Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle
- Category
- Rifle
- Barrel
- 610 mm
- Weight, empty
- 2.00 kg
- Introduced
- 1880
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle is a single-shot rimfire parlor and gallery rifle built around the low-powered 6mm Flobert cartridge, using the Warnant action patented by the Belgian gunmakers J. Warnant Frères of Liège. Its defining feature is a vertically swinging U-shaped breech block with a separate flip-over firing pin that both locks the action closed and drives a sliding extractor as the breech is opened. Chambered for the mild, near-silent Flobert bulleted-breech-cap ammunition, the rifle was quiet and gentle enough to be fired indoors in shooting galleries and parlors. Largely unmarked and built of soft, inexpensive steel, Warnant-Flobert rifles were mass-produced in Belgium and exported by the ton to the United States between about 1885 and 1910 as cheap boys' and gallery rifles.
Louis-Nicolas Flobert's 1845 bulleted breech cap created the first self-contained metallic rimfire and, with it, a whole class of quiet indoor guns. The Warnant brothers of Liège gave the Flobert rifle one of its most successful actions, a simple swinging breech block cheap enough to arm every parlor and shooting gallery in Europe and America. Sold for as little as $2.50 around 1920, these rifles taught generations of youngsters to shoot before smokeless small-bore rifles displaced them.
The Warnant is one of three classic Flobert breech patterns and is the type most commonly found in the United States. Barrels were made in round or octagonal profiles and were either rifled or smoothbore; also chambered in 9mm Flobert and .22 Short. Considered antiques today, and unsafe with modern ammunition due to soft steel and corrosive-primer erosion.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- J. Warnant Frères
- Category
- Rifle
- Country
- Belgium
- Status
- Discontinued
- Produced
- 1880 to 1920
DimensionsAs issued, without a magazine or an optic.
- Barrel
- 610 mm
- Overall length
- 1015 mm
- Weight, empty
- 2.00 kg
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Action
- Falling block
- Firing mechanism
- Hammer fired
- Trigger
- Single action
- Capacity
- 1
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
- Stock
- Walnut
- Finish
- Blued
BallisticsFrom the service cartridge, not a handload.
- Muzzle velocity
- 213 m/s
- Muzzle energy
- 27 J
- Effective range
- 15 m
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Warnant vertically swinging breech block
Separate flip-over firing pin that locks the action- Sliding extractor operated on opening
Exposed spur hammer
Long round or octagonal target barrel
One-piece walnut stock
Standing
How it compares
Each figure against the firearms of the same type and cartridge that record it, or of the same type where that cartridge has too few. Positions are read to the nearest tenth.
| Measurement | This firearm | Median | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empty weightAmong 1,612 rifles | 2.00 kg | 3.50 kg | Lighter than about 90% |
| Overall lengthAmong 1,557 rifles | 1015 mm | 1080 mm | Shorter than about 70% |
| Barrel lengthAmong 1,659 rifles | 610 mm | 584 mm | Longer than about 60% |
| Magazine capacityAmong 1,611 rifles | 1 | 5 | Holds fewer rounds than about 90% |
Answers
Questions about the Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle
How much does the Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle weigh?
The Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle weighs 2.00 kg (4.41 lb) empty.
What caliber is the Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle?
The Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle is chambered in .22 BB Cap (6mm Flobert).
How many rounds does the Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle hold?
The Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle holds 1 rounds.
How long is the Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle?
The Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle is 1015 mm (40.0 in) long overall, with a 610 mm (24.0 in) barrel.
Who makes the Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle?
The Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle is made by J. Warnant Frères (Belgium). It was designed by J. Warnant Frères.
When was the Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle introduced?
The Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle was introduced in 1880 and discontinued in 1920.
How does the Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle operate?
The Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle uses a falling block action, and its firing mechanism is hammer fired.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
In service
Provenance
Confidence in this record
75%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/warnant-flobert-gallery-rifle' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "warnant-flobert-gallery-rifle", "name": "Warnant Flobert Gallery Rifle", "manufacturer": { "id": "warnant", "name": "J. Warnant Frères", "countryCode": "BE", "foundedYear": 1870, "website": null, "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "updatedAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "version": "b6ecd24fdff6fa074844528fca51cd4f8e63c7bf2aaeee18a6eac2ed63893efa" }, "category": { "id": "rifle", "name": "Rifle", "description": "Long-barreled firearms designed for accurate shooting" }, "country_of_origin": "BE", "year_introduced": 1880, "barrel_length_mm": 610, "weight_empty_g": 2000, "action_type": "falling_block"}