I bought this flintlock pistol at last week's gun show in Tucson, AZ simply because I am fascinated with muzzleloaders. I spent $120.00 on the thing.
After cleaning the pistol and making sure it wouldn't blow up in my face the first time I fired it, it was time to go to the store and spend even more money on supplies that I needed to shoot it. I took my pistol to a local store nearby called "Thundersticks" Black Powder Purveyors. They were glad to sell me everything I needed to shoot. Total cost of supplies exceeded the total cost of the pistol! But future costs will be minimal; ball, powder, and patches mainly.
Everything you need to shoot them thar redcoats. Black powder comes in different "grinds" like automatic drip or percolator grind. FFg, or 2F is for rifles. FFFg is for pistols. FFFFg is the finest grain and is for priming the frizzen pan only. Everyone I talked to said "for gods sake, never, ever use 4Fg powder in the barrel. You will die." same with smokeless powder.
Lead shot. You cannot shoot .50cal shot in a .50cal rifle or pistol because the patch you wrap around the shot takes up space. They sell patches in different thicknesses. The patches you see here are .010in thick. So, if you have a .50 caliber barrel, you need a .48 caliber bullet to fit down the barrel (.010 on all sides of the ball increases the diameter .020in). So, I bought 100 rounds of .48 cal hornaday lead ball. These things aren't perfectly round ball bearings either. They are globs of lead with lots of imperfections. Kinda like really round rocks. The patches are "pre-lubed" with something that smells strongly of peppermint. In olden days, you would use bed ticking and spit or bear grease or some other kind of animal fat to grease the patch. These patches are supposedly non-flammible, but after shooting the pistol, I found the patches smoldering on the ground, easily hot enough to start a brush fire.
This is what you need to load the pistol. The top one with the wooden ball is a ball starter. In case of a real tight fit with the ball and patch, this thing gives you leverage to cram the ball into the barrel. After the ball in pushed just inside the barrel, you then take a ramrod and shove it all the way down, but not too strongly. You actually want a little air between the grains so combustion happens quicker. What you don't want is an air gap between ball and powder. If you have an air gap, it acts just like a plugged barrel and will explode and kill you. So, you make damn sure the ball is seated firmly (but not TOO firmly).
These are the two types of flints available. The lower beige one is made of agate. The upper black one is your typical black flint from England. I used to dig up flint stones at the little farm in England where I grew up all the time. I could really use them now. I also remember that the walls of Framlingham castle (a nearby castle in Suffolk, U.K.) were made almost entirely of broken up flint stones and masonry . You could literally break flint chips off of the castle walls for flints. These particular little chips of flint cost me about 4 bucks a pop. You look for a side with a straight narrow edge to strike against the frizzen. They make a tool, a flint chipping hammer to make your own flints, but I balked at buying one of those.
In this not so focused picture, you can see the pistol at half cock with the frizzen closed over the pan. The flint lines up perfectly over the left 3/4 of the frizzen. A piece of leather is wrapped around the flint for the hammer to grip. It doesn't hold the flint very tightly, probably because the flint needs to move a little bit every time it hits the frizzen to maintain optimum contact. I could literally shake the flint out of the hammer and that's after hand tightening on the hammer screw as hard as I could. You definitely get the feeling that the flint is the weakest link in the chain. Dare I say, delicate? I get visions of the flint flying out of the hammer when I squeeze the trigger. I will have to check the muzzleloading forums online. I don't know if it is common with flintlocks or not.
O.K. Put it all together and how does it fire? Took it out to Reddington pass and used it with the same target I use for pistols. Stood about 25 feet away. I can generally hit the target about half the time with my Tokarev TT-33 pistol at that distance. The procedure for shooting went this way:
1. Pour 30 grains of 3Fg powder into the measure.
2. Pour the measure down the barrel. Never, ever ( it seems that there's lots of never-evers with flintlocks) pour powder directly from the powder can into the barrel. If the barrel is hot, it could turn your can of black powder into a grenade.
3. Take one ball with a patch and the ball starter and cram it into the end of the pistol barrel, holding the pistol barrel vertical. It actually slides quite snugly and easily. You really don't need the giant wooden ball and stick they sold me.
4. Take another patch and place it over the ball to keep it from rolling out of the barrel when it goes horizontal.
5. Take the ramrod and ram it home firmly (but not TOO firmly). Just enough to know that the ball was stopped by the powder.
6. Make sure the hammer is at half cock.
7. Open the frizzen.
8. Pour just enough blackpowder from the priming measure onto the frizzen pan so that it doesn't cover the hole going into the barrel.
9. Take the concealed pick from the priming measure and jab it into the hole, making sure air, and consequently a spark will shoot all the way into the barrel once the priming powder ignites.
10. Close the frizzen over the frizzen pan.
11. Adjust the flint. Make sure it is even with the frizzen and tighten the hammer screw on top to make it snug as possible. At this point you can carry the weapon anywhere at any angle. It's ready to shoot and you don't have to keep it pointed anywhere. You could even holster it. You cannot squeeze the trigger and have the hammer fall at this point. It is "safe".
12. Cock the hammer and aim it. I don't know about anybody else's flintlocks, but I could not cock this pistol with my thumb while aiming the weapon. It took two hands. The right hand holding the pistol, the left hand moving the hammer to full cock. Aiming: In olden days, it was "ungentlemanly" to put sights on a pistol because it gave unfair advantage. You were just supposed to point in in the general direction and have at it. Most dueling pistols came with two barrels, a target barrel which was rifled and had sights so you could practice with it, and a dueling barrel which was a smooth bore without sights. Hoity toity gentlemen would burn off nervous energy by practicing shooting the stems off wine glasses with the rifled barrel the night before defending one's honor the next day with the smooth bore barrel. So, you could say that my pistol is a "target" pistol instead of a dueling piece because it has a rifled barrel and sights.
13. Shoot. The first time I shot this pistol. I was very impressed. Big flash, absolutely no recoil. The gun is very, very heavy to begin with. It balances very well. When I pulled the trigger, I could see the white puff of smoke as the 4Fg powder in the frizzen pan ignited and the gun fired simultaneously. No pause whatsoever. I was expecting a pause as the flame from the pan traveled through the hole and ignited the barrel powder. It was like shooting a modern gun. Instant blast. The barrel swung to the left as the ball exited the muzzle and the bullet hit the target on the left side right at the "neck" of the man silhouette target I was aiming at (25 feet away). The gun was steady as a rock. My view of the target was never obscured by white smoke after I had fired (weather conditions, clear with a 0 to 5mph wind in my face). Knowing that the barrel traveled left when I fired it means that I simply compensate to the right when I shoot it again.
I went up to Reddington Pass with a friend so that he could call 911 if I died when I fired it for the first time and I had him load and shoot it so that I could see how it fired. Every time he fired it (30g load), the pistol had this huge orange flame jump out of the barrel about a foot long with lots of smoke. I can't wait to go again and film it. It's very impressive. Expect the youtube video soon.
So, my final impressions of the flintlock pistol is this. It's a great shooter. I could actually go hunting with it. It's definitely accurate enough. When hunting, you only get one shot at an animal or bird anyway, then it runs off if you miss. So, reloading is not really an issue when you hunt. Primitive as it is, it's fast, deady and accurate. At close range, which is where pistols are used, this thing will do more damage to you than a .45 will. It's a one-shot weapon, like a bolt action rifle or a traditional single shot shotgun and equal to either at close range. (I imagine that after about 25 feet, that ball would spin out of control like a golf ball hooking or slicing.) But, I am very surprised at how deadly and shootable it is.
After cleaning the pistol and making sure it wouldn't blow up in my face the first time I fired it, it was time to go to the store and spend even more money on supplies that I needed to shoot it. I took my pistol to a local store nearby called "Thundersticks" Black Powder Purveyors. They were glad to sell me everything I needed to shoot. Total cost of supplies exceeded the total cost of the pistol! But future costs will be minimal; ball, powder, and patches mainly.
Everything you need to shoot them thar redcoats. Black powder comes in different "grinds" like automatic drip or percolator grind. FFg, or 2F is for rifles. FFFg is for pistols. FFFFg is the finest grain and is for priming the frizzen pan only. Everyone I talked to said "for gods sake, never, ever use 4Fg powder in the barrel. You will die." same with smokeless powder.
Lead shot. You cannot shoot .50cal shot in a .50cal rifle or pistol because the patch you wrap around the shot takes up space. They sell patches in different thicknesses. The patches you see here are .010in thick. So, if you have a .50 caliber barrel, you need a .48 caliber bullet to fit down the barrel (.010 on all sides of the ball increases the diameter .020in). So, I bought 100 rounds of .48 cal hornaday lead ball. These things aren't perfectly round ball bearings either. They are globs of lead with lots of imperfections. Kinda like really round rocks. The patches are "pre-lubed" with something that smells strongly of peppermint. In olden days, you would use bed ticking and spit or bear grease or some other kind of animal fat to grease the patch. These patches are supposedly non-flammible, but after shooting the pistol, I found the patches smoldering on the ground, easily hot enough to start a brush fire.
This is what you need to load the pistol. The top one with the wooden ball is a ball starter. In case of a real tight fit with the ball and patch, this thing gives you leverage to cram the ball into the barrel. After the ball in pushed just inside the barrel, you then take a ramrod and shove it all the way down, but not too strongly. You actually want a little air between the grains so combustion happens quicker. What you don't want is an air gap between ball and powder. If you have an air gap, it acts just like a plugged barrel and will explode and kill you. So, you make damn sure the ball is seated firmly (but not TOO firmly).
These are the two types of flints available. The lower beige one is made of agate. The upper black one is your typical black flint from England. I used to dig up flint stones at the little farm in England where I grew up all the time. I could really use them now. I also remember that the walls of Framlingham castle (a nearby castle in Suffolk, U.K.) were made almost entirely of broken up flint stones and masonry . You could literally break flint chips off of the castle walls for flints. These particular little chips of flint cost me about 4 bucks a pop. You look for a side with a straight narrow edge to strike against the frizzen. They make a tool, a flint chipping hammer to make your own flints, but I balked at buying one of those.
In this not so focused picture, you can see the pistol at half cock with the frizzen closed over the pan. The flint lines up perfectly over the left 3/4 of the frizzen. A piece of leather is wrapped around the flint for the hammer to grip. It doesn't hold the flint very tightly, probably because the flint needs to move a little bit every time it hits the frizzen to maintain optimum contact. I could literally shake the flint out of the hammer and that's after hand tightening on the hammer screw as hard as I could. You definitely get the feeling that the flint is the weakest link in the chain. Dare I say, delicate? I get visions of the flint flying out of the hammer when I squeeze the trigger. I will have to check the muzzleloading forums online. I don't know if it is common with flintlocks or not.
O.K. Put it all together and how does it fire? Took it out to Reddington pass and used it with the same target I use for pistols. Stood about 25 feet away. I can generally hit the target about half the time with my Tokarev TT-33 pistol at that distance. The procedure for shooting went this way:
1. Pour 30 grains of 3Fg powder into the measure.
2. Pour the measure down the barrel. Never, ever ( it seems that there's lots of never-evers with flintlocks) pour powder directly from the powder can into the barrel. If the barrel is hot, it could turn your can of black powder into a grenade.
3. Take one ball with a patch and the ball starter and cram it into the end of the pistol barrel, holding the pistol barrel vertical. It actually slides quite snugly and easily. You really don't need the giant wooden ball and stick they sold me.
4. Take another patch and place it over the ball to keep it from rolling out of the barrel when it goes horizontal.
5. Take the ramrod and ram it home firmly (but not TOO firmly). Just enough to know that the ball was stopped by the powder.
6. Make sure the hammer is at half cock.
7. Open the frizzen.
8. Pour just enough blackpowder from the priming measure onto the frizzen pan so that it doesn't cover the hole going into the barrel.
9. Take the concealed pick from the priming measure and jab it into the hole, making sure air, and consequently a spark will shoot all the way into the barrel once the priming powder ignites.
10. Close the frizzen over the frizzen pan.
11. Adjust the flint. Make sure it is even with the frizzen and tighten the hammer screw on top to make it snug as possible. At this point you can carry the weapon anywhere at any angle. It's ready to shoot and you don't have to keep it pointed anywhere. You could even holster it. You cannot squeeze the trigger and have the hammer fall at this point. It is "safe".
12. Cock the hammer and aim it. I don't know about anybody else's flintlocks, but I could not cock this pistol with my thumb while aiming the weapon. It took two hands. The right hand holding the pistol, the left hand moving the hammer to full cock. Aiming: In olden days, it was "ungentlemanly" to put sights on a pistol because it gave unfair advantage. You were just supposed to point in in the general direction and have at it. Most dueling pistols came with two barrels, a target barrel which was rifled and had sights so you could practice with it, and a dueling barrel which was a smooth bore without sights. Hoity toity gentlemen would burn off nervous energy by practicing shooting the stems off wine glasses with the rifled barrel the night before defending one's honor the next day with the smooth bore barrel. So, you could say that my pistol is a "target" pistol instead of a dueling piece because it has a rifled barrel and sights.
13. Shoot. The first time I shot this pistol. I was very impressed. Big flash, absolutely no recoil. The gun is very, very heavy to begin with. It balances very well. When I pulled the trigger, I could see the white puff of smoke as the 4Fg powder in the frizzen pan ignited and the gun fired simultaneously. No pause whatsoever. I was expecting a pause as the flame from the pan traveled through the hole and ignited the barrel powder. It was like shooting a modern gun. Instant blast. The barrel swung to the left as the ball exited the muzzle and the bullet hit the target on the left side right at the "neck" of the man silhouette target I was aiming at (25 feet away). The gun was steady as a rock. My view of the target was never obscured by white smoke after I had fired (weather conditions, clear with a 0 to 5mph wind in my face). Knowing that the barrel traveled left when I fired it means that I simply compensate to the right when I shoot it again.
I went up to Reddington Pass with a friend so that he could call 911 if I died when I fired it for the first time and I had him load and shoot it so that I could see how it fired. Every time he fired it (30g load), the pistol had this huge orange flame jump out of the barrel about a foot long with lots of smoke. I can't wait to go again and film it. It's very impressive. Expect the youtube video soon.
So, my final impressions of the flintlock pistol is this. It's a great shooter. I could actually go hunting with it. It's definitely accurate enough. When hunting, you only get one shot at an animal or bird anyway, then it runs off if you miss. So, reloading is not really an issue when you hunt. Primitive as it is, it's fast, deady and accurate. At close range, which is where pistols are used, this thing will do more damage to you than a .45 will. It's a one-shot weapon, like a bolt action rifle or a traditional single shot shotgun and equal to either at close range. (I imagine that after about 25 feet, that ball would spin out of control like a golf ball hooking or slicing.) But, I am very surprised at how deadly and shootable it is.
