History Primer 188: British Lancaster Pistols Documentary

The little ‘bloop’ from loading each cartridge was such a lovely little sound. What a strange and wonderful little pistol. A true mystery weapon that like 30 historians of British arms have heard of in the last 50 years until now.

"The Lancaster's understated, 'less is more' design is in stark contrast with its decidedly 'more is more' approach to barrels."

I have no idea how you guys found one of these. I never thought I'd get to see a long form presentation on this weapon. 🤯

It's a revolver, except the firing pin spins instead of the chambers... Madness.

I feel like the one thing that's sorta glossed over here when it comes to the four barrel Lancaster is one of the things that gets mentioned early on as a disadvantage of the revolver, but then isn't really brought up again: The ability to rest the gun on the forearm opposite the shooting hand without blowing a load of hot gas into your sleeve (or bare arm). Which seems to have been the thing that British officers were trained to do when they needed to aim and shoot as quickly as possible in the single shot percussion era (because when you only have one shot, you better make it as stable and accurate as possible). The Lancaster allowed British officers to continue shooting in the exact way they were trained to, but with four times the shots. And things like the grip seem set up for that rather than having the arm at full extension.

I love all the old guns covered but the best episodes are ones like these when Othais finds something really unusual.

The Howdah, an Assault player’s best friend.

I really, really enjoyed this one... They are such wonderful pieces of Victorian history.

These revolver alternatives are always so interesting.

The Japanese characters minus the illegible last character are "明治ニ十七　一一八一". It was read from right to left back then. "Meiji 27 1181" in English. The 27th year of the Meiji era is 1894 as stated by Othais.

Big ol’ thanks and Sorry’s to Bruno. I really appreciate him sticking with these animations for so many years. It’s really an outstanding part of the Primer series.

Battlefield 1 players recognize this beaut

The Lancasters were GREAT! As are you, May and Bruno. Thanks for all you do!

THIS was in the war? Was there a faction of old-fashioned pirates involved in the war that they didn't tell me about in school?

I like that 4 barrel. They made something like it called the Cop in the 80s which was a 4 barrel 357 magnum. I like that Lancaster a lot. I think you could also design a way to load 4 shells in at one time and would be quite quick and way more dependable considering the elements.

one of the things that perplexed me about the second gun was how the pin was kept in the right track when the two tracks crossed over. i noticed in the 3d animation that the 'pin' is actually a rotating paddle, whose linear shape helps it stay in the proper track. How clever

One of the more steampunk as hell guns on this channel. Between this and the Vetterli-Vitali, that'd be a fun steampunk gear setup.

Bruno is a badass this is the first time I've seen technical firearms animations done this well

I love the little ‘ploop’ sounds it makes when you load it. ploop.

"Fear not, Barnaby my howdah pistol will stop the tiger." Click "................oh bugger"