Airguns may not always be what they seem, and on occasion they may be an exceptionally rare gun masquerading as something that is not quite so rare. Then there are those airguns that have a feature that makes them specially rare, where the feature often goes unnoticed. I have come across a few pistols that fall into these categories during my collecting years, and I thought I would share these on the forum, in the hope that this might encourage others to take a closer look at their collections so that more examples might be brought to the surface.


The Bedford & Walker Eureka pistol (or to be more precise, its later version) is a good example. Here are my two pistols that look identical, but only the upper one is a genuine American-made Eureka, dating to the late 1800’s.




I owned both of these pistols for quite a few years before I realised they were not the same, and that happened when I found that their components were not interchangeable. I then found that the impostor had a solid brass body concealed beneath its heavy nickel plating. The real Bedford & Walker pistol of course had the normal cast steel construction.

The cosmetic similarities between the two pistols are remarkable, even as far as the grip shape, the square spanner hole in the rear cylinder plug, and the hole in the grip for accommodating a wire stock.





I eventually found that the lower pistol was actually a French copy of the Eureka, made by C.Martinier-Collin of St., Etienne around the same time. This is an 1884 catalogue showing the pistol. The pistol was made up into the 1890's:





These French copies are extremely rare in comparison with the Bedford & Walker Eureka, which itself is quite a rare pistol. I know of only three other examples of the copy at present, although there maybe be others sitting in collections, their true identity going unrealised.

So how do you tell the difference between them, without having to take them apart and checking, threads, dimension etc.? You may have spotted that the position of the rear sight is different in my two pistols, but this is not a reliable diagnostic, as genuine Bedford & Eureka pistols are known with rear sights both in the forward and the rear positions. In fact, the simplest, non-invasive test is to use a magnet, as the French copy will not attract the magnet due to its brass construction. It is best to do this on the grip, as if carried out on the cylinder, the underlying steel piston will give a false result.

A second means of identification is to look for the minute lettering impressed on the barrel of the genuine Eureka, which shows the patent details. There is no lettering on the Martinier-Collin copy.




I would be delighted to hear from anyone who finds out that he owns one of these very rare Eureka copies.