Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors French contract or Portuguese Pistols

On The French contract or Portuguese pistols, what does the Lanyard look like? Or Does any-body have one from that time period?
Tnx
Steve

Portuguese pistols would have a different stamp on the grip and not the Savage emblem.

The French and Portuguese lanyard rings look like they were installed about 1/4" up on the frame right behind the mag.

You didn't buy Browers book?

I think he means the lanyard itself.

Edit: I would imagine they used whatever lanyards were standard issue for all of their pistols. Most European countries used lanyards as a matter of course back then.

I think he's actually asking about the leather lanyards, not the rings?

Never seen one with the actual lanyard. Lots of old ones out there though. Not even sure they were leather.

Oh, I'll do some digging then, thought I had a pic of one of them, finding the pic is the hard part.

Here is a description I've saved of the French army lanyards (dragonne) used during that period, written by Patrick Hernandez. Whenever I run into these "pre-X" and "post-X" distinctions, where the event X lasted for years (as in WWI), I wonder exactly when the change occured and if there was a period of overlap.

Lanyards

There were two different types of lanyards called dragonne used by the French Army for these weapons.

� A standard pre-WWI regulation leather revolver lanyard was used. The lanyard was about 29 inches long (74.9cm) and 7/16 inch wide (1.1cm). The loop end of the lanyard was closed by a brass rivet and was intended to be attached to the belt. The other end was secured to the pistol by means of a hard leather knot that runs through a slit at the end of the strap. These were normally left in the natural leather but occasionally were dyed black.

� The second type lanyard used was of post-WWI design which was almost identical to the above mentioned type but the ends were closed by means of either a brass rivet or sewn together. A metal snap and D-Ring was used enabling it to be fastened to the staple on the heel of the butt. These were normally left in the natural leather but occasionally were dyed black or white.

Bill

Yes that's what i mean. You da Man Gary
Tnx

Joe
That would be great.
Taking Up Leather work Now.
Steve

Bill
Tnx for those Photo's
The Middle One Is very Nice.
Steve

Thanks.

The middle (natural leather) lanyard/dragonne is from a website of French military arms, and even though Patrick describes it as a post-WWI design it is actually shown as accompaning one of those pre-WWI revolvers Patrick mentions.

I should note that Patrick is a member of a WWI French Army re-enactor unit in the SW US, and has extensively researched the equipment from this era, but I still wonder just when the second type of lanyard began being used.

These lanyards are wrapped in the prescribed WWI French military style, which hardly changed in the following decades (although the French now use coiled wire lanyards, eliminating the need to wrap them). Although I have some WWI French holsters (including a couple of Savage holsters) I have no WWI lanyards, but do have some later ones (post-WWII) from the French army and gendarmerie (a branch of the French military) with later French pistols, and they are wrapped the same way and look almost exactly like the natural leather lanyard (although the gendarmerie lanyards and holsters are black).

Unless one were an absolute stickler for authenticity, I think a later French military lanyard would serve to accompany a French-contract Savage. These show up on the French eBay, and payment is typically via PayPal if the seller will ship to the US (about 50% will; the rest only within France). Search words to use are etui (holster) and dragonne, in the category "militaria" under "collectables" (since "etui" will also show cell phone holsters, etc, and "dragonne" any number of different types of lanyards).

Bill