Bøssemaker Hans Larsen
(1823-1907)
Norway’s perhaps best known and most pronounced gunsmith was Hans Larsen from Drammen. He was immensely creative and established business in Drammen and Kristiania (Oslo) in Norway and in Liege in Belgium.

He designed revolver-rifles in the late 1850’s, breech-loading rifles (kammerladere) and drillings with twin-barrelled shotgun + rifle barrel in 1860, wonderful "tennstempel" rifles with firing needle in 1865 and repeating rifles in 1875. It is the high quality falling blocks (tendstempel rifle) he probably is best known for today.

The b&w pictures on this page are “stolen” from Mr. Marquard W. Hauerbach’s article about Mr. Larsen in Drammen museums yearbook from 1969-1973. The colour pictures are taken of rifles in my personal collection.

Larsen rifles are really not all that difficult to get hold of. There were made rather many of the shotguns and the less expencive
tennstempel rifles. Some of these show a lot of wear and tear, but the prices are fairly modest. The experimental rifles and the truely beautifully carved pieces in perfect condition do, however, tend to cost a neat bundle.
Back to main site: Norwegian Military arms                       Page 2, H. Larsen
Percussion revolver from 1858 with six chambers, 36 cm long. This revolver is very scarece.
Percussion breech-loader (kammerlader) from 1860. The rifle is fairly scarce, but I have one of these and it is presented in more detail later in these pages.
Percussion drilling with two shotgun barrels above one rifled barrel from 1860. three seperate locks, two fairly conventional percussion lock for the shotgun barrels and one almost identical to the kammerlader lock for the rifled barrel. Two triggers, the front one for the right shotgun barrel, the rear one for the left and both at the same time for the rifled barrel.
Very early "tennstempel" rifle from 1865, where the mechanism swings up like on a kammerlader.
Another "tennstempel" rifle from 1865 where the mechanism is pulled back alowing a cartridge to be placed in the chamber.
Looking like the 1860 Larsen kammerlader at first glance, but this rifle from 1870 is a cartridge rifle with the hammer on top over the chamber.
Single shot breech-loaded crtridge rifle from 1870 where the hammer was cocked "automaticly" when the receiver was pulled back with the handle.
Hans Larsen is probably best known for his tennstempel rifles today, but really was a true entrepreneur of his time. He finished his training as gunsmith in 1845 and established his own business in Drammen in 1846. In 1858 his first genuine designs start appearing and in 1865 the first of the tennstempel rifles was made (he also invented things for the railroads, for loading ammunition etc).

Related to firearms, Larsen was of the right age to be in the middle of the transition period. He started out with muzzle loaders and through his ingenuity he set a number of standards for cartridge firing weapons. In these fairly few years from the early 1860’s to the late 1880’s most of the mechanisms we still use for hunting and target weapons were invented. Larsen’s single shot tennstempel design from the mid 1860’s was still “The Rifle” long after the Krag Jørgensen repeating rifle was introduced in the late 1890’s at a much lower price. The first tennstempel rifle with a falling block was made as early as in 1867.

Larsen also made a number of designs for seal and polar bear shooting in the ice. These were rugged rifles that would shoot well under any condition. The revolver rifle was designed for this use.

Hans Larsen was one of Norway’s best marksmen at the time, something that might help to explain why his rifles were so popular. In 1862 he became national “skytterkonge” (shooting king) with an average of 7,5 for 139 shots at 250 Norwegian yards. At “Landsskytterfesten” (the national shooting party) in 1868 he was a clear winner in rapid shooting and was also awarded a trip to the International Shooting Contest in Wien with 15 000 marksmen.

Here he won a total of 15 medals with his own single shot tennstempel rifle (falling block). Emperor Frantz Joseph was so impressed by his unbelievable achievements that he wanted to see Hans Larsen shoot. Larsen fired 53 shots in 3 minutes(!) and all shots hit. He was acclaimed the World Championships “finest marksman”.

..continued on the next page
Percussion revolver rifle with five chambers, produced in 1858, applied patent in 1861. There were probably only made three prototypes and 11 or 14 rather different final versions.
Updated January 28. 2005