British Light Sea Service Dragoon project !

PathfinderNC · Oct 30, 2024

BCWILL said:
Okay thats it…..I’m gonna say this is the final shaping/slimming done !
Took the grip down abit more behind the panels, flattened down and dished the beavertail around the tang…it was abit too “proud” before and didn’t look quite right.
Just some final sanding left and onto the finish
View attachment 358876 View attachment 358877 View attachment 358878 View attachment 358879
View attachment 358882

Well, you did a lot!
However.. .
Your side panel looks awfully “pointy”. The lock side panel looks good- If you do a rubbing on the lock side and transfer it to the off side…

BCWILL · Oct 30, 2024

PathfinderNC said:
Your side panel looks awfully “pointy”. The lock side panel looks good- If you do a rubbing on the lock side and transfer it to the off side…

Ya looking now I definitely agree !
I sorta roughed it out by eye…

Thinking I’d clean it up during the final sanding….never even thought about doing a “transfer” from the lock side !!!
Great suggestion and thank you for the feedback, it is appreciated

BCWILL · Oct 30, 2024

PathfinderNC · Oct 31, 2024

BCWILL said:
View attachment 359124

Bingo!

Ps: don’t forget the small indentation at the front of the stock. (That’s to help grasp the ramrod)

BCWILL · Nov 1, 2024

So in between waiting for each coat of oil to dry….

Might as well Spend some time on some little extras !
The upper jaw on the cock bothered me abit….there was a chip outta the leading edge and it was noticeably larger then the bottom jaw. Plus the border engraving

….after searching and studying many late sea service pistols online I have yet to find one with this engraving on the upper jaw?
( I Did see it on a few early Dragoons )
Eitherway it was a good opportunity to rid the chip, reshape & match the size, also a better shape to the hammer spur(?) and ditched the engraving

Looks much better IMO

An original (online pic) I referenced….

ArmorerRoy · Nov 5, 2024

This is a cool project. It inspired me to slim my Japanese tower pistol down as well.

BCWILL · Nov 5, 2024

So been playing around with finishes….think I’ve got a good idea as too the direction I’m going for that !
But after slimming the forend down the rear areas really stand out to me now !
Particularly this area above the triggerguard and below the side panels. It’s really deep through there and just doesn’t look right…

Fortunately there really is plenty of wood there to play with I’ve decided to go ahead and reduce it abit !
Before….

Afterwards….surprisingly it was alot of wood

But has a much better shape and feel to it imo and just enough wood below the ramrod channel to reinlet the triggerguard

And yes the borders around the lock panel still looks abit “thick” and I’ll likely take it back abit more
as well….

Mowich · Nov 5, 2024

For around $650 you can get a real British or French Heavy Dragoon pistol kit with quality and safe parts and accurate pistol design form Muzzleloaders Builders Supply out of Idaho. Just saying but it looks like you're having fun!

BCWILL · Nov 5, 2024

Mowich said:
For around $650 you can get a real British or French Heavy Dragoon pistol kit with quality and safe parts and accurate pistol design form Muzzleloaders Builders Supply out of Idaho. Just saying but it looks like you're having fun!

For sure that’s a good option….unfortunately for us Canucks our Prime Minister Turdeau banned the “transfers” on handguns last year(effectively means you cannot buy or sell handguns at this time)
So until he gets ousted and this gets reversed buying “handguns” is impossible

This is the only option for now

But ya it certainly is fun
nonetheless

Clark Badgett · Nov 5, 2024

Mowich said:
For around $650 you can get a real British or French Heavy Dragoon pistol kit with quality and safe parts and accurate pistol design form Muzzleloaders Builders Supply out of Idaho. Just saying but it looks like you're having fun!

Does the French dragoon pistol have a flared barrel? And you can get a better kit from TRS.

Relic shooter · Nov 8, 2024

I've worked on a few of the India built muzzleloaders, maybe not 100% historically accurate but can be made into pretty nice guns with a little tweaking & tuning.
Can't go wrong if you consider them as an inexpensive pre-assembled kit.

Relic shooter · Nov 8, 2024

BCWILL said:
So with the current prices of original Light Dragoons these days….especially ones in shootable condition !!!
I’ve went with an Indian copy.
1st impressions outta the box it’s actually not too bad…exceeded my expectations. Feels good/points well enough….and from a few feet away looks pretty legit to an 1821 pattern light Sea Service pistol !
Finish is pretty rough in places but decent in others. The 2 main differences from an original, it uses only one barrel pin, originals have 2 (rear one nonexistent on this) and the entry pipe is not even close appearance wise(I think they must be using the same ones for numerous guns) it’s actually the crudest thing cosmetically on the whole pistol….really quite terrible.
Lock is functional and actually throws a decent spark. (Definitely needs some tlc though) trigger pull is pretty stiff…and the trigger shape is pretty far from originals.(another case of one part for multiple guns I’m thinking)
Barrel measures 1” at the breach & tapers to .875 at the muzzle. Barrel thickness at muzzle .098-.1” Bore measures .632 !
Weighs 3 lbs 2ounces
Wood is obviously not walnut but is shaped decent enough…inletting is passible. Hopefully i can clean most of it up to serve as a decent shooter and passable replica !
….we’ll see about that

I like style of the belt hook !
Where did you find that ?

BCWILL · Nov 8, 2024

Relic shooter said:
I like style of the belt hook !
Where did you find that ?

It was the one it came with !
1801-1816 style pinned to the elongated side plate !

PathfinderNC · Nov 8, 2024

Good eye. I agree about the lock panels. Dave Person has great tutorials on making them. They blend over rather than look like the edge of a table. Here’s an original from the late 1700’s.

BCWILL · Nov 11, 2024

Finally got some more time for the Lil Sea Service

I will admit I’ve struggled alot with the trigger on this…..lightened up the sear spring as much as I’m going to and even with the lock work it’s still abit on the heavy pull side ? It is much better then it was but could be better.
First issue is it’s just too dam small !
Barely can get half a finger on it….

Doesn’t look much like any originals online I’ve compared too….
So I scrounged around the parts bin and came up with this one….should be easier to fit and looks abit more correct IMO ! (At least with abit of work anyways)

Old….

New….

Not being a great “trigger guy” lol, what I’m wondering about is the pin location seems very far from the sear bar(?) like almost an inch !!!

I’m thinking I should move the pivot pin closer to the sear contact point…everything I’ve found on here says it will help lighten the pull !

The old pin hole i can fill with a dummy pin and the new “higher” and farther back pivot pin will be hidden behind the brass lock plate on the
offside anyways

PathfinderNC · Nov 11, 2024

BCWILL said:
Finally got some more time for the Lil Sea Service
I will admit I’ve struggled alot with the trigger on this…..lightened up the sear spring as much as I’m going to and even with the lock work it’s still abit on the heavy pull side ? It is much better then it was but could be better.
First issue is it’s just too dam small !
Barely can get half a finger on it….View attachment 361327
Doesn’t look much like any originals online I’ve compared too….
So I scrounged around the parts bin and came up with this one….should be easier to fit and looks abit more correct IMO ! (At least with abit of work anyways)

View attachment 361330
Old….
View attachment 361340
New….
View attachment 361339
Not being a great “trigger guy” lol, what I’m wondering about is the pin location seems very far from the sear bar(?) like almost an inch !!!
View attachment 361333
I’m thinking I should move the pivot pin closer to the sear contact point…everything I’ve found on here says it will help lighten the pull !
View attachment 361332
The old pin hole i can fill with a dummy pin and the new “higher” and farther back pivot pin will be hidden behind the brass lock plate on the
offside anyways

That’s going to be a challenge. The closer the pivot to the sear the lighter the pull (if it’s level with the sear bar as well). But you’re limited because it looks like you can’t move it very far due to the trigger guard bow.

wiscoaster · Nov 11, 2024

PathfinderNC said:
That’s going to be a challenge. The closer the pivot to the sear the lighter the pull (if it’s level with the sear bar as well). But you’re limited because it looks like you can’t move it very far due to the trigger guard bow.

If it's too light or too much play it might be possible to incorporate a trigger spring, as I did in my Traditions Kentucky. Various ways to do that, not going into all those here, easily found if it sounds like something to do to improve the trigger.

fireman1 · Nov 11, 2024

Why not lengthen/reshape the existing trigger?

BCWILL · Nov 12, 2024

fireman1 said:
Why not lengthen/reshape the existing trigger?

This was my thoughts initially…..but after raising the trigger plate and guard up a full 1/4” I’d have to rework the entire trigger ayways. I figured if i have to completely refit a trigger it may as well be a “better” looking one ! Thats my story and I’m sticking to it !

(Nothing to do at all with my lousy hand forging skills

)

Too late now anyways …I gone and done it !

Pivot pin is 3/16” higher and cut the distance to the sear bar by almost half…..sits just under 1/2” away now.

At full rearward travel…lottsa room from the guard

Just made it under the sideplate too !

Now to refit/ the lock/sear, reshape the scroll at the bottom etc and see if it’s alot lighter ?
It Sure looks and feels much better IMO

BCWILL · Nov 17, 2024

Trigger done and definitely lighter….like by half !!! Down from 8-10 lbs to 5ish ! I can definitely live with that

Abit more creep for sure but I’ll remedy that down the road.

Something definitely came up while applying the finish though….
I had always planned to lengthen down the apron or beavertail around the tang…but I simply forgot about it in my rush to start finishing
the stock

It ends rather high, originals seem to have extend much farther down….with a thumb rest dished out.
An Original off the net….

But looking now it’s creating a big humpback look to the grip I’m not happy about and obviously ends way up on the stock vs the above image.

Just might still be enough wood left there to play with…

So back to the files we go !!!

British Light Sea Service Dragoon project !

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