Heirloom Quality Backup: The American Derringer Corporation Model 1 in 45 Colt

By Jim Dickson

Robert Saunders was a Texan who appreciated the value of a back-up pistol, but he also realized the only ones small enough to end up being carried for that purpose were chambered for small calibers known for their ineffectiveness as manstoppers. Since a back-up pistol is something used at arms-length range against an armed attacker, this meant that you were likely to get shot or stabbed before your fire could take effect. That prospect didn’t appeal to Saunders. He set out to make the perfect back-up pistol – and he succeeded. He chose the 45 Colt for a cartridge; a round with a design criterion that included killing a cavalry horse at 100 yards. For a gun to chamber it, you could not get two shots in a smaller package than a double Derringer.

Saunders didn’t stop there, though. He realized he could be the first to have a pistol that chambered both the 45 Colt and the 2.5-inch .410 shotgun shell. In 1980, he founded the American Derringer Corporation in Waco, Texas to make his new design out of the best stainless steel available. After all, a back-up pistol deals with more sweat than an open carry pistol.

The M1 Double Derringer is extremely small, just 4.82 inches overall with two 3-inch barrels. It stands 3.35 inches high and has a frame width of 0.9 inches and a grip width of 1.2 inches. Weight is just an ounce shy of a pound at 15 ounces.

The new (at the time) gun had (and still has) an innovative safety that comes off automatically when the gun is cocked. You don’t get any better than that. People have been killed trying to deal with a safety in emergencies where there simply is no time. Some people are so flustered that they forget to take a safety off in a fight, which can lead to their demise. I knew a man who put his safety on instead of taking it off in a gunfight, resulting in his being shot.

Wide, hand-filling grips make the petit pistol easy to control with a firm grip. Despite its small size, recoil is not a problem with full power 45 Colt loads. There are a good set of sights even though this type of pistol is normally just drawn, pointed, and fired at just-off-the-muzzle ranges.

When loading, it’s important to put this pistol on half cock – otherwise, the firing pin cannot retract and closing the gun hard can fire one of the cartridges.

Carrying options are extremely varied with a pistol this compact, but there is one caution that should be made. Either a thumb-break safety snap or a conventional safety strap is mandatory on holsters for this gun, as it’s grip heavy, not muzzle heavy – so it’ll ride up and fall out of a holster, eventually, without a safety strap.

This gun is extremely fast to draw and fire from concealment just as the original .41 rimfire Remington double Derringer was. Unlike the 41 Rimfire Remington, while the American Derringer Model 1 in 45 Colt makes an excellent urban back-up pistol, a better option for those in the backcountry is the American Derringer M4 Alaskan Survival with its 4.1-inch barrel. It’s a longer-barreled version, still chambered in 45 Colt. This caliber has a long history of successfully putting down grizzly bears. While a long gun is the normal grizzly hunting weapon the handgun is statistically more successful in defending against surprise bear attacks because, in a close-range surprise attack, the long gun may be knocked aside; but a handgun can be drawn and fired even if the bear has you down. Again, this is intended as a back-up to a regular pistol and not a primary pistol. When Betty and I had Alaskan trapper’s licenses and were living in a one room log trapper’s cabin deep in the Alaskan interior, we ended up using World War II army surplus M1911A1 pistols and surplus 45 ACP FMJ ammo on everything. The 45 ACP is simply the automatic pistol version of the 45 Colt cartridge.

It must be remembered that the American Derringer 45 Colt/.410 is intended as a short-range belly gun, not intended for use at long range like a full-size pistol. Bob Saunders liked to carry a 2.5-inch .410 loaded with buckshot in the upper chamber for a shot spread and a 45 Colt in the lower barrel for maximum stopping power. Of course, you may use either or and you can make any combination you like.

Federal makes a 2.5-inch .410 loaded with four .36 caliber 000 buckshot for a total weight of 280 grains and a total frontal area of 1.44 inches as they spread out to 4.5 inches at 10 feet.

For a slightly larger dispersion pattern, I prefer the Sabot Designs LLC flechette load. This has seven flechettes safely packed in a sabot so that they cannot harm your barrel. Each flechette dumps as much energy into the target as a 9mm Luger cartridge as they yaw inside the target, and they spread to 5.5 inches at 10 feet. For stopping power on bear, I trust the 250-grain 45 Colt load.

Bob Saunders developed pancreatic cancer and died in 1993. His widow, Elizabeth, was determined not to let his gun making dream die. She went back to school and got her degree in mechanical engineering. There she met John Price, a Vietnam veteran getting his own mechanical engineering degree. John went to work for her and has been there ever since.

In 1994, they cut out their distributors, as they demanded a price that would entail a cut in quality. Employee theft problems grew so bad that eventually she had to let everyone but John Price go. They would rather make quality than quantity, and these two hands make every pistol to the highest American standards today. These are all steel, except for the wood grips, with no plastic parts. They are the only affordable handmade guns that I know of. Elizabeth and John take great pride in their work and the result is a truly handmade gun that the owner can depend on. For a back-up pistol there is none better.

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