| Danish 1865/97 revolver | |
| Origin: | Denmark |
| Wars: | World War II |
| Type: | Revolver |
| Number: | 952 |
| Production Date: | 1897-1899 |
The Danish 1865/97 revolver was a revolver used in the Danish armed forces from 1897 to 1946 as a reserve sidearm not distributed to frontline infantry and instead given to other military units like the artillery who otherwise would not have firearms for self defence.[1] [2] [3]
The 1865/97 Danish revolver was the 1865 Danish pinfire revolver converted to Centrefire.[1] [2] The original 1865 Danish revolver was the first revolver of the Danish military and so its first repeating side arm.[3] The revolver itself was designed by the gunsmith Georg Christensen stepson of another gunsmith Löbenitz.[3] Georg Christensen ran the gun shop at St. Kongensgade 33 that he inherited from his stepfather.[3] The gun shop was only small being a shop so the model 1865 revolver he designed was mass manufactured at the Kronberg Gevaerfabrik where his stepfather used to work.[3] Approximately 1,000 model 1865 revolvers were manufactured.[3] The revolver was in a 12mm calibre and used pinfire ammo.[3] In the 1880s new revolvers entered service with the Danish army that made the model 1865 obsolete and the revolvers were held in reserve at Kjøbenhavns Tøjhus.[3]
The reserve 1865 revolvers were still used by parts of the Danish military that could not get guns otherwise like artillerymen.[1] This led to them being updated in 1897 at where they were held at Kjøbenhavns Tøjhus by converting the model 1865 pinfire revolver to centrefire creating the model 1865/97 centrefire revolver.[3] The new centrefire bullets used in the new 1865/97 revolver had a uniquely Danish design with a wooden core and nickel casing and was in .45 calibre(roughly around 11.5 mm) . During the conversion a trigger guard was added and the folding trigger on the gun locked in place.[3] Out of the 1000 model 1865 revolvers available to the Danish military 850 were converted to 1865/97 models in 1897.[3] In 1899 52 more revolvers were converted to 1865/97 models except the folding trigger remained unchanged.[3] These were shipped to the West Indies (most probably to the Danish colony there).[3] Leading to a total of 952 1865 model revolvers being converted to 1865/97 model out of the 1000 originally available to the Danish military.
A number of sources said that these revolvers served with Danish artillery units in their time of service(1897-1946).