Dueling Pistol Start

[Zonie]

It's slowly taking shape.
This is how I've been occupying my time when I'm not at work or visiting the Muzzleloading Forum.

It's a .40 caliber Dueling Pistol using a small Chambers lock, a 3/4 inch octagon pistol barrel I got from Vernon C. Davis and a Curly Maple block of wood from Track of the Wolf.

It's modeled after a old Revell plastic model kit I've had hanging on the wall for 33 years.

It's far from done, but I thought you folks might like to see it.

 

[jdixon]

Cool - I like it. :hatsoff: Beatiful work! Looks like it is designed to turned around if you miss and then you have a rather lethal club. When finished will it have a ram rod on board?

 

:thumbsup: It's looking good , Zonie ! That's some nice looking wood too . BTW , I built one of those Revell kits about 38 years ago . Mine was some kind of flintlock , but it is long gone , lost in the shuffle of my somewhat turbulent life .

 

[pappydean]

Zonie,
Beutiful gun! :master: You can build me one too!!Ah come on...please..please.. please? ::
pappydean

 

[Zonie]

JR: No, it won't have a ramrod.
I was going to include one but it would have interfered with the barrels pinned underlug.
Instead, I plan to build a velvet lined maple case for it so the ramrod, the caps, and the balls will be inside it.

Renegade: Speaking of lost old Revell kits, I would bet your missing Flintlock looked something like this:

Up until the time I started building muzzleloaders, this looked pretty good to me but when I started this project it immediatly became obvious that Revell didn't have a clue about the relationships between the trigger and the lock.

That's why I say this was the basis for my gun. Had I built it as an exact reproduction (assuming I could find a giant lock like the model has) it still wouldn't work.
The reach to the trigger would require hands like The Shack or M. Jorden have.

I'm also going to omit the little fancy things on the forestock.

I posted another picture of my project, along with some more details about it over on the Builders Bench if your interested.

 

[lanedh]

Zonie:
I'm making a similar pistol for target work using a 13/16" Rayl barrel in .40 calibre with the same small Siler percussion lock and a piece of cherry from Dunlop. Yours is coming along beautifully!! My stock will be similar (no ramrod) but I'd like to shape the stock to a saw-handle profile.

Where did you get the trigger assembly? Would there be enough room there for a single set trigger? The trigger plate on yours looks to be about the same length as the S/S triggers I have seen.

 

[mec]

Hey! you are extremely dang good. I want to follow the progress on this one.

 

[Zonie]

Bluejacket: The trigger is from Track of the Wolf (TR-Pist-C-TP). I had to bend the plate to match the grip contour.
I thought about using a single set trigger, but the full size photo in the TOTW catalog makes it look too big for my pistol.
I might have been able to make it fit, but the idea of paying over $50 and ending up with something unusable didn't appeal to me.

Speaking of the trigger, I located the pivot about 1/4 inch in front of the locks sear arm. I haven't measured it but the release pressure seems to be about 1 pound (if it's even that much).

 

[lanedh]

Good day, Zonie:

Thanks for the info on trigger location with respect to the sear pivot. I seem to recall Peter Alexander describing the criticality of trigger placement for clean letoff, but can't seem to find it now.