44 NAGANT (BRAZILIAN MODEL)

Research notes

There is not much information available on the history and development of the 44 Brazilian Nagant that I could find other than a small e-book publication by Gerard Henrotin that was published in 2005. One of the major centres for firearm production in the mid 1800’s was the town of Liege in Belgium. Two brothers, Leon and Emile Nagant founded their company, “Fabrique d‘Armes Emile et Leon Nagant” in Liege in 1859. This cartridge is the basically same as the 44 Henry Center fire. Both SFM and ELEY produced cartridges shown in their catalogues and their boards as .44 Brazilian Nagant(or .44 Henry CF). In the SFM Catalogue dated November 1909 the cartridge is shown as: "Winchester Mod.1866 Cal.44 transform. The Brazilian and Argentine Nagant revolvers are of the least known Nagant developments. Mention is made in the Nagant catalogues of 1895 and 1910 regarding delivery of revolvers to Brazil (Cavalry and Marine). Original Nagant versions are stamped with the Liege Proof Mark that was only used until 1893 so it is assumed that none were manufactured after that date. The German company of Simson & Co. did also manufacture revolvers and the parts are interchangeable with the original Nagant Revolvers. (Erlmeier, Brandt Ref. 410)