The British Bull Dog was a popular type of solid-frame pocket

revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating firearm, repeating handgun that has at least one gun barrel, barrel and uses a revolving cylinder (firearms), cylinder containing multiple chamber (firearms), chambers (each holding a single ...

introduced by Philip Webley & Son of Birmingham, England, in 1872, and subsequently copied by gunmakers in continental Europe and the United States.Dowell, p. 68. It featured a barrel and was chambered for

.442 Webley The .442 Webley (also known as the ".442 Revolver Centre Fire" in Great Britain, the .442 Rook long (kangaroo) in Australia, the "10.5x17mmR" or ".442 ''Kurz''" in Europe, and ".44 Webley" or ".442 R.I.C." in the United States) is a British cen ...

.450 Adams The .450 Adams was a British black powder centrefire revolver cartridge, initially used in converted Beaumont–Adams revolvers, in the late 1860s. Officially designated .450 Boxer Mk I, and also known variously as the .450 Revolver, .450 Colt ...

cartridges, with a five-round cylinder. Webley produced smaller scaled .320 Revolver and .380 calibre versions later, but did not mark them with the British Bull Dog name.

History

The design of the British Bull Dog revolver had been in existence since 1868, but Henry Webley registered the trademark in 1878. From that time to the present, the term has come to mean any short barrelled double-action revolver with a swing-out ejector rod and a short grip. Intended to be carried in a coat pocket, many have survived to the present day in good condition, having seen little actual use. The design originated in 1868 for the Webley

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ga, Constáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the country was part of the United Kingdom. A separate ...

model revolver and was manufactured as late as 1917. A version made by Webley, but finished by Belfast-based gunmaker, Joseph Braddell, known as the Ulster Bull Dog, used a longer grip frame than the standard, making the revolver easier to control and shoot. The Bulldog was popular in Britain and America. US Army general,

George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...

, was said to have carried a pair at the

Battle of the Little Bighorn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, No ...

. British Bull Dog revolvers were issued to employees of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company until 1895.

Imitations

Numerous copies and variants of this design (authorized and unauthorized) were made in Belfast, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Pakistan, France and the United States during the late 19th century. American copies were manufactured by the firms of Forehand & Wadsworth,

Iver Johnson Iver Johnson was an American firearms, bicycle, and motorcycle manufacturer from 1871 to 1993. The company shared the same name as its founder, Norwegian-born Iver Johnson (1841–1895). The name was resold, and Iver Johnson Arms opened i ...

and

Harrington & Richardson H&R 1871, LLC, or more commonly known as Harrington & Richardson, is an American brand of firearms and a subsidiary of JJE Capital Holdings. H&R ceased production February 27, 2015. History The original H&R firm was in business for over a cent ...

. Belgian and American versions (aka: Frontier Bulldogs) were chambered for the .44 S&W American or

cartridges. The

.44 Bull Dog The .44 Bull Dog was an American Centerfire ammunition, centerfire revolver Cartridge (firearms), cartridge produced from the 1880s until the 1930s.Barnes, p.170, ".44 Bulldog". Description No known firearm was chambered exclusively for the .44 ...

was a popular American cartridge that was a shorter and less powerful cartridge that could also be fired from .442 Webley caliber revolvers. In 1973

Charter Arms Charter Arms Co. is an American manufacturer of revolvers. Since its founding in 1964, Charter Arms has produced revolvers chambered in the following calibers: .22 Long Rifle, .22 Winchester Magnum, .32 Long, .32 H&R Magnum, .327 Federal Mag ...

introduced their

Bulldog The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is of medium size, a muscular, hefty dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose.Charles J. Guiteau used a

British Bulldog revolver to

assassinate Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...

United States President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

James A. Garfield at the Baltimore of Potomac Railroad Station in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

on 2 July 1881. Guiteau was a disgruntled lawyer, who was angry that Garfield had not appointed him to a federal post. Guiteau reportedly wanted a British Bulldog revolver with ivory grips instead of wooden ones, as he believed they would look nicer when the gun was displayed in a museum,Elman, p. 166. but decided not to spend the extra US $1 (equal to $ today) that the ivory-gripped model would have cost. Though he could not afford the extra dollar, the store owner dropped the price for him. In all, he paid $10 for the revolver, a box of cartridges and a penknife,Elman, p. 171. before spending the next day familiarising himself with the revolver's operation and firing 10 practice shots with it into trees along the banks of the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

.Elman, p. 166. He used the revolver to shoot Garfield a week or so later in the Sixth Street Railway Station in Washington, D.C. After Guiteau's trial, the revolver was placed in the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

but disappeared some time later.

Gallery

File:Guiteau cartoon2.jpg, 1881 cartoon of presidential assassin Charles Guiteau holding his Bulldog revolver File:Guiteau's pistol.jpg, 1881 sketch of Guiteau Bulldog pistol Image:GarfieldBD.jpg, Smithsonian file photograph of the British Bulldog revolver used by Charles Guiteau to assassinate President

James Garfield James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...

in 1881 File:Револьверы типа бульдог.jpg, Belgian clones of British Bulldog, late 1880s File:French proofed Bulldog revolver.jpg, Belgian proofed .44 caliber Bulldog 140 year old revolver with newly made ammunition

Notes

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:British Bulldog Revolver Revolvers of the United Kingdom Early revolvers Assassination of James A. Garfield Double-action revolvers Guns of the American West