[ Luxembourg 1884 Gendarmerie Nagant ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and today we are taking a look
at a Luxembourg Gendarmerie Model of 1884,
(sort of, I'll get to that) Nagant revolver
with an adorable tiny bayonet on it.
Now you may recall I did a video on one of these
revolvers a little while back, but this ... time I actually
have one with the bayonet and the attachment.
So I definitely wanted to show that to you guys.
When I filmed the first video frankly I didn't think I'd ever get a chance to see
one of these in person, they're incredibly rare.
So in the previous video I discussed some of the development of
the Nagant revolver lockwork and the system, and so I'll abbreviate that.
If you're interested check out the previous video, I'll link to it in the end cards of this one.
What I want to do instead is focus on some of the
Luxembourg specific information regarding this pattern.
And I want to correct two little mistakes that I had in the previous video.
So the first one is that this is a "Model of 1884".
Now these were delivered starting in 1884, they were ordered in 1883.
But as far as anyone has been able to tell, they actually were
never given an official designation by the Luxembourg Gendarmerie.
So "Model 1884" is the designation that's come into use in the collector's field,
because, well, it's accurate and it's descriptive, and you have to call them something.
But I suspect the Luxembourg Gendarmerie officers themselves
simply called these "the revolvers" because this was their revolver.
Now what's interesting about these to me is in 1883 Luxembourg ordered
guns for both its Gendarmerie and its Army officers, and they got different patterns.
So the Gendarmerie got a version with a bayonet with a little bit longer barrel
to allow the bayonet, which I'll show you in a moment, and in calibre 9.4mm.
This is the same 9.4mm that the Dutch and the Belgians used in their revolvers.
The Luxembourg Gendarmerie had a ... slightly different loading of the cartridge,
we're talking like paper patched instead of not.
But the cartridge is essentially identical and interchangeable with the Belgian and the Dutch 9.4.
The Army however, decided that it was going to get a 7.5mm Nagant revolver.
Kind of ignoring the fact that there wasn't one yet.
The Swedes ... had also ordered a 7.5mm revolver,
and they were in the process of getting them produced and developed by the Nagant brothers.
And it appears that Luxembourg saw that and went, "Yes, we like that idea."
Why they wanted different calibres for the Army and the Gendarmerie is not clear,
but they would order those 7.5mm revolvers.
But not get them for another 6 years,
until Nagant was done ... developing them then producing them for Sweden.
And then they got around to the Luxembourg Army order.
Which was by the way a tiny order, a couple of hundred guns, I don't know the exact number.
As for the Gendarmerie guns, they were delivered basically right away
because the cartridge already existed.
In 1884 they got 160 delivered, and in 1887 they got another 50 delivered.
I think there was probably another small batch in there somewhere,
because recorded serial numbers start in the single digits and run up to 206.
Suggesting there were more than just 190 guns.
Anyway, let's go ahead and take a closer look at this so I can show you what the bayonet is.
I still can't tell you exactly why the bayonet, but we can show you what it is.
It is not particularly common to run into a handgun with a bayonet.
I know I've seen some advertised today that you would maybe think of as a joke.
But the Luxembourg Gendarmerie didn't take this as an actual joke, they issued these seriously.
There is obviously some good question as to ... like, "What's the real benefit of having this?"
But I suppose it does give you sort of a less lethal option,
aside from hitting someone with the gun,
that you can give them a little gentle prodding with the bayonet
and perhaps encourage someone to be a little more obedient.
At any rate, a couple of technical differences between this and the Army pattern guns.
The biggest one is (ha, the biggest one) is that the barrel is actually 20mm longer.
And the reason for that is you've got this bayonet adapter
which is just screwed onto the front of the gun.
And these, by the way, are fairly often missing.
So all of the Gendarmerie guns had the bayonets on them,
but later owners took them off because it's kind of clumsy and awkward.
And if you just want a handy target shooting revolver, well it didn't seem to be anything special.
So the issue with this is it gets in the way of the ejector rod.
So if you don't lengthen the barrel, you ... wouldn't be able to pull the ejector rod
far enough forward to actually rotate it out and use it.
Now on one of the normal guns the front sight's sitting up here,
but there's nothing underneath, and so the barrel can be a little shorter.
On these, they had to extend it.
The bayonet itself is a little cruciform spike,
it is all of 5.25 inches long, and held in place by this little flat spring.
I can pull that out, it's just a little notch there to retain it.
... Oh, and notice the bayonets are serial numbered.
This is 106, which does actually match both the gun and the bayonet holder.
There is the serial number on the bayonet holder.
And there's the number on the gun itself.
Anyway, with something like this you would normally expect that if you didn't want
to have it in position, which most of the time you wouldn't,
the obvious thing would be just like reverse it around and store it under the barrel.
But you can't do that because of, again, the ejector rod.
So instead the Gendarmerie holsters
had a special extra little pocket in them for storing the bayonet.
They were also built a little bit wider at the muzzle
to allow this whole block to fit into the holster.
Unfortunately I don't have a holster here to show you.
But I do have a few pictures of one so you can take a look at what the design was.
It's a full flap holster. Aside from the separate little pocket for the bayonet,
the other interesting thing to me is that it has space for 6 cartridges
that are actually done in the form of 6 individual little pockets for individual cartridges.
The Army holsters are almost identical to the Gendarmerie holsters,
same little 6 individual cartridge pockets,
same full flap design, just without the bayonet pocket.
One other little detail to note: to help you line up the bayonet correctly
there is a flat surface right here on the holder.
And on the bayonet, in addition to that notch for the retention spring,
we also have a little flat cut right there that matches that ledge.
So when you install this ...
you have to line that flat up, right there.
And then it will lock securely into position.
There aren't any really distinguishing marks on these to call them out as Luxembourg guns.
They ... are marked "Brevet Nagant" on the side, that's Nagant patent.
They are of course serialised.
And you'll have serial numbers in a couple of places there.
You have a few proof marks, ... this one's faded down a bit,
that's star over N, I believe right there. Or Z.
And then if you take the side plates off, which on this one unfortunately I can't,
but under the grip panel here the gun is serialised again.
And it will have a big capital letter "L" over the serial number.
And again I have a couple of pictures of some other examples aside from this one.
But that is the one Luxembourg specific mark.
Which isn't on the outside of the gun, but it is there if you take the thing apart to look for it.
And beyond that we have a pretty basic,
pretty typical for the time period 6 shot, 9.4mm, double-action revolver.
Officially these revolvers were replaced in Gendarmerie service
in 1903 by the FN Model of 1900 pistol.
And essentially taken out of service there.
Although interestingly, they brought a couple of dozen of them back into service in 1929.
And they would remain officially in service until 1940
when the Germans disarmed all the Luxembourg armed forces.
Probably those were revolvers that were used just for target practice and training
so that they could put the modern FN semi-autos out on the street,
not have to reserve them back in the armoury.
Anyway, these are exquisitely rare guns.
Very grateful to the owner of this one for giving me the opportunity to film it.
I wanted to ... for sure show you guys that bayonet.
Thanks for watching.