Remington .41 RF derringer

sigp220.45

sigp220.45

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I was obsessed with Wild Wild West when I was a kid (Robert Conrad, not Will Smith). Though I identified more with never-gets-the-girl Artemis Gordon, Jim West's derringer fascinated me. I've had one on my list ever since, but couldn't really justify a lot of dough for a gun I couldn't shoot.

I found this one the other day for $325, which is probably causing gales of laughter across the land. I had just sold another gun on consignment and was afraid I would waste that dough on bills or life-saving medication or snow tires. So here it is.

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Like many of these old boys the hinge is broken. Mine was repaired with a giant blob of metal, which I choose to believe is solid gold from a filling recovered from the body of Jesse James.

The other side blob is smaller.

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This is after I cleaned it up. The two bores originally looked like Michael Moore's colonoscopy tape but they actually cleaned up pretty well.

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Apparently the dating of these things is iffy - mostly its done by the barrel rib inscription. I think this one means mine was made after 1911.

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They made them in batches, starting with serial number one, going to 9999, and then starting over at one. Still, this is pretty cool. (If I have the serial number thing right.) This is the only number on the entire gun. It looks like the one is by itself, but the other marks may be partial numbers which would actually make it 186, which isn't nearly as cool as 1. I can't find any pictures of other serial numbers. I'm just gonna call it number 1. (Well no. See post below)

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So there you have it. Unless I luck into some of the .41 RF ammo Navy Arms cranked out years ago there won't be a range report. This cool old fella will be on TV watching duty with me.
 
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Nice piece!

My local shop has one on sale for $175. I don't know what I would do with it but...
 
sceva said:
Look on the frame under the grips. The number should be duplicated there
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Dang it. 186 it is.

I still like it!
 

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I have not seen a DD for quite a few years, but back when they were more common, nearly all I have seen had a broken barrel hinge, sometimes crudely brazed. I always wondered why Remington didn't use a stronger hinge design. I have several specimen rounds of .41 RF, and long ago I had a full box, present whereabouts of which is unknown. I can't imagine that the .41 RF could do much damage, but the DD probably served OK for use as a threat as no one wants to get shot with anything. I have read stories about GIs during WWII who carried one.
 
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A friend of mine was an FFL and had an unbroken one. He also had several loose rounds of ammo. We took it out back and fired each barrel into an electric pole at ten feet, the first barrel went off fine, so we fired the second without checking what the first had done. The second shot just bounced off and went zinging by my head! The first had pernitrated the pole but the heal of the bullet still stuck out of the pole about 1/4"

I still have a number of Davis Derringers I bought in the mid 1990's for $29 + tax each, 2 in 32 ACP and 1 in 22 Mag. The way I judge accuracy is to shoot 4 shot groups, and move further or closer until you have a 4 to 6 inch group. The 32 ACP's both like Winchester STHP and group 4" at 20 yards (POI is about 1' above POA) the 22 mag sucked on all ammo except Federal 50 gr JHP, product # 757, It did 4" Groups at 15 to 20 yards with the Davis and my High Standard.

Ivan
 
I also found one this year at a price I could not resist and a single round of ammo. Mine has an intact hinge and if I can work out a deal for a partial box of ammo I will post a range report. Paladin's hideout was my inspiration.
 
sigp220.45;141294778 So there you have it. Unless I luck into some of the .41 RF ammo Navy Arms cranked out years ago there won't be a range report. This cool old fella will be on TV watching duty with me.[/QUOTE said:
I had an uncle (by marriage) watching TV with a Baby Browning and got excited and killed the TV. At least your TV will be safe. :D Larry
Click to expand...
 
I have one of those, cracked hinge and all, paid $100 a few years back.

In doing some research, I read that most people were very scared of these little derringers. Not because of the anemic 41 round, but because everyone carried them in a pocket, sometimes one in each pocket. The fear was that after riding in a dirty pocket so long, all kinds of grease and grime would build up inside the barrel, creating the chance of a nasty infection in the wound channel.

No idea if it's true, but seems to make sense. In the days before antibiotics, you were far more likely to die from an infection than the wound itself.
 
The Father of a Friend of mine way up in CO had a Remington Derringer Clone in 38 Special.
He dropped on the garage floor and it discharged, the bullet going into his leg.
 
I had to look up my original post back in 2011 to get the price correct. I had acquired three complete factory Remington boxes of .41 short RF when a friend of my dad's passes away. I had called another old friend of my dad's who was still into collecting ammunition just to find out how old they were and what they were worth. Turns out they were only from the 60s I think and he said they were worth all the market would bear. I didn't get greedy, but they sold way too fast for something I thought I overpriced. I put them on this forum for $100.00 each and they only lasted an hour, same guy bought all three. I'm sure they got flipped for double that.
But then again there probably a lot of old Remington derringers that will never get shot again.
 
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I recall a Skeeter Skelton article about the Remington DD. Seems ha carried in as a deep backup until one day when he took a couple of shots at a telephone pole. He could see the bases of the bullets sticking out like a pair of eyes. Not enough penetration to suit him.
 
Buford57 said:
I also found one this year at a price I could not resist and a single round of ammo. Mine has an intact hinge and if I can work out a deal for a partial box of ammo I will post a range report. Paladin's hideout was my inspiration.
Click to expand...

Any chance you bought that at an LGS in a western suburb of Illinois? My LGS had one that was unbroken for a long time. I gave them a single round of 19th century .41 RF that I had laying around, which they paired with the gun. It finally sold.
 
Borderboss said:
Any chance you bought that at an LGS in a western suburb of Illinois? My LGS had one that was unbroken for a long time. I gave them a single round of 19th century .41 RF that I had laying around, which they paired with the gun. It finally sold.
Click to expand...

Sounds like we frequent the same shop. Only in Illinois does a Concealed Carry Licensee have to observe a 3 day "cooling off period" before taking possession of a 100 year old gun for which ammunition is no longer available.
 
Buford57 said:
Sounds like we frequent the same shop. Only in Illinois does a Concealed Carry Licensee have to observe a 3 day "cooling off period" before taking possession of a 100 year old gun for which ammunition is no longer available.
Click to expand...

That's cool that you ended up with that gun. It looked good. And it's a great shop.
 
They are neat old guns. I too was fascinated with the one in the original Wild, Wild West show. Finally found a nice clean one with an intact hinge at a reasonable price at an OGCA show a few years ago. I already had ammo from my ammo collecting hobby so I have shot it a few times. Full boxes have simply gotten too valuable to break up and shoot as far as I can see. Partial boxes and loose rounds show up now and then, so I have a few rounds back I can shoot if I want to take it out. Even loose rounds can sell for $3 or $4 bucks a round nowadays though so still not cheap to shoot.

I've been meaning to check and see if Dixie Gun Works still offers the reloadable cases that use a 22 as a primer. You have to line them up with the firing pin but it would be cheaper than shooting original rounds. As to the cracked hinges I've long suspected that they were due to people snapping them open, those two barrels are a lot of weight and could easily overstress the hinge. I have been careful with mine as the hinge can make a big impact on the value.
 
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