Apparatus Insignis: Remington’s Double Derringer, An Idea Too Good To Die

From a new regular column in American Handgunner, the Apparatus Insignis feature dives into the history, engineering, functions and obscura of interesting guns from the past and sometimes present.

You know a firearm is iconic when it represents an entire class of weapons. Such is the case with a little two-shot, over-and-under .41 Short Rimfire, variously called a Remington Model 95, Remington-Elliot Derringer, Remington Double Derringer, or most commonly, simply … a derringer. Most of us know it from Western genre cinema and television, but it was famous before motion pictures. Its design was patented in 1865 by William H. Elliot, a New York dentist. He was granted over 130 patents for his firearms inventions, and his accomplishments are worthy of book-length studies, but the double derringer was his most enduring.