Lyman plains pistol

I have coming in the mail a plains pistol with both 54 and 50 barrels. Haven't shot one of these, but I figured they would make fun toys and good companions to 50 and 54 hunting rifles. What do I need to know about shooting these? Are they just like short barrel versions of the rifles? Can you shoot conicals out of them? Any tips and tricks?

They can use the same balls as your rifles but I suggest that you use a thinner patch for the pistols.

The thinner patch will let you start the patched ball into the bore easier.
As for shooting conicals, it can be done but if you use a stout powder load like 35+ grains the gun will have some severe recoil. It's been known to break the stocks on the gun.

A 30-35 grain powder load under a patched roundball will give a lot of power at pistol range, without the excessive recoil.

Thanks, zonie. I don't really have any interest in shooting conicals out of these things, more just idle curiosity on that score.

Zonie nailed it...

They may be a lot of fun, but anything that uses 30 grains of black powder to launch a ball isn't a toy.

Grenadier1758 said:

They may be a lot of fun, but anything that uses 30 grains of black powder to launch a ball isn't a toy.

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Absolutely. I was more thinking "range toy." If I can get it to be accurate with low charges (10? 15?) I think it would be an ideal thing to pop a grouse or incautious squirrel/rabbit with.

brewer12345 said:

I have coming in the mail a plains pistol with both 54 and 50 barrels. Haven't shot one of these, but I figured they would make fun toys and good companions to 50 and 54 hunting rifles. What do I need to know about shooting these? Are they just like short barrel versions of the rifles? Can you shoot conicals out of them? Any tips and tricks?

Click to expand...

I have a .50 GPR pistol, as well. I love it. 40 grains of 2FG Goex behind a .490 home cast lead round ball over a .15 patch and I‘m on target. Being on target took a lot of practice, seeing as how I like to shoot it one handed “dueling” style.

I have fired one with 100 grains of ffg. Soon got over than REAL SOON. I usually used 20 grains. Very accurate.

brewer12345 said:

Absolutely. I was more thinking "range toy." If I can get it to be accurate with low charges (10? 15?) I think it would be an ideal thing to pop a grouse or incautious squirrel/rabbit with.

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Congrats on the new gun! I have a .54 Plains Pistol. I use the same .530 ball and .018 pillow ticking patch that I use in all of my GPRs. Its very accurate. For small game I use 20 grains of Goex FFF. This comes in at 655fps.

I've taken grouse, cottontails and a snowshoe hare with mine. Here's a link to a few pics of game I've taken with it. This was from a small game handgun hunting thread on this site.

Small Game Handgun Hunting

@brewer12345, if you're interested, here's a link to a thread I did on the snowshoe hare hunt. I took it with a ball I cast over a fire that morning. Sorry for the "photobucket" banner across the pics.

Plains Pistol Snowshoe Casting Over Fire

Dang it you guys now you got me wanting one. Those hunting pics pab1 posted looks like too much fun. I'm going to have to try that.

A buddy of mine has killed 2 deer with 50 cal flintlock pistol years ago. I think his load was only about 20 grains of 3f under a patched round ball. Shots were taken at very close range of course, under 20 yards.