• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

My second pair of Pistols

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Thanks for the photos.
That's a pretty modern-style tool for 170 years old!
Garmisch is beautiful! I brought home a stone from the stream near the Olympic Stadium and the Eckbauerbahn cable car. The stream was pure snow melt from the mountains. Beautiful!
 
I believe target pistols, bacause of the rifled barrel.
Rifled barrels were forbidden for dueling pistols.

Its true that rifled barrels were considered unethical for Dueling, but they werent "banned" because Dueling itself was considered illegal (other than in some European countries).

On the other hand a brace of Dueling pistols often had one with a partially rifled barrel that ran out to smooth bore well before it reached the muzzle, that particular Pistol would be the owners weapon and usually covertly marked somewhere for him to identify.

A smart guy would never challenge anyone to a Duel with Pistols, but if he held a grudge and wanted someone "dealt with" then he baited and goaded the other party to offer the challenge; that way as the aggrieved party he had the right to choose his weapon on the day. Of course in supplying his own brace of Pistols that enabled his choice of the partially rifled one.

In some cases Dueling was little more than orchestrated Murder, more often than not by habitual well practised bullies claiming a point of "honour".
 
The French were reputed to have engaged in producing barrels with very faint rifling at the breech end, referred to in England as either French, 'secret' or 'whisker' rifling, for the purpose of increasing the accuracy of a duelling pistol. Having fired a number of these firearms over the years, and bearing in mind that they were generally of the finest craftsmanship in any case, you would not be too surprised if I were to tell you that I was utterly unable to shoot any of them with less accuracy than any other fine pistol of the genre.

All five shots that I fired with a replica rifled Kuechenreuter pistol went into the same size group as a genuine Wogden at 20 yards.
 
People often make too much of a deal about the "Code Duello of 1777." Even in the U.K., many duels were fought outside of these guidelines, and practices changed as time went on and pistols improved. Taking careful aim was considered dishonorable early on for example, but over time aiming, better sights, and set triggers became the norm. Single set triggers that push forward to set like those on the Hamilton-Burr pistols were the norm for a while not generally a secret, but better non-set triggers became the norm as time went on. Technically, any weapons could be used in a duel. There are recorded formal duels that were fought with rifles, blunderbusses, billiard balls, etc. though those aren't really the norm. Dueling pistols from the U.K. and in the U.S. were generally smoothbore in keeping with the "Codes of Honor," but some have faint "scratch rifling" or rifling that is hidden by stopping before the muzzle. As long as both pistols used are equal, that isn't really cheating. In the case that each participant brought his own set and they were supposed to be smoothbore, hidden rifling would be cheating.

While dueling faded by 1850 in the UK, in Continental Europe it continued, and by the time of the percussion system was in wide use, rifled pistols were preferred for duels, and their rifling was not hidden. One way to tell target pistols in this period from dueling pistols is that the target pistols often have adjustable rear sights unlike this pair which has fixed sights. That said, most "dueling pistols" by the mid-1800s probably saw more use as target pistols in shooting parlors.
 
Last edited:
I would agree that of what many* people call "dueling pistols" are not dueling pistols. I couldn't count how many pairs of pocket pistols I've seen called "dueling pistols" by either unknowing or unscrupulous sellers. Just because a matched pair of pistols are in a case does not make them dueling pistols and even if a pair of pistols were or could have been used in a duel that does not mean they are dueling pistols. Traveling pistols, officers pistols, belt pistols etc. are not true dueling pistols even though they may be a matched cased pair and even though they were sometimes used in proper duels. Dueling pistols are pistols specifically made for dueling.
 
Last edited:
Rock Island Auction gets the U.S. Historical Society Hamilton-Burr reproductions in pretty regularly, and they aren't terribly expensive, usually under $2,000 and sometimes much lower if they aren't basically brand new. They were actually made by Walter Agnoletto not Pedersoli.
 
Very nice set of 'dueling pistols', your lucky to own this high quality set made by one of the top French makers that has survived in such nice condition !!
If your also a competitive shooter you will enjoy the accuracy these pistols are capable of once you've developed the correct patch & ball size combo & powder charge..
In my 50+ years experience shooting European rifles & pistols I've found they require less of a powder charge due to their excellent quality rifling patterns & faster twist rifling.
Below is a photo of two pistols, the lower is a .65 cal. French pistol I shoot. Barrel shows it was built by French maker L Hermite ARQer Bte A Saumur. The 'military style lanyard ring on the butt' on this pistol is typical of most custom pistols ordered by officers & most I've run into were in calibers that could utilize military ammo.
NOTE; unlike most French duelers & target pistols, the majority of military type flint & percussion pistols were also fitted with a steel ramrod 'not shown' in the pistol below. Many of the French military pistols with steel ramrods also have a cup in the end to measure the powder charge, great feature for fast reloads in the field. The upper pistol shown is marked #1 on the tang showing it was originally a set of French dueling pistols in .52 cal., it also has similar styled rifling to the- military pistol version shown in photo. Happy Trails :thumb: .
IMG_20210322_153112~2.jpg

IMG_20210322_153529~2.jpg
 
Back
Top