non typical pistols

[M. De Land]

I've never owned one of these guns but liked the design the first time I laid eyes on it.
The rear sight is very simple and clever and the over all lines pleasing to look at.
It looks alike a flame case. How did you do the job?

 

[M. De Land]

Here is mine,made from spare parts from rifles, pistols scrap steel,brass and walnut board. A real mongrel but shoots like it was planned rather than cobbled making do with what was on hand! I don't think I bought any part of it other than the glass bedding.



I know it doesn't look like any original gun of any kind I can think of but was just letting the imagination run wild and this was the product of the exercise.
The trigger guard and the lower tang are one piece and the ram rod tunnel is pinned to the front of the guard and glass bedded into the stock. The front cap is square in profile milled to the oblong hex .54 cal barrel shape.

 

[M. De Land]

The plug covers a dowel up through the grip epoxied in to keep the grip from splitting on the grain run in the stock. It works just like a limb growing through a block of wood your trying to split without success.
The rear sight on this gun is a TC but the blade has been converted to a large aperture that works great.

 

[azmntman]

Impressive. I like the dowel idea :thumbsup:

 

[M. De Land]

I need to correct what I said about the dowel pin having a cap as my memory corrects itself.
I got to wondering why I didn't stain the cap and then realize it wasn't a cap at all but rather the smoothed off end of the maple dowel I epoxied in the grip going nearly up to the the back of the lock plate.

 

[M. De Land]

Thanks for the compliment. I think the dowel idea should be employed in every Patriot pistol ever produced. I have yet to do mine and better get to it before needing to repair a break.

 

[M. De Land]

The barrel is 1 1/8" across the flats from a rifle with 1-60 pitch and I milled 1/16" of an inch off each side to make it thinner in profile for the pistol and to lighten it a bit.
It has a hooked breech which makes it a snap to clean and the drum fits the lock plate snugly to support the threads from breaking off from repeated hammer blows.
I had my doubts about it shooting accurately at all with such a slow rifle pitch but it shoots round balls to 50 yards as good or better than any match pistol I own. That was a revelation to me and proves that a patch round ball does not need much spin to stabilize superbly.
The barrel is an oblong octagon not hexagon as I misstated earlier. Just caught my error.

 

[Darkgael]

Non-typical....does that mean non-traditional? Where do underhammers fit in?
Pete

 

[Rifleman1776]

Non-typical....does that mean non-traditional? Where do underhammers fit in?
Pete

Actually, I have seen so many underhammer pistols in museums, I would consider them 'typical'. For whatever reason(s), underhammers on pistols were considered very practical.

 

[M. De Land]

The front sight is one piece with the dovetail male milled from bar stock. The quarter rib is milled down rifle stock and the thimble is standard rifle loading rod stock.
The lock is a small rifle lock given to me by a cousin. I think he got it from Dixie many years ago. I don't know who the maker was.
The drum was turned from annealed drill rod round stock, if I remember correctly, which is very tough and strong against impact and shock load especially in the annealed state.

 

[M. De Land]

Oh, the trigger is tool steel, I think I was using 0-1 at the time before trying A-2 which is my favorite for most all internal gun parts.
Thought I would describe the components, what they are made of and how constructed as that is what I would want to know if interested in the exercise.

 

[Phil Coffins]

The color case hardening is the real thing. I use bone and wood charcoal in the traditional manner to get a hard surface and colors.

 

[M. De Land]

Thanks for the reply as I too have been bone casing for about 15 years so always like to hear from folks who also mess with it.
I typically use a ratio of 3-1 wood to bone charcoal and quench in distilled aerated water.
I like 1350-75 F. for 2-3 hrs hours in the packed wood and charcoal and when removed from the oven given a full 2 minite rest before the quench.
Don't get color much above 1400-1450 F. but the case is deeper.
Been using coconut husk charcoal for water purification for the wood instead of hardwood charcoal as I can get it locally but not sure it is quite as good as the later.