The JoLoAr pistol was a combination of a poor-selling and unremarkable Spanish blowback semiauto pistol called the Sharpshooter and an idea by a man named Jose Lopez Arnaiz (whose name is the source of the pistol's name). Arnaiz conceived the idea of mounting a lever (called a palanca in Spanish) onto a pistol slide, to allow the pistol to be charged one-handed.

One story of the inspiration for these pistols involves a commander of the Spanish Foreign Legion, Colonel José Millán-Astray. As a young officer in the Spanish military, the Colonel lost his left arm (and right eye) in fighting at San Rafael in the Philippines. Some say the gun was designed as one he could operate with his single remaining hand.

As a young officer in the Spanish military, Colonel José Millán-Astray lost his left arm (and right eye) in fighting at San Rafael in the Philippines. Some say the gun was designed as one he could operate with his single remaining hand.

Another story explaining the guns origin—and one probably more likely to be true—is that it was designed for cavalry. Operating the slide on a typical automatic pistol requires the use of both hands, and troops on horseback are generally using one hand to maintain control of the reins. This is one reason revolvers remained popular with cavalry; they were simpler to operate one-handed (although not to reload).

But whatever the inspiration, Arnaiz patented his idea, and went looking for a manufacturer.

The company he found was Hijos de Calixto Arrizabalaga, who were making the rather mundane Sharpshooter (which, humorously, had grip panels with the misspelled name "SHARPSOOTER"). This was a blowback pistol, which was designed without an extractor. Instead, it was equipped with a tip-up barrel for clearing malfunctions and unloading the chamber. This feature carried over to the JoLoAr, although an extractor had also been added to the design by that time. Wanting to maintain control over his idea, Arnaiz opened his own small shop where his employees would add his patented palanca to otherwise-complete JoLoAr pistols made by Arrizabalaga.

Arrizabalaga's experiment with the Arnaiz idea worked out fairly well, really. About 30,000 JoLoAr pistols were made between the mid 1920s and early 1930s, which is probably a lot more than would have been sold as plain Sharpshooters. They were made in five calibers— .25ACP, .32ACP, .380ACP, 9mm Largo, and .45ACP. The main large buyer was the Peruvian mounted police, which bought them in 9mm Largo for issue to regular troops and in .380ACP for officers (which supports the idea that the guns were designed with cavalry in mind).

These Peruvian-purchased guns make up the vast majority of JoLoArs available in the US today, as they were imported here when the Peruvian police replaced them. Confusingly, they are both marked "9mm", since .38 inches equates to 9mm. However, the two guns can be distinguished by barrel length, magazine size, and the rear sight location (in .380 it's a groove in the slide; in 9mm Largo it's a sight milled into the rear end of the barrel).

Since the guns have no half-cock notch, manual safety, or hammer block, the only safe way to carry one is with a loaded magazine and empty chamber.

The mounted police presumably purchased them for the utility of being able to use one-handed, while controlling a horse with the second hand. This is a bit awkward until you really have practiced it, but definitely works. Since the guns have no half-cock notch, manual safety, or hammer block, the only safe way to carry one is with a loaded magazine and empty chamber. This fits well with the palanca, as the gun can be (again, with practice) charged quickly while being drawn from a holster.

Beyond this, the guns are fairly typical in operation. Both the .380 and 9mm Largo versions are relatively large and heavy for their caliber, which makes them comfortable and easy to shoot. The grip is pretty decent, and the fixed barrel design allows them to be surprisingly accurate – as long as you can work with the small sights (particularly on the .380). While I don't think I would choose to carry one myself, they would actually make a very practical option for a person with only one hand or arm. And, of course, they make a great addition to any collection of unusual handguns.

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Ian McCollum is the founder of ForgottenWeapons.com, a website and YouTube channel dedicated preserving the history of rare and obscure guns from around the world.

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