The Frontier Pistol

This pistol is wifely named "The Frontier".
.50 cal Knight DISC barrel front piece with 6x.75mm nipple underhammer style.  I am not sure if this barrel piece is stainless or not.
Older lock (finally!).
Cherry stock.
The front of the stock will have a brass band like rifles do, I like it that way.

I am hoping that this pistol will be target quality, I'll determine that after a time at the range.

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Bench top layout.  Barrel is .50 cal with a 5/8-16 3-line bolt plug.  Old lock that will finally be put to service.










The inlet, part of it anyways.  I use a Swiss half round gouge for this part, really sharp!  Red sharpie for the inletting.  Really messy stuff, need to wear gloves doing this part.

Lock sitting in the stock, not secured yet.
Securing the lock could be with brass pins.
Brass band will be forward of the green zip ties.
My really old wood rasp here, it wouldn't work, so it was layed down on the belt sander and slightly flattened the points to become a collection of tiny chisels.  It works better this way.

Tang is screwed to the plug (8-32).  I will try to get my neighbor to weld it together so that the forward tang screws will disappear.  Rear sight can be on the tang (already D/T for that) and the front sight will be right about where the green zippies are.

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Apr/25/2015
Action Mounted with 3/32 inch diameter pins.
Ready for cap popping.

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Apr/26/2015
Popped a cap.  Now for range time???

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IdeZilla

Comments Welcomed.

Number Two of Four Pieces

This pistol is one of four muzzleloaders all cut from the same block of curly Maple, this pistol is the one in the middle.  The deringer (not shown here) was cut from the triangular piece (left overs) above the rifle butt











Many pictures of the wood grain, nice stuff.






Full cock.  Stock notch gives access for percussion capping.









Barrel pinned with 1/8 inch diameter brass pin. Front sight soldered, not moveable.

 Five Lock Pictures added: APR/19/2015

Small brass rod (in view) stops the sear and trigger

Various sizes of wire springs mounted on the top of the lock frame hold the sear and the trigger into position










Rear sight insert is removable for different apertures and has windage.  Loosening the rear sight screw (on top) allows the rear sight base to pivot horizontally.  Two screws in the stock hold the lock in place.  Elevation is set by bending the rear portion of the sight base, not too workable, needs a screw or elevator











Shooters view.  Tang screw will be replaced with slotted type.

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No range report, yet

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IdeZilla

Comments Welcomed.

Edited:
Apr/19/2015
Added Lock Pictures and corrected text description about lock function.

Old Underhammer Pistol Revitalized

Black Powder Muzzle Loading Under Hammer Pistol.

Here is one that was built during www.garagegunsmithing.com's life time, that site is now MIA.

The grip was way too large and the inside surface was too close to the hammer spring.  It would bang my knuckles upon, firing, but not now.

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Jan/28/2017:  Reworking this one to be a target pistol.

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.50 cal smooth bore, hammer at half-cock.  Walnut grip reshaped to be usable where it was not before today.  Action is another prototype that works very smoothly.  Single black screw in upper right holds the action cover down in that corner.

Right Side View, P05222012 is the serial number and date.  The two 10-32 bolts (through the barrel plug) hold the barrel in place. Grip rails riveted to this side plate (right side). Yes it's rough but it works.

My wife suggested to reshape the barrel to cut down on front heavy weight.

Action somewhat visible here.  Sear hangs down from center pin and trigger holds it in place.  Pulling back on the trigger moves the trigger tip away from the sear, lets the sear move backward, releasing the hammer.

 Top View.  Roughly sighted in for about 40 feet.

Front View. Half-cock, just enough.

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Original Grip.
Not enough knuckle room, Hard to grip.

Inside look during construction.

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Jan/28/2017

Am currently upgrading this pistol.
New rifled barrel, .50 cal, 1:28 twist.
Reshaped hammer spring, stiffer too.
Reworked action, lighter and longer release.

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IdeZilla

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Side lock with half cock locking

 Changed the barrel to .50 cal., 09/07/2017 (scroll down)

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This info is old, newer info is below.

1. Trigger and hammer sitting at full cock, trigger is held in that centered position with an internal centering spring.

2. Push trigger forward and hammer drops to half cock and hammer is absolutely locked into that position, cannot be fired.  Trigger cannot be moved to full cock and is in an awkward position for normal firing.

3. Pull hammer back to full and trigger centers itself to full cock, release hammer and it stays at full cock.

4. Pull trigger back normally and hammer fires.
 
After firing, pull hammer back, it resets to full cock,  push trigger forward and hammer drops to half cock.

 Full
Black tape temporarily holds pins in place.

 Half

Fired

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Newer Info:
Jun/22/2015
I am converting this lock to have a normal half-cock.
This makes the lock more safe and very stable.
Trigger piece is 1/8 inch thick.
Trigger floater is 3/16 inch thick.
Trigger has a fixed pin which fits into a slot in the trigger floater.
This allows the floater to move up or down.
From full-cock, the floater is forced away with the manual pulling of the trigger.

Fired position.
Hammer hook is holding trigger and floater down.
The trigger has a floating half (right side of trigger internally).

Half-cock position.
As the hammer is pulled out, it allows the trigger portion to pop up.
Trigger has moved forward and the full-cock floater is held down.

Full-cock position.
Floater has popped up to hold hammer completely out.
Pulling trigger pushes both of them down and bang!
Finger springs for each trigger piece always tries to push those two parts to full-cock.

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Apr/05/2016.

Old ugly iron barrel added, approximately 0.58 cal, 3 grooves as wide as the lands.
Olive wood grip, fits my hand.

Right side view.

Left side view.  Barrel+Frame looks bent, not so.

Half-cock, trigger moves forward.

Full-cock.  Trigger stays the same as half-cock.  No sights will be added.

I cannot pop a cap in this neighborhood, doing that may bring the local Sheriff around.

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Apr/10/2016

The two internal trigger parts.

Trigger (half-cock); Full-cock part; pin (axle) 1/8 inch diameter..

Parts as they sit inside of the frame.  Parts sitting at full-cock.  Pulling the trigger rearward, moves both parts out of the way of the hammer.

Parts sitting at half-cock.  Trigger forward, slotted piece sitting "level".

The two spring grooves.  Parts are held down at the rear with double legged safety-pin type springs.

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Apr/11/2016

Range time revealed the plug leaked.  A new plug was installed today.

I was shooting buck&ball (00 buck 3 each with a patched .530 round ball). It was loaded similar to a smoothbore using 20ga shotgun wads over the powder and to contain the shot.

Also a correct sized ramrod was needed.  One was made from 5/8 inch diameter (cheap) dowel, filed down to fit the bore.

Ready to go back to the range. (it's not 0.61 cal, my mistake)

Blued the barrel.

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Apr/12/2016

Blued: Hammer, Hammer Pin, Trigger, Spring Rear Holder.
Stamped a serial number on lower grip metal, "P04022015".

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Apr/15/2016

Showing how badly the "approximately 0.58 caliber" barrel is pitted but still shoots.
The muzzle half is the worst, further down the barrel it gets better but not much.

Barrel is 6.25 inches long and the internal useable length is 5.625 inches long.

 Here the 3 lands and 3 grooves are visible at the muzzle (only).  The black at the muzzle is a shadow from the flashlight.

 Land to the far left, Grooves, top and bottom.

Showing the 3 lands and the 3 grooves.

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Apr/22/2016

Range Report, 25yards.

First shot, to the right of the "dot".  .53 round-ball, 20gr of Goex FFg, 20ga wads to hold the powder in, leather wad to hold the cloth wrapped round-ball in.

Next three shots, 3 each 00-buckshot, 20gr of Goex FFg, same wads.

Not too bad for a really pitted .58 bore and no sights.

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#6 pellet holes are from that Muley 12ga. 40gr of Goex FFg, 1oz #6 shot, 12ga wads with 12ga overshot wads.

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 Changed the barrel to .50 cal., 09/07/2017

New stand, wood is Pine and crudely made but functional for several pistols besides this one.

Barrel is a rear piece of a DISC Knight barrel ground down to be somewhat octagonal.
This reduces the front-end weight.  Unfired as of today.  Some grip improvement on both sides as the Olive wood is very slick.

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IdeZilla

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An Ugly Resurrection

Here is another older pistol, dated "P11052011".  A  .50 cal DOM steel barrel, 1 inch OD, .50 inch ID, no seams, cost was $1US per inch.  The two slab side plates contain the action and an internal coil spring for the hammer.  The trigger rubs on the coil spring which pushes it into lock.  If you recognize the front sight, holler back. Walnut scraps for the grip. Today I added the hammer cup and tightened the hammer coil spring a bit.  Two large 10-32 screws go through the barrel plug and hold the barrel in place.

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Left side plate.  You must remember this was made back when I was just getting started, shown on a website called www.garagegunsmithing.com.  This pistol is not to pleasant to look at but it does get the job done.

Hammer down on a piece of fish tank tubing. The tubing is so that the TV baddies can be gotten rid of (dry firing allowed) thunk, there goes another one.  Grip has been stippled, a really rough attempt but it does really help in the gripping. The 3 screws at the rear hold the F-shaped grip into the frame.

Hammer full cock.  This grip shape points nicely.

Smooth Bore, .50 cal.  Rear sight is a block of steel soldered to barrel, tapped with 4 each 6-32 screws to mount a peep sight,  not moveable.  Front sight (the smaller brass piece) is threaded into the larger brass piece to adjust elevation.

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IdeZilla

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