Colt Third Model Deringer

About the Colt Third Model Deringer

The Colt Third Model Deringer is a single-shot, .41 rimfire pocket pistol and the best-selling of Colt's three deringer models. Designed by Colt engineer F. Alexander Thuer and produced from 1875 to 1912, it has a sheathed (spur) trigger, a one-piece bird's-head grip, and a steel barrel that pivots sideways about a pin to expose the breech for loading and to lift the spent case clear. Its compact size made it a popular concealed-carry and gambler's gun of the late frontier era. Around 45,000 to 48,000 were manufactured, many factory scroll-engraved and nickel-plated.

After buying the National Arms Company in 1870 and inheriting Daniel Moore's First and Second Model deringers, Colt had engineer F. Alexander Thuer redesign the pistol into a cheaper, sturdier single-shot with a side-pivoting barrel. The resulting Third Model became a fixture of the American West, small enough to hide in a sleeve or boot and famously favored by gamblers, making it the classic 'derringer' of frontier lore.

Colt Third Model Deringer specifications

Also called the Thuer Model after its designer; the standard barrel length was 2 1/2 inches (about 64 mm). Serial numbers ran roughly 1 to 45,000. Weight and overall length are approximate, as period pocket deringers are seldom listed with a published mass. Unlike the laterally-tipping First and Second Models, the Third Model's barrel rotates to the side around a central pin.