Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I'm here today at the Rock Island Auction
company where we are taking a look at a German Scheintod revolver.
This is kind of like the hundred years ago equivalent
of carrying pepper spray or a ... stun gun of some sort.
This was designed to be a less lethal defensive tool,
defensive weapon, and the name actually kind of says it all
right there in a wonderfully German way.
Scheintod translates into, roughly speaking, like
the appearance of death, or to spread it out longer, like,
you think this would actually kill you but it really won't. Scheintod.
Which is just really cool.
So this is a gigantic five-shot, pepperbox style revolver. Let's just go ahead and take a look at it up close.
Technically speaking, this is a pepperbox rather than a proper revolver because it doesn't have a barrel.
It simply has a rotating cylinder.
This is a very long cylinder, this is like 70 [millimetres], a little under three inches long.
Calibre is 12mm, or approximately .410 gauge.
It loads from the back.
And then it has a folding trigger here. Double action
or single action.
And then you can fold the trigger up, stuff this thing in your pocket, although it's rather large and heavy for a pocket.
But this is one of the larger versions of this sort of gun out there.
And, in fact, I don't know if gun is even really the right term, because this was not intended to fire any sort of actual projectile.
These were intended to fire basically irritant cartridges.
So there were some versions that are ... often referred to as flare launchers,
but they're not really flares, think of them more as flashbangs.
The idea being you had a cartridge containing some very bright burning substance,
and when you pulled the trigger on the thing you'd get a loud bang and a bright flash,
and that was intended to frighten off an attacker, or someone who had broken into your home, something like that.
Those were maybe of dubious actual effectiveness, and
the other option for a less lethal weapon of this sort was an irritant cartridge.
So it would basically fire a big cloud of, not CS, that hadn't really been invented yet, but
cayenne pepper, tobacco powder, things that you don't want, you know,
exploded in your face at high velocity. And that was intended not to be lethal at all,
but simply to make someone reconsider whatever they were doing at the time.
So this does also have a safety, I should have pointed that out.
That safety locks up the hammer assembly so you can't fire it.
... Not a bad idea, you don't want this necessarily going off in your pocket. That would be unpleasant.
At any rate, this is a particularly huge version. Not in great shape, but a really cool example of the type.
We can take a quick look at the markings here.
The grips are molded with the name Scheintod Revolver, this I'm sure is someone's trademark,
although I don't know exactly which company.
And then a little more decoratively down here we have Scheintod Revolver
and this dancing skeleton like "Psych, you thought you were gonna die, but you're not."
It's interesting that there is a three barreled version of this, not a revolver,
but three barrels stacked up one on top of each other, with an almost identical logo.
The same skeleton, but instead of revolver says "Scheintod Repetier Pistole",
or repeating pistol, like a multi barrel thing.
We have the same marks on the other grip panel. Actually that skeleton's ... in a little better shape.
And then there are no manufacturer's marks at all. No calibre marks, no other marks at all that I can find,
except for a German proof here on the cylinder and another German crown over "U" proof on the frame.
So these sorts of irritant launchers ... they were introduced in the years before World War One,
remained popular after the war, especially through the 1920s.
How effective they were is maybe not directly related to how popular they were.
I have a hard time seeing this being super effective, but you know the combination of a big cloud of
obnoxious stuff in your face and a loud bang, it might be effective in some situations.
So you will find them in a wide variety of configurations.
There are some pepperboxes like this, there are some that are true revolvers that actually have barrels,
and then there are a bunch of them that are actually multi-barrel repeating pistols.
So two barrel and three barrel, typically it's stacked vertically.
And manufacturers in Germany, in Belgium, these were inexpensive, cheaply made, and widely available.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video, it's kind of cool to get a chance to look at,
you know, the 100 years ago version of the things that we have today.
If you'd like to follow the Rock Island Auction Company more closely,
I have links in the description text below to their YouTube channel
and their Instagram page where you can keep track of everything that they're doing.
Thanks for watching.