Another pistol kit question

[fw707]

Well, I found an old "Colonial Pistol Kit" while rummaging through some stuff that had been stored away for about 20 years, and I've been trying to figure out what to do with it.
It has a 7/8", 6" long, .45 caliber barrel, but I have no idea of the twist rate. The stock fits my hand really well, and the lock is strong and pretty smooth for a kit. The trigger needs a little smoothing up but I can handle that part.
I have a friend who makes some nice barrels, and I was thinking about having him use the breech plug from this barrel and making a barrel that I could just drop into the wood and have a shooter pistol pretty quick. Any suggestions as to caliber, twist, and length??
I received the kit many years ago as a gift, so I can afford to put a little money into a good barrel if I can make a shootable pistol from the parts.
I've been going to several club shoots this summer and they always have a pistol match or 2, and I don't have a pistol to shoot.
Any suggestions??

 

[Zonie]

What is wrong with the existing barrel?
The only thing that occurs to me is you might want a little longer one for your club shoots?
And if this is the pistol I'm thinking about, it doesn't have any sights. If I'm right, that could make target shooting a little challenging.

IMO, reworking the trigger might be a tough job. As I recall, it is a simple blade trigger and the location of the trigger and trigger plate is already set up by the factory. This makes repositioning it to get a lighter pull, or less creep rather difficult.

If it were mine, I would just go ahead and build it but before I started, I would order some sights for it.
My choice would be TOTW #FS-PA-253-I (small iron barly-corn with .360 dovetail) or #FS-Fusil-1S (small sterling silver sight- requires soldering it in place).
For a rear sight, I would choose TOTW # RS-DRU-CT (Skirted dovetail sight with .385 dovetail). This by the way is one of my faviorate sights because it is releaved and has a lot of easily filed material available to file down to bring down the group location.

both sights shouldn't cost much more than $12 total.

Installing the dovetail sights requires cutting the dovetails in the barrel, but on the Builders Bench we can explain how that is done with a saw and a file.

About the only thing you can do with the trigger pull is to disassemble the lock and polish the sear notch and sear nose to a mirror bright finish.

If you decide to try this I think you might end up with a pistol that will shoot fairly good groups. If it doesn't, you can always try your custom barrel method.

zonie

 

[fw707]

Zonie, thanks for the reply. :wink:
I'm not sure that there's anything "wrong" with the barrel that's on it, but I had always heard that the cheaper pistol kits had barrels made from rifle barrel stock and the twist was too slow in the short length to shoot accurately.
The barrel has a dovetailed back sight and a little brass front sight that peens into a hole drilled in the barrel.

 

[davidthered]

Humm, so it's a cap lock, hardly 'Colonial' in my view.

 

[fw707]

Humm, so it's a cap lock, hardly 'Colonial' in my view.

Thank you for your view! :haha:

 

[Rebel]

You will need to find a piece of brass and make a taller front sight for it. They shoot about 18" high. They are fairly accurate but not Target guns. They do throw a good wide pattern of shot at 10 ft. :grin:

 

[mykeal]

Rebel's right, they are not terribly accurate, but the issue isn't so much the twist rate as the short sight picture and primitive sights.

I built one in the late 70's and have had good luck with it. It takes a great deal of practice and some real sight picture/breath control/trigger discipline to get to be any good with it. I still wouldn't dream of shooting competitively with one, but I did take some pride in feeling that I had mastered the gun once upon a time.

I'd build it with the original barrel and do some shooting before I reworked it if I were you.

 

[fw707]

Thanks guys for the information! :wink:
I talked to my barrel-making buddy this morning and I can get a 1 in 24 twist pistol barrel (any length) with the drum and breech installed for around $50. I got the kit as a gift many years ago so I don't have any money invested in it, so I think I'll just get a barrel made.
I don't expect a shonuff match gun, but if it shoots better that'll make the matches more fun. :grin:
Thanks again!

 

[MikeChapin]

My first BP firearm was a CVA Colonial kit. That was so far back that the pistol had a differnt lock and a patent type breach. It has always shot alright with a 15 grain load. Nothing special but alright.

I had another kit given to me about twenty years ago. It looked like the kit you have. Someone had tried to put it together, missed the pin hole a couple of times and gave up. when I got it, it was missing some parts. I finally dug it out and started puting it together. I have got the holes plugged and got everything inlet and pinned. I expect it will show up as a prize at our shoot next year.