British Light Sea Service Dragoon project !

[PathfinderNC]

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 358876View attachment 358877View attachment 358878View 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]

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]

 

[PathfinderNC]

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]

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]

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

 

[BCWILL]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 ?