You are a craftsman, Sir. Well done.
DG
You are a craftsman, Sir. Well done.
DG
@725.
How is your pistol that I built for you shooting ?
You will find out, that a .440 round ball in your barrel will produce outstanding results.
I have .440 lead balls.
On my other .45 pistol.
It shoots balls that are .436 better.
I have a .440 mold somewhere that mostly casts .436 with pure lead.
But it will cast .440 balls if I add a little Tin to the pure lead.
LAGS - Just great. It's a funner, for sure. I plan on slimming the wood down some more. That dog-gone African wood is so tough I'm hesitant to start whittling away. Don't want to use a belt grinder as the grit leaves deep marks that takes forever to get past. I'll get at it as time permits. Will finish with a cabinet scrape for that smooth, fine finish. In the mean time, it will go along with me to class and my little range for fun.
I too might lighten up the stock on this one.
On both pistols I just used a Wood Rasp to remove the big parts.
Then I just hand sanded it.
On my recent build.
I am also considering changing out the trigger guard.
From that Brass one now.
To a guard like the one I built for your pistol out of steel.
That is one thing that is nice about building guns out of parts.
You get to decide how you want it to look because most of the time , you are not correctly copying a specific pistol design.
Last edited by LAGS; 05-14-2023 at 11:04 PM.
LAGS, yep, I like the steel furniture on mine. Brass has its place on so many and, frankly, nothing but brass will do, sometimes. On mine, steel was the right answer. My long gun has steel furniture and the two of them just go together.
I've thought about a rasp, but didn't want to tear into the fiber of the wood too fast. Once it's gone, it's gone. That sapel is tough stuff. Makes working on it a test.
I took the pistol out today and shot it.
It shoots just fine.
It does shoot a little off to the left.
But I built it using some shotgun bead sights I had laying around off an old Mossberg 500.
I think I will take the rear bead off and build a blade sight of some kind that I can do some adjustments.
As far as shaping the wood on your pistol.
I shape the stocks with a Vulcanite File I got from Brownells.
It cuts your wood very good and fairly smooth.
The rasp is used to remove very large hunks.
Then final shaping is done with the Vulcanite.
They are very expensive.
Like I think I paid $45 for each of them.
But man are they well worth it.
They are rounded on one side and tapered to a point to get into hard places and follow curves.
Lags ~ I'm going to check into that.
Trust me.
Those Vulcanite files are great and very useful for other things than guns.
I bought one back in 2008 after seeing and using them in a Custom Rifle building class I took.
I lost it when I moved.
So I bought a second one.
Then I found my first one in a box of junk.
Now with Two , I always have one with in arms reach.
I had a good day shooting even though it was very hot here today.
I took out all my BP pistols.
I have a New Orleans Ace , a Philadelphia Derringer and a Spanish made Kentucky Pistol , and this new pistol.
All hit the target at 11 yards even though some don't have sights or their sights are not that great.
I shot all of the pistols with homemade BP and Homemade primer caps.
You can see the rear bead sight on these. It is an interesting grip for certain, but a fascinating pistol.
Nice job! A ramrod would be a nice addition.
I am considering a ramrod.
I am playing with the style like on English Tower Pistols that has a part that attaches the rod to the bottom of the barrel on a hinged yoke.
I am considering a Brass Ramrod rather than wood.
A steel ramrod wouldn’t look out of place either, but if you intend to actually use it, brass would be best.
That trigger is certainly different.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |