From the Vault: Three LeMat Revolvers

Brownells Gun Techs Keith Ford and Steve Ostrem have finally met their LeMat! Actually, they found THREE examples of the legendary Confederate Civil War revolver at Rock Island Auction Company. Why three? Because there were three distinct variants of this massive, NINE-shot revolver with the cylinder revolving around a 20 gauge smoothbore barrel, which earned it the nickname "Grapeshot Revolver." The first Rock Island LeMat is an original muzzle-loading percussion model. Two Confederate generals were famous for carrying this model: Jeb Stuart and P.G.T. Beauregard, who was also Jean Alexandre LeMat's cousin and an early investor in the inventor's enterprise. (Ultimately, LeMats were made in France and Belgium and about 2,500 of them made it through the Union blockade.) Next up is a Belgian-made pinfire LeMat, which fired a copper-cased cartridge detonated by the hammer striking a small pin, same as early pinfire shotgun shells. Finally, the guys have a beautifully crafted, all-centerfire cartridge LeMat-type revolver that neither has encountered before. Steve shows us the novel way the shotshell gets loaded into the gun. It is one gnarly Steampunk hunk of firearm that could come straight out of a "Hellboy" movie. Load it up with some silver bullets and clean up your local Werewolf problem!