Overview of Danish Schouboe .45 & .32 Caliber Pistols
Forgotten Weapons
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18m
In 1903, Danish engineer Jens Schouboe began developing an automatic pistol for the Dansk Rekylriffel Syndikat in Copenhagen (later to become the Madsen company). He made the guns in both .32ACP and also in a proprietary Danish .45 caliber based (I believe) on the centerfire conversion of Denmark's 1867 pinfire revolver. The .45 cartridge used a wood-cored bullet of only about 55 grains weight, traveling at some 1600 fps. Schouboe's pistol was a simple blowback design with a shrouded hammer and 6-round magazine (10 round in the .32 caliber models).
About 400 or 500 Schouboe pistols were made between 1903 and 1917, but never in a true mass production series. Every known example differs in small details, in addition to the existence of three major patterns (1903, 1907, and 1910, plus potentially a 1916 model). Today we're going to look at an assortment of Schouboes across this developmental timeline, including two presentation models and one with a holster stock.
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