Kozmo
40 Cal
I recently acquired an excellent H Aston US model 1842 pistol from a forum member here. I've never owned a single shot pistol, but this one was too cool for me to pass up.
Got it out to the lease this weekend for a little exercise and it was the highlight of the day! (And that was against an 1892 Winchester, 4 SAAs, a 1943 1903A3 and an M1 garand)
This pistol was made in 1847 and is in remarkable condition inside and out. If the stock didn't have a few handling marks, I would think it was a modern replacement. What would normally be a pitted barrel is a Hoyt -relined, mil spec .54 caliber bore. I loaded .530 lead ball on .010 lubed patches, over 32 gr 3F. We had perfect ignition with musket caps.
The trigger pull on these is pretty heavy which caused me to pull a couple shots wide. And the little brass front sight is not of much help but a fine idea to give some confidence in aiming. We failed to hit the cans set out at about 10 yds but were close enough for deadly hits on a man sized target. I didn't have a horse handy to test it, but I can't imagine trying to load or shoot this on horseback. The attached, swivel loading rod is truly a brilliant piece of engineering, especially for mounted troops. Worked perfectly for my dismounted loading too.
We fired one ball into oak fire wood to see the effect on the lead ball. It flattened out into effectively a chunk of shrapnel. I would image if one of these .54 cal balls struck bone it would shatter it. Makes for a bad visit to the regimental surgeon!
I think I would enjoy this neat percussion pistol even if it was a reproduction, but the fact that it is an original from the time of the Mexican- American war makes it that much better to own, and occasionally fire.
Definitely ranks highly on the coolness scale in my collection!
Got it out to the lease this weekend for a little exercise and it was the highlight of the day! (And that was against an 1892 Winchester, 4 SAAs, a 1943 1903A3 and an M1 garand)
This pistol was made in 1847 and is in remarkable condition inside and out. If the stock didn't have a few handling marks, I would think it was a modern replacement. What would normally be a pitted barrel is a Hoyt -relined, mil spec .54 caliber bore. I loaded .530 lead ball on .010 lubed patches, over 32 gr 3F. We had perfect ignition with musket caps.
The trigger pull on these is pretty heavy which caused me to pull a couple shots wide. And the little brass front sight is not of much help but a fine idea to give some confidence in aiming. We failed to hit the cans set out at about 10 yds but were close enough for deadly hits on a man sized target. I didn't have a horse handy to test it, but I can't imagine trying to load or shoot this on horseback. The attached, swivel loading rod is truly a brilliant piece of engineering, especially for mounted troops. Worked perfectly for my dismounted loading too.
We fired one ball into oak fire wood to see the effect on the lead ball. It flattened out into effectively a chunk of shrapnel. I would image if one of these .54 cal balls struck bone it would shatter it. Makes for a bad visit to the regimental surgeon!
I think I would enjoy this neat percussion pistol even if it was a reproduction, but the fact that it is an original from the time of the Mexican- American war makes it that much better to own, and occasionally fire.
Definitely ranks highly on the coolness scale in my collection!
