’ve been a faithful Ruger shooter for over 25 years and recently bought my 14yr old son the American in .308. We took it to the range today to sight it in and after 10 shots the ejector failed. I cycled the empty cases through to and they would not eject at all. I handloaded some 150gr FMJ with mil brass and light loads. Guess I can try some factory ammo but do not think that is the problem. Any ideas?
My son is bummed but at least he was not trying to tip a deer over.
Some useful tips and points to consider for someone new to concealed carry, I suppose, but I didn’t really catch the “why?” of concealed carry or of firearms in general. Without fully answering that question, then the remaining W’s may become moot as a non-gunnie never connects, never relates, and never becomes a gun newbie.
Sure, why not?
Ah, but there’s also a version chambered in .380!
For what it’s worth.
I know i’m a beginner in some ways, but Derringers just don’t appeal to me… Current appeal, I mean. I get that previously this was a way to get multiple shots in a compact package. And I guess now there’s more simplicity to them than a semi-auto and a size advantage vs a revolver.
1:1 barrels to bullets just kinda makes me scratch my head. But i’m absolutely willing to be educated on this.
The argument is so stupid. To say that people don’t need 30 round mags. Of course they don’t need them, but what is that supposed to mean. People don’t need cars that get 50 mpg or do 200 mph. They could deal with worse. People don’t need fast computers or internet connection. They could just take 10 mins to load any website. You don’t need these things, but it just makes things more convenient. 30 rounds means you have to reload 3 times less while doing conventional shooting. If people always had the mentality that we shouldn’t have something just because we don’t need it we would all still be living in caves.
My very first real pistol was a High Standard derringer in .22LR. I had a need for DEEP conceal and it fit that bill, if nothing else. Aside from firing it a few times for reference, the only time I used it was to provide a coup de grace for a semi-road kill raccoon. I must add, however, that after I bought my first REAL pistol, an S&W Mod 19, I sold this one to a friend who used it sucesfully to apprehend a couple of teen thugs who had snatched a neighboring merchant’s night deposit.
Maybe not the best pistol in the world, but under the right conditions it can get the job done.
So… I can have this, or I can have any number of reliable, lightweight, and inexpensive pocket 380s with great triggers, more bullets, and faster reloads…
I’m sorry, what were we debating?
You guys aren’t thinking far enough.imagine this system on a fully auto SAW that will only release rounds when you are within x inches of the designated target.or a rifle hooked up to a drone that inputs the drone’s info and fires on targets past the shooter’s visible range
What gives Adric the right to go into the store and point a gun at the clerks head? Why didn’t he just go about his own business and leave the clerk alone?
Now Adric is the victim, huh? Live by the sword, die by the sword. How people can say stupid things like that with a straight face, I dunno.
At least they made it be able to accept a gloved finger tip
I have carried a Iver Johnson TP22 in a modified billfold in back pocket for 30 + years. I’ve had to replace the billfold a few times, and now that the Iver is showing it wear, I replace it with Ruger LCP.
Not to be ignored is the first gun produced by Mossberg, the “Brownie”. It was a larger scale Sharps, 4 barrel with rotating firing pin.
It was not popular in America, but IIRC about 30,000 were sold in Europe. It may be the gun in Samuel Beckett’s play “Happy Days”, which is referred to as a “revolver” named “Brownie”.
The New Declaration:
“Given that Modern Technology, Advancement in Human Wisdom, a Registry of Deeds, a Bureau of Standards, and a Repository of Maps have been shown to be sufficient to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, the Central, or Federal, Government of the United States has been determined to be unnecessary, and is therefore hereby declared to be Null and Void.”
You gun guys got it wrong. Look how well the war on drugs has worked, so that proves laws do work. The cops use illegal entry to homes (no warning, no warrant), because they claimed the drug guys were flushing the drugs down the toilet, so the courts let them illegally enter homes over 70,000 times last year.
The war on drugs is working well (with a few narco units going to jail, tempted by the drug money), the war on guns has just started.
This war has to be fought at the local level.
Wow, I never really gave this issue a thought. But damn, it’s scary as hell, I’m terribly sorry your currently in such a position. I can see how easily this could be used against others. When I was in nursing school my classmates and I used to joke about how easy it was to meet requirements for any number of mental disorders using the DSM-IV guidelines, shoot we all could have been institutionalized on any given day according to it. Scary, very scary. However, I also think that any rationally thinking judge or jury would have no problem understanding how crazy a pissed off woman can be. So fight it. I doubt they will be able to find any solid reason to hold this on you if you do.
Just say advantage arms stainless….four bbl derringer cast in the Ruger plant….very rare…..22 mag….
Miroku and Uberti both made faithful copies of the Sharps 4 barrel derringer back in the 60s. I’d buy a new replica of that if it were available (but only for fun, not for self protection).
My spouse and I may or may not be armed at church. And I know of, at most, two members who are armed at church. Unfortunately they are frequently absent.
My family tends to sit in particular locations in case there is an attack. My family has not discussed a formal plan in case of attack. I tend to think it is obvious: everyone gets down low and our children do their best to escape. My spouse leads the children and I may or may not engage the attacker.
Note: I have composed a near doctoral level dissertation that I am planning to
disruptpresent at my church which emphatically states our NEED to have armed members and guests at our church.