Schutztruppen marked 1883 RR

[MichaelWC]

Well first things first. I won this 1883 Reichsrevolvers, or Der Revolver back in May 2021. When they say patience is a virtue you better believe it because I had a lot of patience. A lot of delays. A lot of emails. My packages even shipped to Chicago and never claimed and shipped back to South Africa. That was mainly because the auction house forgot to contact Simpson Limited who I used as an importer. All in all the shipment definitely tested my patience but I'm thankful it's finally here. The revolver itself is pretty functional everything is in somewhat good condition. You can tell the pistol had a hard life because of the dark colored grips and the bluing is pretty much gone.
Given the rarity of the revolver. The hard life look is okay with me.
The pistol was manufactured by V.C.S*C.C.H. Suhl. I'm not exactly sure what year it was manufactured. With some help from Chris. We determined that this revolver was a private purchase and it is a double action revolver. Probably privately purchased by an officer given the checkered grips often seen on officers models.
This is one of four 1883 revolvers I have documented. I have seen a fifth but I couldn't get its information.
?/V.C.S*C.C.H. Suhl/5/ K.S.12. (This revolver is a officer's model type.)
?/ V.C.S*C.C.H. Suhl/264/K.S.211 (This revolver is a double action private purchase 1883 revolver.)
?/V.C.S*C.C.H. Suhl/?/ K.S.102
?/V.C.S*C.C.H. Suhl/?/ K.S.202

1883 revolver is the German colonies.
By 1913 there was a total 745 revolvers in all the German colonies. In 10/1912 were issued: 251 revolver M/83 The inventory was: 199 M/83 and 23 M/79. In 1912, there were 494 Reichsrevolvers, 301 Roth-Sauers and 442 P08s in the inventory of the Landespolizei of GSWA.

 

[PatickD]

Amazing item. Does it need to be import marked, being an antique?

 

[chrisftk]

I'm glad it finally arrived Mike. This is what would be called the Offiziermodell. The checkered grips are the dead giveaway. These were commercial production that would have been intended for private purchase. There are also instances of these officer type revolvers being purchased directly by the military, but they would be properly proofed and accepted; and I believe all of those were single actions. I have a feeling this one was a pure commercial that belonged to an officer and happened to be unit marked. There's a chance that things could have operated a little bit differently with the colonial forces, but I'm going with my gut.

You can definitely tell it's double action by where the trigger sits. The single actions sit back a little further when at rest; whereas the double actions sit about halfway forward. You will also see some Suhler and Dreyse double actions with two triggers and even case rejectors.

The double actions are scarce on their own, coupled with a neat unit mark; it is even more special. Glad you got it.

 

[gunnertwo]

I'd say yes (unfortunately). Idiotic federal importation laws are the cause of that. It's not classified as a firearm because it's pre 1898- but still it must be marked. You vil obey all laws. A new friend moving from Canada had to have his Winchester M1866 import marked. Thankfully the importer does their marking very discreetly. The policy has no regard for the historical nature of the firearm.

BTW, nice RR!

G2

 

[fireman]

So very cool. Thank you for sharing that with us!

 

[MichaelWC]

I'm glad it finally arrived Mike. This is what would be called the Offiziermodell. The checkered grips are the dead giveaway. These were commercial production that would have been intended for private purchase. There are also instances of these officer type revolvers being purchased directly by the military, but they would be properly proofed and accepted; and I believe all of those were single actions. I have a feeling this one was a pure commercial that belonged to an officer and happened to be unit marked. There's a chance that things could have operated a little bit differently with the colonial forces, but I'm going with my gut.

You can definitely tell it's double action by where the trigger sits. The single actions sit back a little further when at rest; whereas the double actions sit about halfway forward. You will also see some Suhler and Dreyse double actions with two triggers and even case rejectors.

The double actions are scarce on their own, coupled with a neat unit mark; it is even more special. Glad you got it.

Thanks Chris. I am glad it finally came too.

So very cool. Thank you for sharing that with us!

Thank you.