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VERY RARE MODEL 1836 FLINTLOCK PISTOL LANYARD
RING/BUTT CAP SCREW – ONLY ONE KNOWN TO EXIST ON THE
LOOSE:
This Lanyard Ring/Butt Cap Screw was discovered mounted
on a Model 1836 Flintlock Pistol many years ago by R.
Stephen Dorsey. As that pistol was an inventory piece
and destined to be sold, and recognizing the lanyard
ring/butt cap screw assembly as a true rarity, he
removed the assembly and retained it in his collection.
Dorsey noted that the thread pitch was of the style and
standard of time during which the Model 1836 Pistols
were produced – not of a later manufacture – and this
style of screw and the overall quality of the piece
argued for its originality. To his knowledge, no other
example of this appendage has ever surfaced, nor has it
ever been reproduced. Dorsey offered the opinion that
it may have been a trial piece or perhaps a special
order item produced by the armory or an arsenal for an
officer or to fill a state militia request.
In 2019, a Model 1836 Pistol modified to percussion
surfaced in the sale of a very old and deep collection
and that pistol - pictured below - featured this exact
same lanyard ring screwed into the butt cap, in the same
fashion as the pistol described by Dorsey. This
pistol is ample proof that these lanyard rings were
indeed produced in some, if only limited, quantity and
saw use.
There is a rule of physics that you were probably never
taught in the classroom which states that the further
you elevate your hands from the surface of the earth,
the more likely you are to drop that item for which you
will have the most immediate need. If you doubt this
thesis, remember back if you will to the last time you
dropped anything when you were in a squat – almost
never. However, take that same item up on a twelve foot
ladder and just try to hang on to it. You’ll be up and
down that ladder like a subway commuter.
Soldiers astride a horse are more than familiar with
this thesis and have experienced this problem for as
long as there have been mounted troops. As the US Army
expended considerable effort and money to provide the
mounted soldiers with the means for retaining their
other weapons – carbine slings and snap swivels, carbine
sockets and boots, and sabre knots – it tends to defy
the imagination that this effort was never extended to
their pistols as a general issue item until the adoption
of the Model 1911 Automatic Colt Pistol, and then the
lanyard was originally attached to the magazine, not the pistol.
The lanyard ring/butt cap screw is an idea that I'm
surprised didn't catch on, particularly during the era
of the single shot pistols. Given that one pull of the
trigger renders the pistol into a very short club,
immediately dropping it on an attached lanyard in favor
of the sabre or the carbine would be far better than
having to fumble the pistol back into the pommel
holster.
The wear at one point on this ring where it wore heavily
against the hole in the head of the screw, and the
elliptical shape of the originally round ring where it
obviously pulled against the pressure of a lanyard, both
testify to the service use to which this lanyard
ring/butt cap screw was exposed, so at least in the case
of this one example, this concept was more than just a
casual idea and it saw actual service in the field. Why
this arrangement did not advance beyond a special order
or trial concept is more of a mystery than that posed by
the fact that this is the only one of its kind known to
exist.
For the collector of American Martial Single Shot
Pistols, this is an accessory that is a must have to
display with a standard Model 1836 Pistol. An
absolutely unique piece, and yet well associated with
the early Dragoon period, this simple assembly is a
genuine treasure. $250
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