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Queen Anne Pistol Vent

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Zonie

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Several people including myself own a Pedersoli Queen Anne Pistol.
Although it's a nice looking gun, it has a problem with missfires due, IMO to the very small, long vent hole connecting the pan to the bore. In my gun this tiny hole was .288 long just to get thru the barrel wall!

To improve this, I drilled mine out from the tiny hole the factory used to a .078 diameter but this didn't really improve things much.

A sectional drawing of the slightly modified pistol (on the left) and my proposed improvement (on the right) looks like this:
Queen-Anne-Mod.jpg


Notice the addition of the vent liner and the greatly enlarged hole connecting the new liner with the bore.
(This drawing is to scale for my pistol.)

Before the modification, the guns vent looked like this:
QUEEN-ANN-MOD-1.jpg

As can be seen, there isn't enough room to install a standard 1/4 inch liner, but there is enough to install a #10-32 sized one.

For material, I cut off a standard #10-32 screw and drilled a .078 diameter hole thru it. I also drilled a 3/32 dia hole half way thru it to shorten the distance the flash would have to travel to the powder.

The biggest problem with this job was holding the small, short threaded stock to drill the holes and to file the ends flat and smooth without frinkleing up the threads.
To solve this problem, I slotted a #10-32 nut as shown in the following picture.
This slot doesn't have to be perfect and the offset one I ended up with worked fine.
VENTCLAMP1.jpg

With the little screw installed and then both the screw and slotted nut clamped in a vise (or Vise-Grips) it is very easy to work on.

With the screw in the slotted nut, center punch the center to keep the drill from walking and drill thru with the 5/64 drill. Then counterbore it with a 3/32 dia drill leaving about .060 of the smaller hole.

Use the existing vent hole in the barrel as a guide and tap drill using a 5/32 dia drill. The depth I used resulted in a nice hole thru the wall of the barrel and a 1/2 hole in the breech going to the center of the bore.
Tap the new hole using a #10-32 tap to obtain at least .160 length of full threads. Tapping deeper is OK, but IMO serves no useful purpose.
 
Continued:

This picture shows the drilled/tapped barrel with the new liner started into it:
QUEEN-ANN-MOD2.jpg


I used the Red Loc-Tite on the threads to lock/seal the new liner and used a little inletting chisel in the vent hole to screw it in flush.
The finished installation looks like this:
QUEEN-ANN-MOD-3.jpg


I haven't shot it yet but I am sure the ignition will be greatly improved. :)

This job cost a total of 14 cents and about an hour of my time.
If you want to do this you will need a 5/64 drill, a 3/32 drill, a 5/32 drill, a #10-32 tap (and wrench), thread cutting oil, hack saw, a #10-32 steel bolt and a #10-32 nut. Some Loc-Tite or epoxy can also be used but is not absolutely necessary. :)

Have Fun! :)
Zonie

PS: A vent liner is HC for the fine guns made in Europe and England. So what if theirs happened to be Platinum and yours is just steel. :grin: :)
 
Zonie, for some reason I just got this thread and I think this could work. it has been in the back of my mind to try for a while. i just got it back from being defarbed but it is still 58 cal.
 
As I mentioned in my PT, if I were to do this again, I would look in the Hardware store for a #10-32 stainless steel bolt to make the vent liner from.

The stainless steel should be a little more tolerant of the hot gas from the main powder charge plus it would be very resistant to corrosion from fouling and water. :)

As the link given explains this "fix" greatly improved the reliability of the gun. Of course it didn't improve my shooting accuracy with it but I guess I shouldn't expect match shooting accuracy from a smoothbore with no sights. :rotf:
 
Zonie, thanks for a well thought out project. My vent hole will pass a 3/32" drill bit and I haven't experienced a lot of misfires....'course I haven't shot mine very much either. I think I will do your version of touch hole liner. I have a Unimat lathe so I can do my drilling on that and then just cut off the bolt/screw to length. Is your Queen Ann pistol stocked in Maple? Mine is walnut, got it at Cabelas 3-4 years ago in the bargain cave.
 
My Queen Anne is stocked in Walnut.
I was fortunate in getting a stock with a lot of curl so it has several dark stripes on it.

This was a kit gun and I left the lock "in the white" and polished the barrel also left "in the white".
queenannRetouched.jpg
 
:applause: I don't own one of those, but I am impressed by the thoroughness of your explanation. Well done.
 
Thanks, I was just curious as the color of the stock seems kinda "reddish" Maybe you used a stain on it? Mine is rather dark brown with some figure also.
 
I seldom if ever stain Walnut.

IMO, the wood is already so dark that adding stains, even red ones, will darken it even more.

If I ever have to work with a stock with some sap wood in it I might try darkening it so that it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb but again, Walnuts beauty comes pre installed and I don't want to mask it. :)
 
Zonie, thanks I was going to try to get it drilled out for a new vent one of those hot shot or sure fire. i do not know that the QA and the Harpers Ferry are the same the. The HF has no breech plug and my touch hole is drilled over 1/2 of the way into the solid metal of the breech. I actually have to have it drilled to clear out some of the metal.

Bruce
 
Before you start drilling things make sure you will have enough material around the vent hole for a liners threads.

Notice the milled cut right below the touch hole location on this Queen Anne.
QUEEN-ANN-MOD2.jpg


The lack of material is what forced me to make my own vent liner out of a #10 screw.
 
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