Landstad Automatic Revolver
Halvard Folkestad Landstad’s 1900 pistol is a fascinating combination of design elements from revolvers and semi-automatic pistols. Designed during the late 1890s for military service, the Landstad Automatic Revolver proved to be overly complex and was ultimately rejected.
Landstad patented his design in several European countries including his native Norway, Great Britain and German. His Norwegian patent was granted in April 1899. The pistol combined a magazine with a more traditional revolving cylinder. The cylinder, however, was flat had just two chambers rather than five or six (see image #2). The pistol was 23cm long and weighed 1kg.
Once a magazine is loaded the rod beneath the barrel is retracted to charge the action. This pushes the bolt to the rear and as it returns it cocks the striker and strips a round from the magazine loading it into the lower of the two chambers. When the trigger is pulled the cylinder is rotated 180 degrees by a pawl indexing the loaded chamber with the striker. Once the trigger is fully pulled the striker is released and the weapon fired. Unlike other automatic revolvers the Landstad ejects spent cases. The bolt moves to the rear and the spent case is ejected. As the bolt returns forward the process repeated and a new round is loaded into the lower chamber.
The Lanstad pistol disassembled (source)
Landstad’s pistol chambered Emile Nagant’s 7.5mm 1882 Ordnance cartridge, using a curved box magazine (see image #3). With a magazine capacity of six rounds the Landstad pistol had little advantage over a more traditional revolver. The heavy trigger pull needed to index the cylinder for each shot had all the disadvantages of a double action revolver and none of the advantages of a semi-automatic pistol. What the unusual system did allow, however, was for the weapon to be carried fully loaded but without a round in the chamber preventing accidental discharge.
The pistol pistol failed to impress during trials and the Norwegian military rejected it. It seems that very few working prototypes were made. The Model No.1 pictured is the only Landstad pistol known to exist. The British NRA were given the prototype in 1955 following Landstad’s death and has since been purchased by a Norwegian collector.
‘Improvements in Automatic Revolvers’, H. F. Landstad, January 1900, UK Patent #22479 (source)
‘Selbstthatiger Revolver’, H. F. Landstad, August 1899, German Patent #114184 (source)
Pistols of the World, I.V. Hogg & J. Walter (2003)
Landstad 1900 Automatic Revolver, ForgottenWeapons, (source)
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