Hopkins & Allen · Revolver

Hopkins & Allen Czar

Name: Hopkins & Allen Czar
Brand: Hopkins & Allen

Single action revolver · .32 Short Rimfire · introduced 1878

Also known as H&A Czar, Czar Spur Trigger Revolver

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About the Hopkins & Allen Czar

The Hopkins & Allen Czar is an American solid-frame, spur-trigger single-action revolver of the late 19th century, one of the many inexpensive 'suicide special' pocket revolvers produced in Norwich, Connecticut. Marked CZAR on the frame, it was sold from 1878 at a price of roughly $1.75 with a 3-1/2 inch octagonal barrel, a fluted cylinder and checkered hard-rubber grips, chambered most often for low-power .22 and .32 rimfire cartridges as a concealable self-defense arm.

Priced at about a dollar seventy-five when it appeared in 1878, the Czar was Hopkins & Allen's bid for the bottom of the pocket-pistol market, a cheap concealable revolver bought as a last-ditch defensive arm rather than a serious sidearm.

Hopkins & Allen Czar specifications

General

Type: Revolver
Action: Single action revolver
Firing mechanism: Single action
Trigger: Single action
Calibres: .32 Short Rimfire, .22 Short
Magazine capacity: 5 rounds
Magazine: Internal

Dimensions

Barrel length: 89 mm (3.5 in)
Overall length: 190 mm (7.5 in)
Weight (empty): 0.27 kg (0.60 lb)

Barrel

Rifling: Right hand

Materials

Barrel: Steel
Receiver / frame: Iron
Stock: Hard rubber
Finish: nickel_plated

Performance

Muzzle velocity (typical): 210 m/s (689 fps)
Muzzle energy (typical): 119 J (88 ft·lb)
Effective range: 15 m

History

Introduced: 1878
Discontinued: 1900
Production status: Discontinued
Country of origin: US

Available calibres

.32 Short Rimfire.22 Short

Features

Spur trigger
Octagonal barrel
Fluted cylinder
Solid frame
Fixed sights

Czar was one of many trade names Hopkins & Allen used on its spur-trigger pocket revolvers, alongside Blue Jacket, Ranger, Dictator, Defender and Captain Jack. Configurations varied in barrel length, finish and engraving; .32 rimfire examples are scarcer than the .22 versions. The model was first reported in the Norwich, Conn. Bulletin in 1878 and advertised under a purported contract for Czarist Russia; a May 1879 Harper's Weekly ad extravagantly equated it with a Smith & Wesson or Colt, while an 1880 Homer Fisher catalog more soberly priced it at $2.50. The 1895 Montgomery Ward and 1898 Hopkins & Allen catalogs listed the nickel-plated .22 rimfire 3-inch-barrel version at $1.75. Widely advertised but seldom encountered today.