M1893 7,5 mm Nagant revolver
The M1893 Nagant 7,5 mm revolver
The “Fabrique d’armes Emile et Léon Nagant” was located in Liege, Belgium – the World centre for development and production of firearms of the day. Nagant started out with various Remington mechanisms in all shapes and forms, but the first “true” Nagant revolver came already in 1878. In 1883 the Norwegian army ordered an unknown quantity of a 9 mm version as an officers revolver.
Norway purchased almost 13 000 of the M1893 7,5 mm revolver, an amazing number for a small country. Most of these came from Nagant, marked BREVET NAGANT on the left hand side of the frame. A limited quantity came from Husqvarna marked HUSQVARNA and a few were made or assembled at Kongsberg. The Kongsberg Nagants were virtually unmarked and only had the serialnumber and an approval mark (I would love to get hold of one of those).
Norway started a limited production of the M1911 Colt .45 in 1912 and substantial production in 1914/15 (Norwegian M1914). The picture shows a boks of military Nagant cartridges dated 1927 and I am rather at a loss over why the Nagants seemingly still were in use at that late date. By then Kongsberg had produced about 20 000 of the Kongsberg Colt.
The Norwegian 7,5 mm Nagant is not very diffucult to find, but many have been converted to .22 and some are in pretty poor shape.
