Pepper Box Kit by Hoppes 9

[BFJ]

Does anyone have any info on Pepper Box kits made by Hoppes 9. Looks like may have been made in the 70's. Very well made, all parts are present with detailed instruction sheet. Thanks for any responses.
BFJ

 

[Billnpatti]

hotoSmile: If you can post a photo, it would help someone give you some info who knows about these things.

 

[Zonie]

Back in the 1980's Hoppes offered several black powder pistols calling them "Ethan Allen pistols" because that old companies pistols were what they were based on.

The pepperbox, "side by side" and "Target Pistol" were all offered in both finished and kit form.

If the pistol has some sort of engraving on it, it is a factory made gun. If it is without engraving, it was a kit.

The 1987 Dixie Catalog shows all three of these pistols for sale.
The pepperbox cost $96 finished and $68 as a kit.
It was a self indexing design and was quite accurate in its reproduction of an original pepperbox.

That is not to say it was quite accurate as far as shooting it goes though.

As with all of the pocket pistols of those days, it was a short range self defense gun.
Adding to the realism, just like the originals these guns often have multiple discharges when they are fired.

Mark Twain told a good story about pepperboxes and according to him everything around the shooter was in danger including the mule.

I will say I've always been interested in pepperboxes and of all the reproductions I think Hoppes did the best job.
The one made by Classic Arms is a total POS.

 

[Wes/Tex]

The pepperbox they made and made available in kits were fun little shooters but unlike the originals, it has to be indexed by hand for the next shot. Most originals were some variation of what we now call double action.

 

[hawkeye2]

I am guessing you are referring to the Classic Arms pepperbox which must be manually rotated. If I remember the Hoppes was mechanically rotated. As a side note original manually rotated pepperboxes existed but were very rare. Gold Rush Arms imported an all metal double action .22 pepperbox which is a lot of fun to shoot using airgun pellets.

 

[F.G. Ford]

The Hoppe's pepperbox was a very well made representation of a 19th century pepperbox.
They were double action and well made, not like the CVA junk.
Fred

 

[torn moc]

I have had two of the Hoppes pepperboxes...
Don't want to change your opinion of the piece but I will speak of my observances...
The flash hole behind each barrel is very small which results in a lot of misfires...its best to enlarge the hole with a 1/8" drill bit...course you need a bit long enough to reach in there. I bought a 12" long 1/8" bit online and drilled the flash holes...yoila! Perfect ignition every time !
Second is the pesky little ( and I do mean very
small ) detent roller bearing that rides behind
the barrel cluster. EXTREME care must be taken not to Lose it when you take the barrels off for cleaning !
The pepper box is a smoothbore which will get
started thinking about shooting shot....
I tried #6 shot in mine and could not produce a
pin hole in a plastic soda bottle 5 feet distance.
Yet .....should I have a chance again to
purchase another another one I would in a
Heartbeat.....they are NEAT !
And yes...they are built like a Tank.

 

[Zonie]

From your description of fixing the flash holes am I right in saying there is a hole that runs straight down towards the center of the barrel cluster and then another small hole at the bottom of the bore that intersects it?

The Target model has a hole that runs from the base of the nipple across the frame from right to left.
At the left side, one of the screws that hold the side cover on screws into that hole.
At the bottom of the bore there is a hole that intersects the cross hole.

My Target model had a lot of misfires too and like you, I bought an aircraft length drill (1/8 diameter X 12" long) and drilled out the connecting hole at the bottom of the bore.

It fires reliably now but the special very short nipple is almost irreplaceable so I don't shoot it often.

 

[RedFeather]

The target pistol appears at the end of Quigley Down Under when the nervous ticket clerk eases one out as he suspects Quigley of being a wanted man.

 

[torn moc]

"From your description of fixing the flash holes am I right in saying there is a hole that runs straight down towards the center of the barrel cluster and then another small hole at the bottom of the bore that intersects it?"

Zonie...yes that's correct...so the spark has to make a 90 degree bend...

 

[cynthialee]

A tiny pinch of 4F in each chamber before the main charge is added then taped to work it into the flash channel will make that 90 degree turn a non issue.

 

[torn moc]

dunno bout that...I tried putting a few grains of 4f under each nipple( hahaha)( sorry)
and it didn't help a bit...

 

[Zonie]

For those interested, this is the Hoppe's Target pistol.

And here is the 1987 Dixie ad's for these guns.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Got a chance to play with all those through the years. I often miss the general 'fun' we had just shooting Coke cans and harassing the local turtle population. Of course, most of the open country we trooped over 40 years ago is now locked gates and trailer parks...probably not as harassible as the turtles were! :haha:

 

[F.G. Ford]

I always thought the target pistol would make a very nice buggy rifle.
Mine came in .45 cal.
So with a detachable shoulder stock, and a longer barrel, it would make a dandy Sunday do to meeting gun.
In a case it would fit nicely under the seat or just behind it.
Talk about a nice custom rifle!
Fred

 

[Curtis McCully]

I realize these posts are extremely old but does anyone have load data for these three pistols?

My father made one of each of these guns and passed them on to me and my brothers. I have re-blued the metal and stained the grips on my side by side. Would love to take it out again. Thanks!

 

[Zonie]

It looks like you have the Hoppes Double barrel pistol shown in the Dixie ad I posted up in post #13.
It's a bit hard to read but Dixie Gunworks said in the ad that it uses a .350 diameter lead ball. I would patch the ball with a 1" X 1" piece of an old cotton T shirt or a .010 thick cotton patch dampened with Crisco or salt free lard. Vegetable cooking oil can also be used.

You will need some #11 percussion caps and either real black powder or one of the synthetic black powders like Pyrodex P.

It won't take much powder to fire the gun up to its full potential. I'd say something like 10 to 15 grains of powder.
To give you an idea about how much powder that is, a .38 ACP cartridge, filled to the mouth of the case is about 10 grains worth of powder. A .38 special cartridge would be up around 15 grains.

Unlike smokeless powder, black powder or one of the synthetic black powders is rather low pressure and forgiving so a few grains more or less of it won't make the powder charge dangerous to the shooter.
Don't get the idea that small loads of black powder can't be very powerful though. That little .36 caliber pistol can be very deadly so be careful where you shoot it.

 

[rafterob]

I had the side by side years ago, had it nickle plated and it was a beaut! The one gun I sold that I wish I still had. I shot it with ten grains and could hit 3-4 inch groups at 15 yards.

 

[Grimord]

Zonie:

In your earlier thread you mentioned the nipples for the Ethan Allen pistol were hard to find. I think you will find that TOW carries the small nipples that fit that gun and some of the other Classic Arms guns.

 

[Zonie]

Your right. Track of the Wolf carries nipples for them now, but back when I was messing around with mine, they were as scarce as hen's teeth.