I think that those who are interested in firearms have repeatedly come across references to compact revolvers as a means of self-defense, united by the general name Velo-Dog. This "name" was given to many compact revolvers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such a weapon was conceived as a means of protecting cyclists from dogs, but just as often, many seriously considered such a weapon as a remedy for a two-legged beast, by the way, in vain. In this article, we will try to get acquainted with the first Velo-Dog, which set the tone for other manufacturers and thanks to which, one might say, another subclass of weapons was born. It's about a revolver created by designer Charles François Galan.
Frankly, in my opinion, the designer saw the problem where it actually does not exist. So, apparently, being passionate about cycling, Galan decided to take care of cyclists who are not liked by human friends. For some reason, the gunsmiths who were always ready to fire at that time did not suit the gunsmith, and he decided to create his own lightweight and compact sample of self-defense from human friends. The main goals that the designer set for himself were: compact size, the absence of protruding parts for which clothes can catch on, a scanty weight and a weak cartridge (about the cartridge will be a little lower), apparently so that it would not just shoot at dogs, but what would an animal in the future I suffered a couple of hours. With all due respect to the gunsmith, for me personally, such a weapon seems barbaric in its purest form, if a dog walks without a leash, then you need to shoot not at the dog, but at its owner. Stray dogs are a separate topic. But back to arms. Interestingly, the designer's first revolver was not so unusual. Of course, the weapon was not quite the usual look, but at least it had a safety clip. The trigger of the revolver was hidden by not the most attractive "hump". The revolver itself was very small in size and weight. Further, the desire to remove all protruding parts and reduce weight with dimensions pushed the designer to a not entirely deliberate decision. The weapon lost its safety guard, and also received a folding trigger. Thus, the revolver became practically a useless piece of iron, since when the dog attacked, it was required, in addition to removing the weapon from the pocket, to spend time preparing it for the shot. Needless to say, such a means of self-defense has shown its effectiveness in very rare isolated cases. The cartridge used in the revolver also did not go to the advantage of efficiency.
The desire to make the weapon compact enough led to the fact that the existing options for ammunition were rejected by the designer and he had to invent a new cartridge that would be thin enough not to increase the dimensions of the drum, but at the same time powerful enough. The only option was to create ammunition in a thin long sleeve, which was done by the designer. The basis for the cartridge was a cylindrical sleeve with a welt with a central battle primer. It contained a small charge of gunpowder, as well as a wide variety of types of bullets. Separately, it is worth noting that there were ammunition filled with sand or salt instead of a bullet, and the latter were even more effective than shell bullets, despite the fact that the salt charge did not penetrate deep into the enemy's body and actually excluded any serious injuries. True, the effectiveness of such ammunition was inversely proportional to the layers of clothing and the thickness of the attacker's skin. In terms of its effectiveness, the ammunition turned out to be similar to.22LR, that is, practically ineffective, although when using shell bullet wound channels were deeper, but the deformation of the bullet was minimal. The weight of a standard bullet was 2.8 grams. The kinetic energy of the bullet did not even reach 100 Joules. It is not difficult to estimate the effectiveness of this ammunition when shooting at a really angry dog weighing more than 40 kilograms, but for shooting rat-like smaller friends, the cartridge would be quite effective. Looking ahead, we can say that the ammunition was not suitable for protection from people either. In general, the cartridge is unusual, interesting, but unsuitable for purposes larger than a cat, let's return to the revolver.
The end result of the designer's creativity, who made really very good samples of weapons, can be somewhat shocking and disgusting, nevertheless, the consumer fell in love with the weapon, which, to be honest, strange, however, then many strange things found public recognition. In general, looking at any revolver with a hidden trigger, there is a feeling that something is wrong with it, but looking at Velo-Dog Galand I want to quote one famous character: “Now Humpback! I said HUMP !!! Indeed, the hump over the hidden trigger does not seem to stand out, but somehow disfigures the weapon. Even the artistic decoration for which a lot of space appeared on the surface of the weapon does not save, although if we take the decoration as a whole, then one cannot fail to note the skill of the people of that time. The picture is complemented by an overly long drum of the weapon. If you take modern revolvers for rifle cartridges, and there are such, or revolvers just for long ammunition, then everything looks unusual, but harmonious, in our case it does not. Perhaps the reason for this is the short barrel of the revolver, which was comparable in length to the length of the drum. The picture was completed by a folding trigger, which folded under the frame of the weapon and was not fixed by anything except its tight move. The pistol grip did not spoil the overall appearance, but it didn’t make it better either; very often it was also decorated with artistic carvings. The barrel of the pistol had an octagonal cross-section, it had a rounded front sight, a rear sight was made on the frame by the tide. Under the barrel there was a ramrod on the drum axis with which the spent cartridges were pushed out one by one. On the right side, behind the drum, there was a folding door through which the weapon was reloaded one cartridge at a time. On the outer surface of the drum, in addition to cutouts for fixing the drum during a shot, there were also cutouts to lighten the weight of the weapon as a whole. Being a new weapon, although it was unusual, it still looked quite tolerable, but when the weapon was worn for a long time in a bag or pocket with other items, and even more so it was regularly used, it very quickly lost its presentation and turned into a product reminiscent of the work of an unwary milling machine operator, to which the fault is too soft metal, which, however, did not cause low reliability and durability in view of the weak cartridge.
Despite its unusual appearance in terms of its design, the weapon was quite common. So the basis of the revolver was a self-cocking firing mechanism without the possibility of a preliminary cocking of the trigger, since the trigger was hidden in the frame of the weapon. This left an imprint on the convenience of handling the revolver, in particular, when reloading, it was required to turn the drum, which was only possible by pressing the trigger. Thus, if you fired 1 time, then it was not possible to remove the spent cartridge case and replace it with a new cartridge, without removing the drum completely from the weapon frame, or without firing off the remaining ammunition. Even despite the fact that in self-defense, a quick reload is not needed, since there is no time for it, the subsequent fiddling with a revolver clearly gave little pleasure to the owners of the weapon. The choice of ammunition for the first shot was excluded, because the first one could make a "warning" shot with salt or sand, but it was impossible to immediately switch to bullet cartridges without prior firing. It is worth returning to the design of the revolver trigger. Since the trigger was fixed in its extreme positions only due to its tight stroke, over time it loosened up and could open on its own, respectively, an accidental pressing could occur, which would lead to a shot. One effort when the trigger was pulled was not enough for the designer to ensure the safety of handling the weapon, for this reason a safety lock was introduced into the design of the pistol, blocking the trigger. Thus, in order to make a shot, a person must first unfold the trigger, remove the weapon from the safety catch, and only then shoot. I am already silent about such trifles as remembering that you have a revolver, get it out and aim. In general, it somehow does not fit with the fact that this revolver was supposed to be a means of self-defense for a cyclist. When the trigger is pulled, the drum turns, cocks and cocks the hammer. In the extreme rear position of the trigger, the drum is fixed, and the hammer breaks down and hits the primer. In general, everything is simple to disgrace. Thus, you can fire five shots in a row, then you will have to remove the spent cartridges one by one with the help of a ramrod and insert new cartridges in their place, which is naturally difficult in self-defense.
The advantages of this revolver include its really low weight, which is only 300 grams. With dimensions, not everything is so simple, on the one hand, they are not so big, on the other hand, they could be smaller. So the length of the weapon is 132 millimeters with a barrel length of 47 millimeters. The drum with five chambers was quite enough to provide a rebuff to the attacker, of course, provided that normal ammunition was used, which, as we know, was not. The weapon did not really have any parts that could catch on to the clothes, nevertheless, many carried this pistol in a kind of wallets, which further increased the time to prepare the weapon for a shot. Also, the pluses include almost no recoil when shooting. It is also separately noted that the revolver was comfortable enough to hold, despite its low weight.
Weapons have a lot more minuses than pluses and they are more significant. First of all, it should be noted the very long time of bringing the weapon into combat readiness, which excludes its use as a means of self-defense, at least by a person who has an instinct for self-preservation and at least a spinal cord. It is very, very naive to hope that the weapon will be used. Even the streamlined shape of the revolver will not save - the front sight is good and large. The revolver could be much more useful if the shot could be fired immediately, even if the ammunition remained the same. In the end, the sound of a shot is the sound of a shot, his attacker can get scared, and it is not superfluous to simply attract attention when attacking. The cartridge used in the revolver is already its second main disadvantage. Well, the secondary ones include the appearance of the weapon, soft metal, and so on.
This revolver was used, oddly enough, almost for its purpose, namely for self-defense. Or rather, not for self-defense, but for the complacency of the owner of this weapon, who seemed to be armed. The effectiveness of using this revolver against dogs that are larger than cats is zero, with people it is not so simple. A hit in the eye and groin is guaranteed to incapacitate a person, but try again. Despite this, such weapons have become very popular and widespread. Literally a year after the appearance of the Velo-Dog revolver, the market was oversaturated with similar weapons from different manufacturers. In honor of the fact that the development of Galan was the first, people dubbed all these revolvers "velodogs", despite the fact that the weapon was useless for the purposes that the designer set for himself during the design. In general, you can look at such samples either with a smile or with contempt, but they were, became widespread and gave impetus to the creation of the same small pistols, under similar absolutely ineffective cartridges in the future.
