What are the lemons of the gun world

[Bon Sauvage]

IMO most any pepperbox in most any caliber is a lemon.

 

[retiredgal]

IMO most any pepperbox in most any caliber is a lemon.

Pepperbox ?

 

[Bon Sauvage]

George Bemis . . . wore in his belt an old original "Allen" revolver, such as irreverent people called a "pepper-box." Simply drawing the trigger back, cocked and fired the pistol. As the trigger came back, the hammer would begin to rise and the barrel to turn over, and presently down would drop the hammer, and away would speed the ball. To aim along the turning barrel and hit the thing aimed at was a feat which was probably never done with an "Allen" in the world. But George's was a reliable weapon, nevertheless, because, as one of the stage-drivers afterward said, "If she didn't get what she went after, she would fetch something else." And so she did. She went after a deuce of spades nailed against a tree, once, and fetched a mule standing about thirty yards to the left of it. Bemis did not want the mule; but the owner came out with a double-barreled shotgun and persuaded him to buy it, anyhow. It was a cheerful weapon--the "Allen." Sometimes all its six barrels would go off at once, and then there was no safe place in all the region round about, but behind it.
- Roughing It


It was sort of a revolver precursor where you had an elongated cylinder of several barrels that revolved instead of a smaller revolving cylinder and a barrel with a sight on it that we are familiar with today.

 

[retiredgal]

Thank you for the explanation . Do you apply that name to cheap guns today or specific types ?

 

[Bon Sauvage]

No. I just apply it to Ethan Allen pepper-boxes. I'm an old guy who likes old guns. The Starr double action .44 revolver was pretty much a lemon too.