56 years ago......

[Rapidrob]

I was going though my reloading stuff and ran across a muzzle loading pistol I made in 1965 when I was a 14 year old teenager.
I was working for a local gun shop in Maryland and decided to build a pistol from scraps and parts from Dixie Gun Works.
Many Mauser rifles were cut down and pieces of barrels were in the trash. I took a 8x57mm barrel piece and made a breech plug. I made a flash tube and threaded it into the breech of the plugged barrel.
I bought a Dixie Gun Works lock that was from the later portion of the Civil War era. I drilled a hole through the hammer and drove in a ten-penny nail to use as a paper cap hammer. Pistol caps were expensive, more than I could afford at the time. Matel Greeny Stick-em caps were very cheap to buy. The paper caps set off the black powder charge of 15 grains of FFFG just about every single time. I was back then using O-Buck Shot as a projectile out of the 8mm barrel.
The pistol grip was carved out of Ceder wood from a forest close to my home. I made a trigger guard out of an old ice tea spoon. A copper strip was added for looks at the fore end. A cleaning rod/ram rod was made from a brass rod scrap piece.
I never did find a set of sights that worked and ended up just sighting down the barrel. I got pretty good with it for a couple of years until I got bored shooting the pistol after buying a .36 Navy revolver.
Today it has taken a long time to find paper caps. They are considered explosives for some reason and took a long time to be found and shipped into town. I will use a glue stick to keep a paper cap from blowing off of the flash tube.
I resized my cast .32 ACP bullets to .298 and made the bullets hollow base to expand like a mine' ball on my lathe.
For the first time in 56 years I fired the pistol yesterday. I felt like a teenager again and remember the fun times I had in the forest shooting the pistol.
I plan on shooting the pistol at the range to see if it will shoot accurately at 15 yards this week end.

[jakharath]

That is pretty awesome!

[Scrounge]

I was going though my reloading stuff and ran across a muzzle loading pistol I made in 1965 when I was a 14 year old teenager.
I was working for a local gun shop in Maryland and decided to build a pistol from scraps and parts from Dixie Gun Works.
Many Mauser rifles were cut down and pieces of barrels were in the trash. I took a 8x57mm barrel piece and made a breech plug. I made a flash tube and threaded it into the breech of the plugged barrel.
I bought a Dixie Gun Works lock that was from the later portion of the Civil War era. I drilled a hole through the hammer and drove in a ten-penny nail to use as a paper cap hammer. Pistol caps were expensive, more than I could afford at the time. Matel Greeny Stick-em caps were very cheap to buy. The paper caps set off the black powder charge of 15 grains of FFFG just about every single time. I was back then using O-Buck Shot as a projectile out of the 8mm barrel.
The pistol grip was carved out of Ceder wood from a forest close to my home. I made a trigger guard out of an old ice tea spoon. A copper strip was added for looks at the fore end. A cleaning rod/ram rod was made from a brass rod scrap piece.
I never did find a set of sights that worked and ended up just sighting down the barrel. I got pretty good with it for a couple of years until I got bored shooting the pistol after buying a .36 Navy revolver.
Today it has taken a long time to find paper caps. They are considered explosives for some reason and took a long time to be found and shipped into town. I will use a glue stick to keep a paper cap from blowing off of the flash tube.
I resized my cast .32 ACP bullets to .298 and made the bullets hollow base to expand like a mine' ball on my lathe.
For the first time in 56 years I fired the pistol yesterday. I felt like a teenager again and remember the fun times I had in the forest shooting the pistol.
I plan on shooting the pistol at the range to see if it will shoot accurately at 15 yards this week end.

That is a great deal nicer than anything I ever made in the way of firearms. I did find that you can order caps from Cabela's, and pick them up at the store, and there is a place that sells those and other things of interest to muzzle-loader shooters and reenactors via mail order. Civil War Stuff & More <sales@civilwarstuff.com> https://www.civilwarstuff.com/

Just as an aside, you could make percussion caps with copper foil, and use the roll caps as stuffing in the copper foil caps to make your own percussion caps, just for giggles!

Bill

[725]

What fun. Good to hear an old story about when times were normal.

[LAGS]

Your story brings back many memories of the stuff I built back when I was a kid.
Like a cannon I built out of an old Mauser barrel with the chamber cut off.
Thank you for sharing your good times.

[SSGOldfart]

Yes Sir good times for sure

[GregLaROCHE]

That’s an impressive accomplishment for someone at that age. You’re lucky you’ve been able to hang on to it. Have you shot it recently? If not, you should. Bring a little life back to it from time to time.

[Rapidrob]

I did get the caps at Cabela's. My store will not stock them. I got them off their internet store. Box was huge to TWO ROLLS of caps! And marked EXPLOSIVES!!!! For paper caps, all 500 of them.
I have test fired the pistol into my bullet trap yesterday. Woks as I remembered.

[Agent1187]

I've assembled worse looking stuff at double the age.

Whatever it takes for a boy to launch metal using fire and low grade explosives, right?

[Gtrubicon]

Pretty awesome!

[dondiego]

That is a much better looking specimen than my 1/2 inch galvanized pipe gun that I made to shoot black powder at that age. I did fill the handle up with melted wheel weights and it gave it much better balance! I managed to shoot holes in the back of the garage of my father's government owned home. I covered the holes with cardboard and my dad never found out.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Look for "Legends of the West" roll caps (Made in Germany) in the toy section of Walmart, they are also in many toy/hobby stores or even a large grocery store (my google search says HEB carries them). They aren't that expensive and come in 2400 qty packages.
I use them to make my own percussion caps with Manny's cap maker. Legends work better than the other roll caps that are made today (most others come from China).

[Rapidrob]

I went to the range today to hold a practice match at 500 meters for the Santa Shoot.
I had a few minutes to myself and tried out the pistol with 15 grains of FFFG powder and my home made mine' ball bullets.
The first shot out of a clean bore when high right of center. The 2nd shot was in the circle with the 3rd and 4th shots pretty much dead center. The 5th shot hit the target sideways. I was using Gorex powder and it is very poor in the high desert as it dries out into a crusty bore after just a couple of shots. The bullet did not obdurate into the rifling.
There are NO SIGHTS on this pistol, so I just sighted down the barrel. The target was at 15 yards. I was very pleased with my home made bullets and the fact that I remember how to shoot the pistol accurately after 56 years!
My fellow club members were shocked with how well it shot,for what it is. A pistol made by a teenager.

[toot]

amazing, just amazing! it was / is in your genes!

[ourway77]

56 years ago I was married 56years