Barry Lyndon featured several duels, as well as Irish bandit Captain Feeney, who dual wielded pistols.
As an avid military historian, I’d love to see a reputable cite for the NKVD/KGB carrying multiple handguns - I’ve certainly never heard of the practice before this thread.
As someone mentioned earlier, people in Ye Olden Days who were carrying multiple handguns not because they were channelling Chow-Yun Fat 125 years early, but because it was easier to draw another gun than try and reload a cap-and-ball revolver (especially if you were under attack, which one images you are if you’ve fired off all six shots in your revolver).
The slow reload times of early revolvers largely stopped being an issue when cartridge firing arms became widespread, but even with things like the Colt Peacemaker (which loaded and unloaded via a gate behind the cylinder), a backup gun would have been faster than trying to reload.
I understand at least one of the WWI fighter pilots (I want to say Frank Luke, but Wiki isn’t backing me up on that) was known to carry a brace of handguns when they went aloft too.
There’s also a photograph of Fleet Air Arm pilot Commander A Bloomer, taken during the Korean War, and in which he is carrying no less than six revolvers (as well as Kukris and a Fairbairn-Sykes Commando Knife). The photo is clearly not intended to be serious, though.
Looks to be Australian to me…
Just wanted to address this misconception. I can’t speak for 19th century handguns, but there’s nothing inherently inaccurate about modern handguns (pistol or revolvers).
The short sight-distance of handguns makes it difficult for people to obtain the kind of accuracy the firearm is actually capable of, as most people don’t have the practice (developed hand-eye coordination) to do it.
There are people who can make accurate, repeatable, 100-yard shots on the range with standard, unmodified, out-of-box handguns. This isn’t some amazing feat of marksmanship, but it does take some dedicated practice.
Some practiced shooters with scoped handguns (typically large-caliber revolvers) make 200, even 300 yard shots with them.
In practice, handguns are typically carried as duty weapons by law enforcement and military, as well as licensed concealed carry by civilians. As such, they are “the shit has hit/is currently hitting the fan” firearm, and their wielders aren’t going to be making 100-yard shots; some may be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn at 10 yards uner those conditions.
But that’s not because “…pistols are not known for accuracy; they are close-range weapons…”
Dual-wielding handguns, a.k.a. “Two-Gun Mojo,” is extremely difficult. In “trick” or exhibition shooters, the wielder must have a fair degree of ambidexterity, good peripheral vision, and situational awareness. In the real world, the wielder must have the above, plus a deree of calm under pressure rarely found in human beings. Both require training, and lots and lots and lots of practice.
I’m only going by what the photo credit says, and I have a reference book with the same photo saying it’s a Fleet Air Arm pilot - although I thought he looked like an Aussie too, FWIW. (Australia does not have a Fleet Air Arm).
All I can find online are message board references to dual wield “Macedonian Style” shooting in relation to Soviet special forces and NKVD officers being issued a brace of Nagant revolvers. Nothing authoritative, though.
The cylinder presses up against the barrel when it fires. You can use a silencer on those mother fuckers.
I’m sure there were individual officers/operatives who carried dual handguns, but besides one reference to the practice in a 10 year old thread on a gun forum, I can’t find any reference to the practice being widespread. Also, the (double-action) trigger action on a Nagant M1895 is way too heavy for effective use in one’s off-hand. Combined with the Nagant’s notoriously underpowered cartridge (ballistically similar to .32 S&W or maybe .32 H&R Magnum) and I really can’t see much point for wanting to dual-wield one outside of a movie.
Given what a pain the Nagant is to load/unload (same system as the Colt Peacemaker et al), I could understand carrying a second one as a back-up - but blazing away with two of them A Better Tomorrow-style would just leave our NKVD chap with two empty-and-difficult-to-reload handguns instead of one.
Which the NKVD (and later, I believe, the KGB) were known to do.