Norwegian Military Revolvers

[Bob Riebe]

M1859 & M1864 Lefaucheux revolvers




Usually the Norwegian army was way ahead the navy on new models, but while the navy got their first shipment of the 11 mm Lefaucheux’s already in 1859, the army did not get theirs before a full five years later. ThIs is an ultra rare Norwegian Lefaucheux – produced at Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk. There were only made a couple of hundred of these.



The picture shows the main models used in Norway (click the picture to get a larger one). From the top: The navy’s M1850, Then a double-action officers revolver M1864 (also had octagonal barrels), a single-action enlisted men’s revolver M1864 (these also had some with octagonal barrels) and the Kongsberg produced one for the enlisted men at the bottom.

One interesting detail with the Norwegian used Lefaucheux’s is the strap mounted above the cylinder. One found the design to be too weak and strengthened is with this strap. Most Lefaucheux’s sold from the Norwegian armed forces have a lion stamped on the right side of the frame.


Examples of blank and ball loads of the Norwegian pinfire cartridges with the A headstamp.
 Also a rare example of a pinfire with the rampant lion headstamp.