Lewis's BRUTE: Forgotten Weapons and the Miniaturized .45 Caliber Double Stack Lewis Gun Pistol of 1919

by Nathaniel F

Published: December 11th, 2016

lewis s brute forgotten weapons and the miniaturized 45 caliber double stack lewis

What was the first double-stack .45 ACP handgun in the world? Well, Springfield Armory Inc might have you believe it was their XD (originally called the HS2000 – and then and now made in Croatia), but more plugged in gun nuts will point to the Para Ordnance P14-45 wide-frame 1911 pistol. It turns out that double stack .45s go back before then… WAY before then. Meet a gun that never lived long enough to get a real name, a double-stack 15-round .45 ACP handgun designed by Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis:

What could be more exciting than a handgun in 1919 that was packing a 15-stack of 230 grain hardball? Well, the Lewis handgun isn’t just a handgun designed by Colonel Lewis… It’s an actual, honest-to-god, miniaturized Lewis Machine Gun in handgun form, complete with rear-locking rotating bolt and gas piston – it even fires from an open bolt like a Lewis MG!

We ain't kidding about the itty bitty Lewis bit.

Of course, because of its Lewis MG heritage, the Lewis pistol was hardly a practical handgun, even with its massive 15-round capacity and .45-caliber bore. One of the biggest drawbacks, evident in the video, is that the Lewis handgun is huge in size – not quite Gabbet-Fairfax Mars big, but getting there. Also, the gun would have been expensive to produce, and the concept of an open-bolt pistol was one better left in the dustbin of bad ideas.

Still, it’s a tremendously cool specimen!

#1911 #DesertEagle #Mars #45 #WorldWarI #RotaryBolt #LewisPistol #.15-shot #ColonelLewis #IsaacNewtonLewis #CueDiceThrowingThisInDlcForBF1For$15

Nathaniel F

Nathaniel is a history enthusiast and firearms hobbyist whose primary interest lies in military small arms technological developments beginning with the smokeless powder era. He can be reached via email at nathaniel.f@staff.thefirearmblog.com.

More by Nathaniel F

Comments

Join the conversation

3 of 36 comments

Pun&gun on Dec 12, 2016

That's fascinating. If the patent is out there, why hasn't the owner asked a machinist to recreate the original magazine so he can fire it?

Like Reply
- Ostiariusalpha on Dec 12, 2016
  
  @pun&gun A) The patent doesn't show the various internal and external geometries or dimensions of the original prototype magazine, so that would be an incredible amount of work to design an essentially new magazine from scratch with only a vague resemblance to the lost one.
  B) A reproduction mag would have no collectors value whatsoever, and that collectors value has been the entire point behind every purchase of this pistol since it went out of Lewis' hands. If we're lucky, the new owner might let Ian disassemble it a little further, but I seriously doubt it's ever going to be fired again.
  
  Like
Archie Montgomery on Dec 14, 2016

Thanks for publishing this bit of history. One of the things I love about firearms history is all the 'new ideas' that were tried long ago. For instance, Savage had a detachable box magazine pistol with double stack capacity in their 1907 pistol.
Some items actually work now, due to advances in related technology.

Like Reply

News

Articles/Features

Guns & Gear

Shows

Lewis's BRUTE: Forgotten Weapons and the Miniaturized .45 Caliber Double Stack Lewis Gun Pistol of 1919

You may also be interested in