The Mars Pistol
 

Have there been any good publications written about Hugh Gabbet-Fairfax and the development of the Mars Pistol? Such a fascinating pistol for, especially for its day. I find the comments about the Mars Pistol, as per the Wiki site: ""No one who fired once with the pistol wished to shoot it again". Shooting the Mars pistol was described as "singularly unpleasant and alarming"."

That alone warrants further investigation!

I know Mars Pistols are among the most rare of any pistol, specifically the early automatics, so most of us will never get to see one up close so reading is the next best thing.

Jerry

There is a 4 page section with 2 pics and some diagrams devoted to it in Ed Ezell's Handguns of the world.

Here is one for your viewing pleasure http://www.horstheld.com/0-Mars.htm

Yep, I've seen Mr Held's site. He has some nice specimens in his collection. I once acquired a C96 from him. Jerry

There's about 3/4 page in Hogg's Pistols Of The World, plus a couple B&W pics...

Forgotten Weapons has a PDF manual and a couple paragraphs + pics of a Mars pistol...Interesting/amusing comment - "...the extreme cycling of the weapon (the bolt would pass halfway over the firer’s forearm), and the overly complicated design doomed it to be rejected."

Yes, that would convince me... :D

http://www.forgottenweapons.com/mars-pistol

I remember reading about these in a book when I was a kid. Even then I thought "WoW!"

It's a sort of hand held field artillery gun. I'm sure that whoever was put forward for testing it would not have done it at a voluntary basis :)

... :d ...