The gun is called “lemon squeezer” because when the user break-opens the frame it exposes the cylinder and resembles a lemon squeezer.
“You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone,” once said prohibition-era gangster Al Capone.
Heritage Auctions has just listed a very special Harrington & Richardson top-break revolver that once belonged to none other than Al Capone. While he’s more frequently remembered for his hat and cigar, there’s little doubt that he knew his way around guns, too.
The revolver is a Harrington & Richardson Second Model chambered for .38 S&W with a 3 1/2-inch barrel. These were popular pistols at the time and H&R made them by the truckload. They can still be found today, usually for less than $200.
Of course, Capone’s Second Model is expected to fetch a higher price. The opening bid is $7,500 and the auction house predicts the gun will sell for $15,000 to $20,000.
The estimate may be on the conservative side. Capone’s property, especially his guns, are hard to come by. Combined with his legendary notoriety, Capone’s guns fetch high prices at auction.
Capone rose to a position of fame as a bootlegger, along with his syndicate, the Chicago outfit, which eventually became known as “The Capones.” Running underground alcohol during the Prohibition in Illinois was widely held to be a public service, although his reputation sank after the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was a gang-related shooting that lead to the ascension of the South Side Italian Gang over the North Side Irish Gang in Chicago in 1929. The massacre allowed the Capones to take over control of the city’s organized crime but cost Capone himself his reputation as a then-modern-day Robin Hood.
A Colt Police Positive .38 Special that once belonged to Capone sold for more than $100,000 just a few years ago at Christie’s.
Most of us know John Moses Browning was the genius behind iconic guns like the 1911, Browning Hi-Power and Browning M2 .50 cal machine gun all of which are still in use by various police departments and militaries around the world. Those were just the tip of the iceberg, John Browning developed quite a few guns in his time, here’s a list of his most notable designs.
U.S. M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun
FN Browning M1899/M1900
Colt Model 1900
Colt Model 1902
Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer (.38 ACP)
Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless (.32 ACP)
Colt Model 1905
Remington Model 8 (1906), a long recoil semi-automatic rifle
Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket (.25 ACP)
Colt Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless (.380 ACP)
FN Model 1910
U.S. M1911 pistol (.45 ACP)
Colt Woodsman pistol
Winchester Model 1885 falling-block single shot rifle
Winchester Model 1886 lever-action repeating rifle
Winchester Model 1887 lever-action repeating shotgun
Winchester Model 1890 slide-action repeating rifle (.22)
Winchester Model 1892 lever-action repeating rifle
Winchester Model 1894 lever-action repeating rifle
Winchester Model 1895 lever-action repeating rifle
Winchester Model 1897 pump-action repeating shotgun
Browning Auto-5 long recoil semi-automatic shotgun
U.S. M1917 water-cooled machine gun
U.S. M1919 air-cooled machine gun
U.S. M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)
U.S. M2 .50-caliber heavy machine gun of 1921 (the famed “Ma-Deuce” weapon)
Remington Model 8 semi-auto rifle
Remington Model 24 semi-auto rifle (.22) Also produced by Browning Firearms (as the SA-22) and several others
Browning Hi-Power (Grand Puissance or GP), the standard sidearm of many military and police forces
The Browning Superposed over/under shotgun was designed by John Browning in 1922 and entered production in 1931
Ithaca Model 37 pump-action repeating shotgunHe didn’t just makes guns, he also developed the following cartridges:
.25 ACP
.32 ACP
.38 ACP
9mm Browning Long
.380 ACP
.45 ACP
.50 BMG
Let’s say you need to kill a vampire. The National Firearms Museum has just the thing: The Vampire Hunter’s Colt Detective Special includes everything you need to make the undead more dead. Click each picture below to see the amazing detail.
The ultimate sidearm for any vampire hunter, this elaborately engraved, silver-plated Colt .38 Special Detective Special revolver is fitted within a coffin-shaped ebony case that holds holy water, mirror, a wooden stake and silver bullets cast in the shape of miniature vampire heads. The gothic engraving by Francolini includes bats on the cylinder, a cross at the muzzle, and a rampant colt on a coffin.
It’s probably banned in New York.
Marine Corps special operators will be outfitted with Colt M45 close quarters battle pistols — the first Marines to have Colts in 30 years.