Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at RIA
with a Tribuzio. This is one of those cool little
like self-defence, palm-squeezer type firearms.
This particular one is a design that was created by one
Catello Tribuzio in Turino, Italy, in approximately 1890.
Let me show it to you.
In terms of basic mechanical function, this is a ring-trigger, manually operated pistol.
So not semi-auto, but it's not a revolver, it's just a manually operated pistol.
... Sort of in the same realm as the Volcanics, but of course a totally different form factor.
It is chambered for the 7.65mm Tribuzio cartridge.
... There are a couple of interesting disparities with these.
One of them is that some people list these as 7.65 mm, and some people list them as 8mm.
Now, this is the only one I have inspected in person, this one is very definitely 7.65mm.
(And it is rifled, by the way.)
Whether they made two different calibres, or whether there's just some confusion on people's parts,
or just repeating of old data in regards of an 8mm one, I don't know. But this is 7.65.
The cartridge is typically listed as a 9mm long case,
which has to be about right given the length of the magazine here.
So, ... it's a really, really short cartridge. I don't have specifications on it,
but it is almost certainly a black powder cartridge,
and almost certainly along the same sort of lines of ballistic power
as things like the .32 Extra Short for the Palm Protector.
Now there is also a disparity in some sources as to whether this holds 5 or 6 rounds,
I think 5 is probably the accurate number.
We can actually open up this magazine here from the side.
This is sort of a disassembly procedure.
There is a little rotary lock here, and it's pretty subtle,
but what you do is rotate it until the flat side is facing this magazine cover.
And then you can slide the magazine cover down.
So we've got a magazine spring in there,
(the plastic pokie was patented, so I have a wood pokie),
there's our follower. Interesting that the follower actually has this very significant slope to it.
Probably because this was a rimmed cartridge,
and that slope allows the cartridges to stack up in the magazine.
They're going to need ... more space at the back end of the cartridge to accommodate the rims,
and that slope allows 5 of them to stack up in what is otherwise a straight magazine.
Anyway, that's that side.
There are a few markings on this. It's marked 01 up there, but I don't think that's actually the serial number.
It is also marked, kind of interestingly, 16 over 5 on the bottom of the barrel.
And then we have that same thing marked on the inside of the magazine cover.
So I think that 165 is the serial number on this.
When it cycles it's a very simple system really.
When you pull the ring back the bolt goes forward.
There ... are a pair of these long flat springs on either side,
and those are basically, not feed lips, but those are interrupters that prevent
the cartridges from going flying right out the ejection port at the top.
So, when you pull the trigger forward, the bolt's going to pick up the top cartridge in the magazine,
and right as the bolt gets control of the cartridge,
as in the nose of the bullet is inside the front of the receiver here so that it can't fly out of the gun,
and the extractor is controlling the rim,
then the bolt pushes these two cartridge stops out of the way so that it can go all the way forward.
This will, of course, allow the next cartridge to lift up in the magazine.
It will be stopped by the bolt at the top.
We have a striker back here, and at full travel the striker is released and snaps forward.
The spring in this is a little weak, so I'm not particularly concerned about one or two dry fires of it.
At this point you have a fired case, shoot the bullet out, you have a fired case left in there.
The ring-trigger is spring-loaded, and as it comes back it will pull the empty case out,
flip it out the top of the gun, there is an ... ejector right there.
And then you will see that these two cartridge stops automatically snap back into place
to prevent the next round from ejecting before it's been fired.
It's a pretty simple system. I can actually however show you all the parts
up even closer, because it's got this disassembly screw on the side
that allows me to remove
the side plate from the gun.
By the way, we have another 16 over 5 right there on the side plate.
And we also have it on the frame, and on that lever up there. So it's serialised on pretty much every part.
These by the way are made out of brass that is nickel plated on the outside. You can see the brass internals.
So here is our main operating lever,
and it's just a simple matter of when the ring-trigger goes back it pushes this,
which pivots on that, which pushed the bolt forward.
There is one other part in here that does really clever double duty, and that's the ejector.
So from here it just looks like sort of a fixed ejector, there is a slot in the breech face
on the bottom so that the bolt can go forward over the ejector,
but when it pulls an empty case back to here,
the ejector is going to kick it off of the breech face.
However, that ejector is also actually basically the firing sear.
So this is striker fired, you can see the striker coming right out the back of the action there.
The striker is going to actually hit the ejector bar, and that's what holds it back as the bolt closes.
So when you have this all the way forward
this lever hits this lever, which is going to cause the ejector bar to drop down,
and that's what releases the striker to actually fire.
So if I just do that manually, you can see the striker dropping down there.
So that's actually a really cool ... economisation of using one part to do two things.
And as a result you can see there are very few moving pieces inside this gun, it's really quite simple.
Unfortunately I don't have any good data on exactly how many of these were made, but
as far as I can recall, 165 is the largest serial number I have ever seen reference to.
Most of them are two digit, and I suspect it was not more than a couple hundred of these at most.
One other sort of unusual marking is that this is marked "Made in Italy" written in English,
as are about 50% of the examples that I can find photos of.
So I don't know if there was an attempt to import these into the US at some point,
sell them commercially in the US, it's certainly possible.
And that would explain why they wanted to have them marked "Made in Italy" in English,
but I don't have any actual documentation or evidence to explain why that marking is on some of them.
This is another one of those neat sort of early self-protection guns that don't really look like guns
sorts of things, like the "Little All Right", and the "Palm Protector", and the "Gaulois".
Just, like, mechanically interesting little guns. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.
[ sub by sk cn2 ]