Pistol project

[Phil Coffins]

I got this unfinished pistol for $50 bucks at a swap meet. It has a lot of short comings but the Dixie lock and Greenriver barrel are new and the brass guard hasn’t been drilled. The stock is soft curly maple and the inletting is poor. I’ll toss the stock but first played around with a bit of shaping.
9B32A3AE-5048-4804-A7BA-EAE8FED04F7F by Oliver Sudden, on Flickr
There’s lot that can be learned by looking over each piece. The barrel had a nice breech plug in it but when I measured it the plug it’s 5/8” deep and didn’t butt up to the bore. The plug is now 1/2” long and the barrel cut to allow the plug to seal the bore. The lock had some issues and that has been worked over. Sparks well now. The trigger guard hadn’t been filed on the area that goes into the wood so that has been flattened and the edges made smooth with about one degree of draft. This has given me a chance to consider a lot of details before beginning the build. I have never built a pistol before so this has given me plenty to think about.
IMG_0854 by Oliver Sudden, on Flickr

 

[waarp8nt]

Nice score, I would not have the will power to leave it behind either! They were asking $100 per used Dixie lock at the show I attended this weekend. You done very well!

 

[sportster73hp]

Left hand pistol! Don’t see that often.

 

[dave_person]

Hi Phil,
Is that one of the little Italian made locks that Dixie used to sell? They were just fine with a little work and could be brought up to a very high standard. There are so few good pistol sized locks and those were good if you worked on them a bit. I think you have something to work with there. Have fun with it.

dave

 

[Phil Coffins]

Hi Phil,
Is that one of the little Italian made locks that Dixie used to sell? They were just fine with a little work and could be brought up to a very high standard. There are so few good pistol sized locks and those were good if you worked on them a bit. I think you have something to work with there. Have fun with it.

dave

Yes, and it took a bit to confirm that it could be made useful. My other projects have drawn me away from this build for now.