| Lancaster pistol | |
|---|---|
 Break action Lancaster pistol on display at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds | |
| Type | Multi-barrel pistol |
| Place of origin |  United Kingdom |
| Service history | |
| Wars | Anglo-Zulu War First Boer War Mahdist War Second Boer War World War I |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Charles W. Lancaster and Henry Thorn |
| Designed | c. 1860 |
| Produced | mid to late 19th century |
| Specifications | |
| Cartridge | .38 S&W .450 Adams .455 Webley .577 Snider |
| Calibre | .380 inch .450 inch .455 inch .577 inch |
| Barrels | 2 or 4 |
| Action | Break-action, double action only, revolving striker |
| Feed system | one cartridge in each barrel |
The Lancaster pistol was a multi-barrelled (2 or 4 barrels) handgun produced in England in the mid to late 19th century,[1] chambered in a variety of centrefire pistol calibres—chiefly .38 S&W, .450 Adams, .455 Webley, and .577 inch.[2] The designer, London gunsmith Charles Lancaster, began his career in 1847 as an apprentice to his father, Charles Sr. During the 1850s he invented oval bore rifling and the gas check bullet.[3]
- ^ John Henry Walsh, The Modern Sportsman's Gun and Rifle: Including Game and Wildfowl Guns, Sporting and Match Rifles, and Revolvers (Cox, London, 1884) p. 439
- ^ Maze, Robert J. Howdah to High Power. Tucson, Arizona: Excalibur Publications, 2002. ISBN 1-880677-17-2. [page needed]
- ^ Lancaster pistols