Dual Caliber Mountain Pistol

Rotator cuff surgery scheduled soon so rushing to complete "salvage" projects. The first (Frankenflinter) is now relatively complete so its time for the dual caliber Mountain Pistol. The plan was to take a standard .50 CVA MP and add a .40 target barrel in a cased set. The latter was an new (old stock) Douglas pistol barrel blank from decades ago. The basic pistol was an old, partially assembled kit that was missing some small parts and had a crack near the escutcheon area. With crack repaired the hard part was fitting a 13/16 barrel in a 15/16 barrel channel. Thin copper shims soldered on worked well. Many of the parts like the underrib, sideplate, thimble, rod etc were handmade. Others like the captured rod swivel, target rear sight, drum. breechplug ect. were recycled. Both the pistol and the frankenflinter remain to be tested on the range (backyard forest). The case will have to wait.

That longer barrel sure improves the look of the old Mountain Pistol! I love mine, I have one each in .45 and .50 and they both shoot great.

I like the longer barrel too and the copper shims center it well. The MP's huge grip balances it fine. Was lucky to find i still had a number of the small fully adjustable rear sights around and that they fit the top flat perfectly. The captured rod still needs a way to retain it. Thinking either a spring or magnet at rear of original rod channel. Magnet would require ferrous rod ends to work, Those mid channel springs don't work well for me.

FWIW The ramrod issue was solved with a small cutoff section of "V" magazine spring tightly lodged in the bottom at the very end of the ramrod channel (narrow end forward.) Works for both barrels/rods and you can feel it "lock" rods in place.