Video: 1990s 45-70 Ladies Home Companion Revolver – Worst Handgun Ever?

How did I miss this one? I mean, I must have seen it sometime in all my years of gunginess, but if so, that encounter evades my memory.

It’s called the Ladies Home Companion. The Blue Book of Gun Values describes it thus: “45-70 Govt. cal., double action design utilizing spring wound 12 shot rotary mag., 12 in. barrel, steel barrel and frame, 9 lbs 6 oz. Mfg 1990-94.”

So perfect for the ladies! Right?

When you think about a firearm designed and marketed for a lady around the house, you probably do not think of an eight-pound 45-70 revolver.

Although some of their guns were marketed under the name Cobray, the maker of this gun is listed as S.W.D. Inc, a “previous manufacturer located in Atlanta, GA.”

The folks associated with this gun were also involved with the infamous Street Sweeper shotgun, a big honking hunk of junk that carried a rotary 12-round magazine of 12-gauge shotgun ammo and looks pretty bad ass. Partially due to the unfortunate name, which infers mass killing of civilians, the Street Sweeper was blacklisted by the ATF and classified as a “destructive device.”

Perhaps some of the folks involved in the company could see into the future and realize that the Street Sweeper name was bad news, so they gifted its relative with a much more mild moniker. Clearly, they had a sense of humor since the name they chose was Ladies Home Companion.

It’s heavy, it is difficult to balance, it is quite possibly the worst [handgun] ever made.

Made of many of the same parts as the Street Sweeper, this rifled cousin fired the fairly massive 45-70 Gov’t cartridge, a round from the 1870s that is still alive and well today.

It is perhaps the world’s least-practical [handgun], ever.

I’d have to agree. But I still want to fondle one.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.