Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
A pistol I made.
 Login/Join
 
Booshway
Picture of andy*
posted
So I wanted a pistol to go with my Hawken rifle.
Couldn't really find or afford what I wanted so I made one.
This pistol was made from spare parts from around the shop.
A chunk of old rifle barrel ( .54 cal ) , a converted flintlock and a piece of maple from a friends tree are some of the parts.
Ignore the Colt Dragoon ...
Andy


Follow me I am the Infantry


 
Posts: 668 | Location: Everson, Washington | Registered: 27 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
Picture of TurkeyCreek
posted Hide Post
That is a VERY nice pistol! Great job! BTW, enjoyed the last post from the museum blog on the "Bill Willyums" rifle.
I have a buddy that brought me back a pistol from a second hand shop in Colorado last year. It was a patent breach .44 Dimmick barrel that had apparently burst and someone had crookedly cut it off to about 6 inches and made a crudely stocked pistol out of it. I took the barrel, lock and trigger out of the home carved stock and they're laying on the work bench waiting their turn to be restocked into something like you have here. Then I'll have a pistol with an honest to goodness Dimmick barrel in it.


"They do not live their lives 'by your leave'! They hack it out of the wilderness with their own two hands, bearing their children along the way!" - Cora Monroe - "Last Of The Mohicans"
 
Posts: 186 | Location: Turkey Creek on Cimarron Drainage | Registered: 10 September 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
posted Hide Post
I really like that pistol; it's what I envision for a good carry, backup pistol. Unfortunately, I'm not capable of that level of work.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3559 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of andy*
posted Hide Post
Thanks TurkeyCreek for the kind words about the museum's blog.
Would love to see your pistol someday. Very cool to re-use a Dimmick barrel.

Thank you Hanshi,
It took lots of practice and umm ,Infantry language to get that pistol together LOL
I shoot about 30-40 grains of 2F a .15 patch and .530 round ball . That load works pretty good out to 25 yards or so.
Andy


Follow me I am the Infantry
 
Posts: 668 | Location: Everson, Washington | Registered: 27 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Graybeard
posted Hide Post
Very nice work!


Experience is the best teacher, hunger good sauce.
Osborne Russell Journal of a Trapper
 
Posts: 212 | Location: SW Montana | Registered: 17 December 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of andy*
posted Hide Post
Thank you pab1
Andy


Follow me I am the Infantry
 
Posts: 668 | Location: Everson, Washington | Registered: 27 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
posted Hide Post
.

Thank you Hanshi,
It took lots of practice and umm ,Infantry language to get that pistol together LOL
I shoot about 30-40 grains of 2F a .15 patch and .530 round ball . That load works pretty good out to 25 yards or so.
Andy[/QUOTE]



Well, I have the "language" part down but I know there is more to it than that...right?


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3559 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
posted Hide Post
I've been thinking about getting a pistol kit as I have absolutely zero confidence in my ability to build one on my own.Any suggestions as to kit for a very rank beginner?


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
posted Hide Post
Oh,and I've also got the "language" part taken care of....Heh.


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of andy*
posted Hide Post
Boartooth and Hanshi,
I started with rebuilding wrecked guns or kits that were given up on.
You could get a kit that is 90% finished , one of those gun kits that are "in the white"
Or buy a completed pistol / "fixer upper" and make the changes or modifications you like and want on it.
Do you know someone close by who builds guns that you can ask for advice?
Just work slow and when you hit a snag , think and ask someone before you do anything.
Let me know if I or my friend Dave can help.
Andy


Follow me I am the Infantry
 
Posts: 668 | Location: Everson, Washington | Registered: 27 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
posted Hide Post
Andy,there's an active buckskinner group in my area,but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of artisans,or gun builders...hmm,I'm gonna have to think about this...


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of MountainRanger
posted Hide Post
Darned fine looking pistola Andy. You made this simple, yet refined and it sure looks like it means business. I admire y'all who can work the wood and metal. I'll stick to my leather. It speaks to me like the in-process gun does for you.

Oh, and not only must a craftsman know those "special words" that give a recalcitrant screw or crooked bit of grain the proper encouragement to do right, he must know how to hold his mouth right! Like an old ferrier once told me when I was about 15... "if you want to get a shoe to stay on a horse, the first thing you need to learn is to hold your mouth right"! He was absolutely correct!!!


Sua Sponte
 
Posts: 460 | Location: SW Virginia (New River Valley) | Registered: 13 August 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of andy*
posted Hide Post
Thank you Mountain Ranger.
Boartooth , there is a blackpowder gun show at the Monroe Wa. fairgrounds the second weekend in march , is that too far for you to travel?
I'll be there both days off and on with my club.
Andy


Follow me I am the Infantry
 
Posts: 668 | Location: Everson, Washington | Registered: 27 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
posted Hide Post
Looks like a keeper.


"I don't know where we're goin', but there's no sense bein' late." Quigley
 
Posts: 104 | Location: The Beehive State | Registered: 12 April 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
posted Hide Post
that's a nice pistol! obviously you've done this before. either that, or you're very skilled.
 
Posts: 18 | Registered: 14 February 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Notchy Bob
posted Hide Post
Well, I'm about three and a half years late for this particular thread, but better late than never, I reckon.

First of all, there's no need for Andy to apologize for that First Model Dragoon. It loads from the front end and shoots black powder, and period accounts indicate these revolvers were very popular on the frontier. That 1840 "cutoff" date that pervades the modern-day rendezvous culture is arbitrary, in my opinion. The fur trade did not stop after 1840, and it's not like the mountain men all left the mountains and plains. Roosevelt described meeting trappers diligently plying their trade and carrying muzzleloaders into the 1880's. Those Colt Dragoon revolvers are fine old guns. Not to mention the fact that I ordered one (a reproduction) through a gunsmith who is tuning it up for me as I write. I am looking forward to shooting it.

Regarding the pistol which is the actual subject of this thread, I certainly agree with the consensus. Andy did a fine job building this piece. I thought it had a patent breech at first, but then enlarged the picture and re-read to original post. What I thought was a "snail" is the remnant of the pan on the converted flint lock, supporting the drum. This pistol looks like a piece that was just discovered after being in storage for the past 180 years, and I mean that as a sincere compliment. The geometry of the stock and the metal and wood finish are perfect. Unpretentious, but well put together. It looks like a pistol which was built out of recycled parts by a skilled gunsmith, which in fact it was, but I think this was more common on the frontier than now. The term that comes to mind is bricolage, which is the practice of using what's available to make something necessary or beautiful. This pistol has some real character.

That horn is a keeper, too.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob


"Should have kept the old ways just as much as I could, and the tradition that guarded us. Should have rode horses. Kept dogs."

from The Antelope Wife
 
Posts: 333 | Location: Florida | Registered: 24 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
Picture of JoeM
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by andy*:
So I wanted a pistol to go with my Hawken rifle.
Couldn't really find or afford what I wanted so I made one.
This pistol was made from spare parts from around the shop.
A chunk of old rifle barrel ( .54 cal ) , a converted flintlock and a piece of maple from a friends tree are some of the parts.
Ignore the Colt Dragoon ...
Andy


Much like Andy made in 2016, I'm gonna make one very similar... Mine will be a .50 cal Flintlock using a piece of an old Douglas barrel (1" x 7-1/2" x .50 w/1 in 66 twist) - to go along with my .50 cal flintlock Lyman GPR... The lock will also be a (Lyman GPR Lock) that I picked up at a good price from a friend a couple years back. Nothing fancy, just a plain Jane belly gun that probably won't be very accurate outside of 15 yards, but it narrows the rifle and pistol down to the same patch & ball, and same sizes of flints. Ought'a be fun at Rendezvous. Smiler


Ohio Joe / Chadron Fur Trade Days
 
Posts: 69 | Location: Nebraska | Registered: 05 August 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 


2014 Historical Enterprises, LLC