POTD: French 8mm Brun-Latrige Double Action Pocket Pistol
Sam.S 02.25.22
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a French 8mm Brun-Latrige Model 1900 double-action pocket pistol. This one despite its unique looks was a tough one to track any information down on. They are double-action striker-fired pistols with a folding trigger. The internal magazine holds several rounds of an unknown 8mm ammunition. Upon pulling the trigger a few things happen. The barrel/chamber actually moves to the rear and engulfs the cartridge which is set off by the striker that winds back and plunges forward. These pistols had a slightly older brother introduced a few years earlier with a ring trigger that was chambered for a 5mm cartridge. These Brun-Latrige Model 1900 pistols probably were completely glossed over by consumers when the FN Model 1899 and 1900 came onto the scene with a new sliding action and much more modern features; the beginning of what handguns were supposed to be.
“Developed from patents originally registered in the 1860s, the Brun Latrige is a double action self-loading pistol, but is not truly semi-automatic in a conventional sense, using neither gas nor recoil to chamber and extract. The long folding trigger controls the barrel and a spring-loaded striker, and when pulled the barrel slides back towards the fixed magazine, where a cartridge is already resting against the breech face. When the trigger is released, a combination ejector and extractor holds the casing in place and then throws it out when the barrel is forward. Fitted with a brass bead sight, with “Brun-Latrige-St. Etienne” on the left side of the barrel shroud, “Modele 1900″ on the right, and fine floral scroll engraving on the frame and butt. The trigger and sliding dust cover both double as safeties.”
Lot 1423: French Pocket Pistol 7.65 mm. (n.d.). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/67/1423/french-pocket-pistol-765-mm.
