An interesting and fun project

[M. De Land]

Some years ago I decided to see what kind of a horse pistol I could cobble together using only what extra parts I had on hand in the various nook, crannies and drawers in my shop. This horse pistol was the result and has been a hoot to make and shoot.
The barrel is a cut off from a 54 cal, 60 pitch rifle milled on the sides to one inch across the flats. The stock was a walnut board picked up at garage sale. The lock is a small rifle found in a dusty drawer and the front sight milled one piece from bar stock.
The rear sight is a ghost ring aperture added to a standard adjustable rear base. The trigger bow and bottom brass is bar stock milled to shape and the trigger a piece of tool steel shaped and hardened to fit the bow.
This is a true Franken gun but shoots balls out of the slow twist rifle barrel like a house a fire to the 50 yards bench tested.
A replica of nothing really but fun as can be to shoot !

 

[Powder Sniffer]

That thing looks like it has some heft to it, how much does it weigh.

 

[M. De Land]

That thing looks like it has some heft to it, how much does it weigh.

She goes 3 lbs 14 ounces, about a pound lighter than my Uberti Walker. I'm going to put a new front blade on the Walker and now am trying to decide between an off set , higher brass blade or the dovetail and target style route.
That home made adjustable (ghost ring) aperture sight on the horse pistol was an experiment I wanted to try and it works really well on that short sight radius which was a total surprise to me !

 

[wiscoaster]

Some years ago I decided to see what kind of a horse pistol I could cobble together using only what extra parts I had on hand in the various nook, crannies and drawers in my shop. This horse pistol was the result and has been a hoot to make and shoot.
....
This is a true Franken gun but shoots balls out of the slow twist rifle barrel like a house a fire to the 50 yards bench tested.
A replica of nothing really but fun as can be to shoot !

That's truly the funnest kind of a project.

 

[M. De Land]

That's truly the funnest kind of a project.

Note the grain run of the walnut plank stock in the grip. The brass trigger guard was milled one piece with an inner tang to strengthen the grip and a threaded bolt was in bedded from the grip butt up through to under the breech plug tang to support the grain run from breaking.
This is an especially good modification for TC Patriot pistols that often break through the grip area when loaded from stands on a bench.

 

[springfield art]

That thing looks like it has some heft to it, how much does it weigh.

Must be a "one handed carbine"!

 

[M. De Land]

Must be a "one handed carbine"!

Huh, never thought to add a butt stock to it............. good idea !

 

[M. De Land]

Some years ago I decided to see what kind of a horse pistol I could cobble together using only what extra parts I had on hand in the various nook, crannies and drawers in my shop. This horse pistol was the result and has been a hoot to make and shoot.
The barrel is a cut off from a 54 cal, 60 pitch rifle milled on the sides to one inch across the flats. The stock was a walnut board picked up at garage sale. The lock is a small rifle found in a dusty drawer and the front sight milled one piece from bar stock.
The rear sight is a ghost ring aperture added to a standard adjustable rear base. The trigger bow and bottom brass is bar stock milled to shape and the trigger a piece of tool steel shaped and hardened to fit the bow.
This is a true Franken gun but shoots balls out of the slow twist rifle barrel like a house a fire to the 50 yards bench tested.
A replica of nothing really but fun as can be to shoot !

I was recalling some more details about the construction of this horse pistol ; the drum was turned , threaded, bored and indexed of O-1 tool steel left annealed and threaded for a standard factory nipple . A clean out screw was also installed in the end.
The plug and tang were salvaged from the rifle barrel it came with and heat bent to conform to the pistol grip.
The key and escutcheon were filed and forged ( key head) out of brass but the key lug and under barrel lug is factory (steel) fit (dovetail) and screwed into the barrel bottom.
The rod Ferrel is steel and factory.
The rifle barrel used on this pistol was originally 1-1/8 across the flats and after being cut to 9 inches and crowned was milled on both sides down to 1 inch wide to give it the elongated and slimmer profile.
I think that is all the detail I can remember about the construction of the horse pistol that may be of interest to some one wanting to do the same with their spare parts.