Very Odd Borchardt...

[Pete Ebbink]

Very Odd Borchardt now on the UK deactivated web site...claimed to be Bill Cody's modified rig...

http://www.deactivated-guns.co.uk/detail/Borchardt.htm

[policeluger]

Mrs. PL is a very serious collector of Buffalo Bill, the famous Wild West Showman. She says, Do not confuse William F. Cody known as "Buffalo Bill Cody" with Samuel F. Cody. Although they have similiar appearance they are not the same person. Samuel deliberately nutured confusion in the minds of people making them think he was Buffalo Bill, although Samuel did travel with a wild west show he is not the Famous showman. The gun would have more interest and value had it belonged to "Buffalo Bill" instead of Samuel Cody.

[Pete Ebbink]

Thanks for straightening out my confusion, Howard...

Never knew there were two...

Here is some info on the "imposter"...

http://www.heureka.clara.net/surrey-hants/cody.htm

http://www.design-technology.org/cody.htm

After my 2 minute investment in a Google search...can I call myself a Cody historian...

Nevertheless, quite the odd looking pistol for sale...

[Rod WMG]

Pete, thanks for the additional info! I knew that this wasn't William F. when I read your post yesterday, but didn't know who this man was. Interesting the apparent physical similarities. Course the hair and beard help and hide a lot.

That old weapon seemed to lend itself to shoulder stocking very well, didn't it? That seems a much more useful stock (more akin to a rifle) to me than the typical stocks attached to C-96's and Lugers. It may not have worked out any better in the end, but it gives me the impression that it would.

[Ponyman]

It's amazing to see the number of features GL borrowed from the Borchardt! I had seen photos of the left side before, but not the top or the right side. Sort of like looking at a picture of your father when he was a boy, and knowing yourself much better.

The stock has the appearance of being "too long". The wrist looks like it's a "normal" distance from the buttplate - but the trigger isn't reachable if your hand is on the wrist. Was it intended to be used with the shooting arm in the same position as is used when aiming a pistol without the stock - nearly straight-arm? The stocks issued with some of the Lugers result in a more comfortabe "bent-elbow" position.

Was the Bochardt a locked toggle action (middle axle below the other two), or did it require the toggle lock to keep it closed until the slide traveled far enough aft?

[Ron Wood]

Dave,

The stock was fabricated to look like a "normal" stock but was never intended to be grasped by the shooting hand at the wrist because, as you have noted, you would not be able to reach the trigger (unless you were ET!). Its length certainly suggests that it was designed to provide a "straight arm" hold.

The Borchardt was a locked toggle action. However, it did employ a toggle lock which, like the 1900 Model Luger, was superfluous since the middle axle was below the other two. It required a roller at the back of the rear toggle link to cam the toggle joint upward during recoil and unlock the action.

Even though Sam Cody exploited the showmanship and style of Bill Cody, his Borchardt is none the less historically significant, and pictures of this gun have appeared in gun references on several occasions over the years. Sad that it has been deactivated, but even at roughly $10,500 it belongs in an advanced collection.

[Pete Ebbink]

Hi Ron,

If you go to the following main page, you will see the entrie gun listing...some items say they are deactivated...others do not say they are...

This one was not indicated as being deactivated...so might be worth the cost of an interested collector in exporting it out of the UK...

http://www.deactivated-guns.co.uk/deactivatedguns.htm

[Dwight Gruber]

From the website, note the end (Italics mine).

--Dwight

"Extremely rare 1894 Borchardt pistol by the Ludwig Loewe company (around 700 were made}, marked on top of the chamber 'Waffenfabrik Loewe Berlin', 'DRP 75837'. This is the father of the Luger and George Luger used the toggle mechanism in his later design for the PO8. This example was owned by the American showman and aviator 'Colonel' Samuel F Cody, who used it in his wild west shows. He had the custom oversize grips added and extra long wooden stock (He was a big man). The gun stayed in the Cody family until 1996 when it was sold at Sotheby's. In cowboy clothes and a stetson hat, with shoulder length hair and an extravagant moustache, the big Texan cut an outlandish figure. It was not hard to believe he had at one time been a performer in a travelling wild west show called 'The Klondyke Nugget' (as he had in the 1890s). However, it was this same man whose man-lifting kite design was accepted by the Army in 1904. Cody was retained at Aldershot to experiment with aeroplanes. On 16 October 1908, he rewarded his employer's faith by achieving the first flight in Britain, at Farnborough a few miles away. His machine was a massive Wright-based biplane nick-named The Cathedral. Cody's outgoing personality endeared him to the public and in 1909 he became a British citizen In 1911. Cody was killed in 1913 when a machine he was testing for that year's Circuit of Britain broke up in mid-air. A rare gun with a facinating history. Deactivated with a full working action, fully strippable and it can be cocked and dry fired.

[Pete Ebbink]

Thanks, Dwight...I should always read through to the last sentence...