38 DARDICK

This interesting cartridge was designed by David Dardick, who already started during the late 1940’s with his design, although the patent application for his “Open Chamber Gun” was only filed in 1954 and granted in August of 1958. The gun was designed to be a multi-caliber design and were launched in .38, .30 and .22 caliber, although no .30 caliber barrels have been noted. Barrels were interchangeable by loosening a single screw located under the barrel. There were two models launched, the larger Model 1500 that held 15 trounds in a magazine located in the grip and the smaller Model 1100, that held 11 rounds. A carbine version was also offered. It is estimated that only about 50 to 100 of these guns were manufactured and within a year it was all over for the Dardick. There were several factors that contributed to its demise, mainly because it was first monumentally ugly, secondly it was expensive compared to standard handguns and thirdly, the fact that it used – sometimes hard to find – proprietary ammunition. The cartridges were triangular shaped, hence the name TROUND, and was made of a polyethylene-like material called Celanese Fortiflex, (Erlmeier, Brandt Ref. 357)

                         Shown at 200% scale

      

The specimen on the right is a Dardick Tround tool cartridge – Ramset brand. Some more info HERE

   Dummy loadings

 

     New unprimed empty specimens

  Proof loading

See also the Guns & Ammo article about the history of the Dardick