Muzzleloader pistol

[mtnman]

Well, I finally finished my flintlock pistol.  I built it from components, and had to do all the inletting, shaping, and most of the metal work.  I actually started this gun a few years ago, ran into some trouble on inletting the lock, and then shelved it.  then I moved, and got real distracted with my birds for a few years, hehe!  I've built several kits before, but this was only my second attempt at such a "raw" start.  My rifle turned out great, so I decided to make a matching-caliber pistol.

Anyway, I was off work due to a surgery, and figured I may as well finish it up, so hopefully I can use it for deer this fall/winter.

Kentucky style flintlock pistol, .54 cal.
10" Octagonal barrel (rifled), 15.75" overall, Maple stock, brass furniture, finished weight of 43.5oz.

I got out and test fired it today, and everything seems great.  Off a bench, with no experimentation yet on patches, loads, projectiles, or fine-tuning the lock or trigger, it's shooting 3" groups at 25 yards.  My two off-hand shots were right in there too!  I should be able to improve on that with some load refinement.  The front sight needs to be filed down, it's about twice the height it needs to be (on purpose, it's easier to fill down the front sight to bring the impact point up, than to file down the rear to bring the impact point down).  It started out shooting a few inches left, too, but I fixed that already...

I'm not sure what my final load will amount to.  This is the same barrel/plug combo I used for my rifle, and is rated to 120gr of powder.  I won't be able to consume that much in the 10" barrel.  I want to come up with a "target" or "normal" charge, and also work up a hunting charge.  I normally shoot patched round balls, but do have 300 380gr conical's that shoot terrible out of my rifle (rate of twist is too slow) but may be fine for this pistol since the twist is much faster (1-22").  That may help with the overall energy level too, if I can hang on tight enough (I'm guessing two hands, hehe!)

I've got it pretty greased-up right now, trying to keep the browning (controlled rust) from building any more.  That will eventually be reduced...

A couple pictures-





And a few tiny video clips (realtime, and slow-motion, since flintlocks rock!)-

http://s107.photobucket.com/albums/m309/Mtnman_03/?action=view&current=Flintlockrealtime.flv

http://s107.photobucket.com/albums/m309/Mtnman_03/?action=view&current=Flinlock25.flv

[Maverick]

If the finish is where you want it to be (dark enough) simply use some solvent to clean it then oil it up. You will get bright showing on the edges of the barrel as the browning will wear there very fast.

For that short of a barrel I'd imagine that no more than 60 gr (by volume) of black would be a max effective load. Any more and it's just blowing out the muzzle. The conical slugs might work well. Start way low for loads with them.

[Reschke]

Good looking pistol there man. Looks a little shiny but that will take care of itself with you shooting it to get your load. Maverick is onto something though with the powder load...but I don't shoot pistols just big guns that my dad and I have built/traded for/bought over the years.

[mtnman]

Good looking pistol there man. Looks a little shiny but that will take care of itself with you shooting it to get your load. Maverick is onto something though with the powder load...but I don't shoot pistols just big guns that my dad and I have built/traded for/bought over the years.

I'd have to agree, I'm not a fan of the "new and shiny" look either.  It'll go away pretty quick though, hehe!

I normally just skip right past the guns with brass furniture for that reason, and go right for the steel.  It wouldn't have looked right on this style though, so I just let the brass tarnish.

[mtnman]

If the finish is where you want it to be (dark enough) simply use some solvent to clean it then oil it up. You will get bright showing on the edges of the barrel as the browning will wear there very fast.

For that short of a barrel I'd imagine that no more than 60 gr (by volume) of black would be a max effective load. Any more and it's just blowing out the muzzle. The conical slugs might work well. Start way low for loads with them.

I don't think you're far off on the powder charge. 

I'm primarily going to use it for target shooting, and wouldn't be surprised to find my best load being awful light, maybe as low as 20-30gr with a patched ball.  As long as it's enough to get the ball to obturate...

I'd like a beefier load for deer hunting out to 30yds or so, so I'll work that up separately.  In my .45 with a ten inch barrel, I was able to burn 60gr fully.  In theory, I should be able to burn more with the .54, but we'll see.  I've never found the "max" load to be the "best" load either.  I'm shooting actual black powder, in both 2F and 3F, so that may be why I can consume more in the short barrel.  It ignites much easier than the synthetics I've played with.  I really prefer the 2F in my long guns, but we'll see, I may like the 3F in the pistol.  The flash-hole on the pistol is small enough for 3F too, where the flash-holes on my others are large enough that the 3F sometimes trickles a few granules.

I'm also thinking recoil with the larger bullets may be pretty severe, so i don't want to stoke it up too high, and I probably don't need to anyway.  With the fast-twist rifling I shouldn't need to push the bullet that fast to stabilize it, and it should still carry plenty of punch.

[mtnman]

If the finish is where you want it to be (dark enough) simply use some solvent to clean it then oil it up. You will get bright showing on the edges of the barrel as the browning will wear there very fast.

For that short of a barrel I'd imagine that no more than 60 gr (by volume) of black would be a max effective load. Any more and it's just blowing out the muzzle. The conical slugs might work well. Start way low for loads with them.

What type of solvent?  I've only ever used hot soapy water...

I'm interested in a different option.

[Saxman]

Would conicals even be accurate for that period weapon? I didn't think they started using those until much later.

[oakranger]

WTG MtMan.  Will you be using that at redvious?   

BTY, Do you know where i can get .73 balls or a cast to make them.  I am having a heck of a time finding them for my Brown Bess. 

[mtnman]

Would conicals even be accurate for that period weapon? I didn't think they started using those until much later.

No, and I wouldn't use them for "period" shooting events.  

I'd only use them for the energy advantage while hunting.

At least I use period correct powder and flints, most folks don't even do that! 

Using the pistol as a hunting weapon probably isn't very "period correct" either.  I'm sure it happened, but it wasn't the "norm", nor the intended use of the weapon.

Time period for the pistol is roughly 1810-1825.  I'm not sure when the conical projectiles came out, but they were in use by the Civil War.

The majority of the conical projectiles readily available nowadays aren't period correct at all.  The ones I have I currently use for my slingshot, and was planning to melt down into something useful.  If they work for the pistol I could use a couple each year, and have ammo for hunting until about 2085.

I've always preferred the plain old round balls.

[EskimoJoe]

She's a beaut, mtnman 

[mtnman]

WTG MtMan.  Will you be using that at redvious?   

BTY, Do you know where i can get .73 balls or a cast to make them.  I am having a heck of a time finding them for my Brown Bess. 

Yup, I'll use it for the rendezvous shoots!

Have you tried Dixie Gun Works?  Or Track of the Wolf?  They (balls) are way too expensive to buy them through the mail.  You'd be further ahead to buy a mold.  I bought the ball mould for my Bess through Dixie.

[Maverick]

What type of solvent?  I've only ever used hot soapy water...

I'm interested in a different option.

Really any kind of mild oil based solvent. The browning process is just oxidation by plan (so is bluing) so you need to stop the rusting and stabilize the metal. Getting rid of the browning solution then putting oil in the pores of the metal will do that. Just soak it in the solvent a bit, scrub mildly, 000 steel wool works good, just do it very lightly then using a good quality gun oil, slather it on and let soak. Wipe and repeat the oil and it will be good to go. Keep oil on it between shooting sessions like any other quality non stainless firearm.

My black powder weapons were rifles. I had a .45 and a .50 I used for hunting. The conical slugs (225 gr in .45) and heavy loads of black or pyrodex recoiled HARD. The .50 was worse as the slugs were even heavier and 90 grains of black kicks pretty stout.

[Captfish]

That is very cool! 

I have a pair of  blackpowder revolvers they are 1860s replicas one Colt and one Remington. for both  I use round balls felt patches with between 30gr and 50gr of Pinnacle FFFg. I generally load it with 35gr, I tried 50 a few times but it kicks like a mule and seems inaccurate. I also tried 15 but the ball barely rolled out the end of the barrel

[Reschke]

I also tried 15 but the ball barely rolled out the end of the barrel

That is kinda funny to see that happen sometimes. The worst is to get a ball stuck in a barrel because you just were playing around and wanted to see what would happen with a very low powder charge...man my dad was P/O'ed that time. I was in high school just playing around with it and we ended up taking the barrel to a gunsmith who laughed at me. $100 bucks later and the barrel was about 6 inches shorter and I had to make a new stock for a Hawken type instead of the long rifle it was. I learned my lesson.

[Shuffler]

I like!!!