[intro music imitating gunfire]
[intro music]
[gunshot sound]
[music fades out]
Hi, guys. Thanks for tuning in to another video episode on Forgotten Weapons.
I'm here at Rock Island Auction taking a look at some of the cool stuff that is going to be up for sale
in the September 2014 premiere auction.
And one of the items we have to take a look at...
This is an interesting, controversial thing.
This is a Nazi SS belt buckle pistol.
Really cool mechanism.
The interesting question is, what is the history of them?
Alright, let's start by looking at the mechanics of this piece,
'cause there's no arguing that that is a really cool part of it.
We have this cover, which conceals a four-barrel mechanism, four triggers.
And when you want to use it, what you do is grab this tab down here, this tab up here,
squeeze them together, and out pops...
[loud click]
your barrel mechanism.
Let's do that again so you can see it.
[click]
Just like that.
You can see there's a little brass protector in here,
because this piece opens the top cover by scraping against it.
So that-that protects it.
Now, we have our four .22 caliber barrels,
and we have four firing pins, four striker springs,
and four release triggers.
When you want to fire, you just press in one or all of these.
[loud click]
You can see the- the firing pin striker comes forward.
That operates a firing pin under this side, which we'll take a look at in a moment.
- You can do that to... - [click, click, click]
all four of them.
Now, to re-cock the mechanism, to extract the empty shells, and to close it...
we have this lever over on the side here.
Pull that out, and then you can push this down.
[click]
Pushing it down, uh, re-cocks all four of the strikers.
In fact, it's very simple to see how that works.
- You have... - [soft metallic taps]
a little pin right in there and this detent hole.
And when the gun is fully open...
[click]
that pin locks in there.
That's important so that when you fire one barrel you don't jar this component,
maybe cause one of the shells to come partially out, or, um, tilt it back partially inwards
where you'll miss your target.
Now...
[click]
You close it, you can see...
four little firing pins in there. It's rim fire, of course.
These barrels are smooth bore.
[soft whisper] Okay.
And there is no mechanical extractor.
There is a little notch, um, above each chamber so that you can pull the empty cases out.
They're very heavy. This whole mechanism is...
uh, it's very solidly built. It's a lot heavier than you would expect.
[click]
That's just cool to do.
Now, the markings on it. Of course, these are common.
Th-these are- these markings are shared
among, uh,
several of the-the belt buckle guns made in this style.
Uh, BLN, 44, a pair of SS runes.
Um, and then R.V.F.Z. Serial number, in this case, 1/L.
Now, what makes this curious, um, I have not been able to determine what R.V.F.Z. is supposed to stand for.
Um, there are some theories on BLN, but nothing known for sure.
Um, the serial numbers are not just a number, but they also include this letter.
Uh, for example, number five is marked 5/C. This is, of course, 1/L.
And then there are serial numbers on all the other major parts,
which you'd kind of expect of a German manufacturer.
There's one here, the barrel mechanism,
this latch,
uh, this side of the strap,
these plates on the back.
Uh, the back plate itself.
Alright, so to take a look at the re-cocking mechanism I'm gonna go ahead and fire the bottom barrel.
Uh, you can see...
we have a hook in the striker pin there. When I fire...
[click]
that pin drops in.
You can see the screw has gone all the way forward.
Now, I'm gonna pull this out and go to re-cock the mechanism.
First of all, you can see that this plate is going to push
the firing pin back.
And we can also watch it on the outside.
Right over here.
It's gonna come out, and the little hook on the trigger...
drops in.
[soft click]
Right there.
- Captures the firing pin. - [soft taps]
[click]
And then I can latch the barrels down with a little more movement.
Alright, so I figure first I'll give you the story from one side,
and then we'll go through the story from the other side.
The folks who say this is real say that Louis Marquis designed-
got the idea for a belt buckle pistol while he was a prisoner of war himself.
Uh, this is supported by the fact that he did, in fact, patent a belt buckle pistol in the 1930s.
Now, it was a totally different mechanism than this, but this- that man clearly had this idea.
Uh, anyway, the story goes that he then attracted the attention of the SS during World War II.
They had an interest in a last-ditch weapon for officers to prevent capture.
They commissioned him to manufacture these.
He made between five and twelve of them before his production facility was destroyed by Allied bombing.
And those are the only ones that survive today.
And they were contracted by upper echelons of the SS.
That's one side.
The other side says that, in a nutshell, they're all post-war fakes manufactured
to sell to people who wanted Nazi artifacts.
So the issue with the argument that these are le- are genuine and original
is pretty much one of a lack of hard documentation.
There just- no one's been able to find any- any documents that confirm the contract
or the SS interest,
or Marquis'- the existence of Marquis' factory.
There's a lot of rumor. There's a lot of hearsay. But there isn't any real hard documentation.
Now, that's not necessarily surprising given that these were being manufactured, theoretically,
during the middle of World War II. The- the whole place was being bombed by the Allies.
And it's not uncommon that records would've been destroyed, or
simply misplaced at some point.
And there isn't really any documentation to prove either side.
There are absolutely fake ones out there.
What interests me about this particular one is that it's consistent with several other known examples.
Um, they were clearly made by the same person.
Whether that person was Louis Marquis during the second world war...
isn't something you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Um, but the markings are all consistent.
The manufacturing techniques are consistent.
The characteristics of the guns are consistent.
So the rule with historical items like this has- is always
you buy the- the item, and you don't buy the story,
regardless of what the story is.
Um, there is, of course, a very small fraternity of people who own these.
Um, regardless of the history involved, they're very cool mechanically.
They're a really neat thing.
So, if you're interested in these and, um,
you either believe the story or you just want the item,
this will be available from Rock Island in their September premiere auction.
Thank you, guys, for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video.
Got to take a look at a very cool piece of
firearms esoterica here.
So tune back in for, uh, more Forgotten Weapons.
[outro music, same as intro]
[music fades]