Dutch Colonial Revolver Cal. 9.4mm
Enjoy this Dutch East Indies Revolver, dated 1911, and a box of ammo dated 1941 manufactured in Indonesia....The Dutch ‘KNIL’ Revolvers were initially manufactured by J F J Bar, to the design of Captain F W H Kuhn, in Luttich as the side arm of the KNIL (Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger - Royal Dutch East Indies Army) the Model 91 as it was known entered service in 1895. It is estimated that this initial production totalled some 3754 revolvers.
In 1909 the Dutch authorities found that more guns were needed, but Bar no longer made arms, and the contract was placed with L Wittich for a further 2200 guns.
In 1919 the Dutch again decided to produce more of these tough M 91 revolvers – but this time specifically for the Colonial ‘Field Police’ and in 1920 the Dutch Colonial Ministry placed a contract with the famous British firm ‘Vickers’ to produce an order for 5830 guns. In spite of Vickers reputation for quality – the Dutch were not pleased with the final finish on these guns (it appears that Vickers were overstretched with British government work and actually subcontracted many of these to smaller firms of the Birmingham gun trade) and they were all sent to Fabrique National in Belgium for refinishing and it was not until 1922 that they arrived in the Dutch East Indies.
These guns used the 9.4mm round that saw its genesis in the early Nagant rolling block double barrel police pistol, and Nagant had a lot to do with the development of the early Dutch Military revolvers. The 9.4mm round was popular with the Dutch, although Nagant and everyone else moved to other calibres, and eventually this calibre became synonymous with the Netherlands.
The M91 was ‘phased out’ for use in the Colonial Army around 1927 by the M11 – a Luger like pistol (some of these were also made by Vickers!) – but the M91 stayed on in Police service. In practice the M91 was still in regular use well into the WWII, and many of these revolvers were captured by the Japanese when the KNIL surrendered in 1942 – and subsequently used by them…
Large quantities of these revolvers where ‘recaptured’ by allied forces – particularly American and Australian and taken home as souvenirs… This revolver Sn.3653 was brought to the USA by a PTO veteran....
Throughout the years in which the 9.4mm round was used by the Dutch, it was subject to many alterations, the final one being intended to maximise fire power. This final variation required using virtually the full length of the M 91 cylinder; every last millimetre of available space was used by extending the case and adopting a flat nosed bullet rather than the original round.....
BILL
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by emileverbunt
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