Hopkins & Allen XL No. 4

About the Hopkins & Allen XL No. 4

The Hopkins & Allen XL No. 4 is an American single-action, spur-trigger pocket revolver chambered in .38 rimfire and produced in Norwich, Connecticut, on the XL pattern patented March 23, 1871. It is a five-shot revolver with a short octagonal barrel, typically about 2 1/2 inches, and spent cases are pushed out one at a time by a spring-loaded ejector rod beneath the barrel. Usually nickel-plated over a solid steel frame with a walnut bird's-head grip, it was an inexpensive concealable defensive arm sold widely on the post-Civil War civilian market alongside the smaller .32-rimfire XL pocket guns and the larger six-shot XL Army, Navy, and Police service models.

Hopkins & Allen built its reputation on cheap, mass-produced pocket revolvers, and the five-shot .38-rimfire XL No. 4 was a typical example of the spur-trigger 'suicide special' that flooded American gun shops in the 1870s and 1880s.

Hopkins & Allen XL No. 4 specifications

Top-strap markings typically read 'XL No.4 N.Y.' over the cylinder. The No. 4 sat between the small .32-rimfire XL pocket revolvers (No. 2 1/2, No. 3) and the large six-shot XL service patterns, carrying the larger .38 rimfire chambering in a compact five-shot frame. Barrel lengths ran roughly 1 3/4 to 2 3/4 inches. Some examples are marked 'N.Y.' rather than the Norwich factory address, reflecting distributor branding common to the cheap spur-trigger revolver trade of the period.