California Arms Co 20ga "Defiance" Pistol-Shotgun

hi guys thanks for tuning in to another video on Forgotten weapons comm I'm Ian McCallum and I'm here today at the Rock Island auction company where we are taking a look at a very rare late 1920s anti bandit gun this is actually called a defiance manufactured by the California Arms Company out of of all places San Francisco California is a double-barreled 20 gauge side-by-side well anti bandit done the same sort of thing or a very similar gun was manufactured by the Ithaca company a much better known shotgun manufacturer they made one called the auto and burglar they made them in a couple different different chamberings but the auto and burglar was a reasonably successful gun and certainly better known today than the defiance these were made sometime in the late 20s and allegedly no more than 300 of them were actually made this is a pretty early one this is serial number 25 and well I didn't kind of see I think why it wasn't super successful so the one actually the one thing that is a little bit distinctive or a little bit different about these is they were marketed as being capable of using both buckshot which you would expect and also tear gas cartridges and that's something that Ithaca and the other people making this sort of configuration of gun weren't really trying to market they they weren't that interested in a teargas round well the California Arms Company started working with the Lake Erie Chemical Company and put a significant amount of developmental work into creating a 20-gauge to your gas cartridge specifically to be marketed with this gun unfortunately it didn't really work out all that well a 12-gauge teargas cartridge is not particularly all that effective a 20-gauge one really isn't very effective you'd really need to fire several of them to get any sort of useful amount of tear gas into the air and well with this thing you've only got two rounds to work with so I think most people looked at this and yeah I think I'll go with the buckshot so let me show you this thing up close it is 100% metal which is a bit unusual so most of the guns like this in particular the ithaca auto burglar which is the most common of them most of them are just cut down side by side standard shotguns California Arms Company it's something substantially different they really built this thing from the ground up as a handheld short barreled shotgun pistol contraption whatever you want to call this and they did that with a solid cast aluminum grip they have a metal four end normally on something like this being you know something coming from the traditional shotgun world you would expect a wooden four end here that detaches from the barrels then you can pull the barrels off well this isn't done that way the barrels here and the front end or a single contiguous block not quickly detachable from the rest of the gun and instead of having a typical sort of locking release here we actually have a button on the back of the grip right there so push that in and then you can break the barrels open for loading and reloading it's a bit difficult to see but our serial number is actually right there 25 and of course we have a manual extractor does not appear to be any sort of spring loaded ejector it's just going to push the cartridges out far enough that you can grab them and pull them the rest of the way to actually [ __ ] the gun you have to manually [ __ ] each striker individually so there's the left one there's the right one now they're ready to fire you then have just a single trigger so the gun will fire one barrel at a time like so interestingly it does alternate left right left right so right now it's on the left barrel if I just recaulk the right striker click the trigger it does nothing the next shot will drop that striker they did thoughtfully include space for two extra cartridges in the grip of the gun so two little compartments there with the the spring on these doors is reasonably heavy enough that you could carry two shells in there and you'll have to worry about them falling out the bottom four sights you just have this plain bead oh pretty typical sort of shotgun sight picture right there and lastly you have a manual safety here fire is up safe is down and in the safe position it just locks the trigger there are some more markings on the side we have defiance manufactured by California Arms Company San Francisco and on the opposite side patent pending 20-gauge two and a half inch shell these are all 20 gauge that's the only caliber that they made them in despite their only being apparently about 300 of these made they are there are actually three different versions of them an a and B and a C type now this is a C type the a and B both actually had 12 and 1/2 inch barrels the C has a 12 and a quarter inch pair of barrels and then the a type guns actually have black plastic grip panels on well on top of this cast grip assembly the the B and C type both have the checkering just cast straight into into the grip itself I should point out that because these were made prior to 1934 before the National Firearms Act had been passed when these were made there was no particular regulation on short-barreled shotguns so whereas today this firearm has to be registered with the NFA as a short barreled shotgun and by the way this one is it is legal and registered and can transfer to anyone who takes the time to go through the NFA background check process but when these were made it was just the same as a pistol or a shotgun so had these survived economically until 1934 the National Firearms Act would have conclusively put these out of business just as they did the Ithaca auto and burglar the $200 transfer tax on a short barreled shotgun was far more than the actual list price of a gun like this overall it seems like a pretty well it seems like a very robust gun my only concern dry handling this is there's a little bit of a ridge right back here at the back of the grip that feels like that's the place for this thing's really gonna kick you right in the web of your thumb there and I'm be kind of interesting to be able to take this out to the range and see what it actually feels like to fire I suspect not terribly pleasant this sort of gun is is often preferred by people who look at them a lot and don't shoot them all that often but anyway aside from that that little Ridge this seems like a pretty well built well put together piece of machinery so only only a small number of these made this is the first time I've actually gotten my hands on one to take a look at and it's definitely a more robust gun I am then the auto burglar like I'm not concerned handling this I would not be at all concerned about firing it or at least not concerned for the gun I think it might damage my hand but it won't damage the actual gun and that's something that when you pick up in the Ithaca auto burglar at least to me that wooden grip on those things feels kind of flimsy like I'm always worried if I was gonna shoot one of those that I'd crack the grip or break the grip clean off it just doesn't inspire a lot of confidence this thing with its solid cast aluminum grip that's not going anywhere and you could probably do a pretty good job hitting someone with this after you fire the two shots out of it so if you're interested in one of these of course Rock Island does have this in their upcoming catalog they actually remarkably have a second one as well from a different consignor so if you take a look at the description text below you'll find a link to forgotten weapons comm from there you can follow a link over to rock island's catalog page on this guy that'll have their pictures their description a price estimate and all that sort of stuff if you want to poke around in their catalogue you can find their other california arms company defiance as well as all the other cool stuff that they've gotten this auction thanks for watching

Channel: Forgotten Weapons

Views: 651,877

Rating: 4.9541965 out of 5

Keywords: defiance, 20ga, shotgun, pistol, shotgun pistol, 1920s, gangster, ithaca, auto, burglar, aluminum, grip, barrels, side by side, sxs, forgotten weapons, mccollum, history, development, disassembly, design, california arms company, deterrent, deterrant, tear gas, gas cartridge, shotshell, breakopen, break open, double barrel, double gun, cut down, sawed off, sbs, short barrel shotgun, nfa, register, kasarda, inrange, inrangetv

Id: udTA1XX37vY

Length: 8min 37sec (517 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 09 2018