Corsair Jager 36 caliber SxS pistol-looking for info

[bstogsdill]

Greetings,
I picked up a project cap and ball pistol.
Looking for any info..a copy of an owner manual, load data, etc if anyone has one of these.

I have cleaned up the brass and touched up the bluing, still need to make a barrel pin and clean up the bore and refinish the stock.
It is an 8 inch barrel side by side, 36 caliber.
Here is a picture.

Thank you in advance

 

[rafterob]

15 grains powder and .350 patched ball. These were pretty simple produced pistols.

 

[CyrusP]

We need more pics of that please. Muzzle, top, bottom, etc please and thank you.

 

[bstogsdill]

Hi I made some progress.. the top spring is cracked in half. The bottom spring is one I fabricated from a spring steel rod.. it is partially completed. The second picture is the installed spring. It looks and feels similar to original. It seems to function..i am excited to try it out. More pics after I get the barrel reblued...

 

[bstogsdill]

More progress.. staining the stock..or is handle..or grip.. sorry I'm not up on proper nomenclature.. barrel has been de- rusted and reblued... it has some pitting so I'm not worried about making it look perfect or perfectly new I just want a coat of black oxide on there that I can keep some oil on it and it will look good enough and keep the red rust from coming on and the parts ready to go on. I do have a little bit of rust that was built up in the counter bore for the nipples. I'm going to get a scrap piece of steel that is the diameter of the nipple counterbores and and try to make sort of a hand reamer that will ream all the crud out of that nipple bore. But I'll get that next time around. This is fun to salvage something and save it from the trash pile.

 

[bstogsdill]

Here is a better picture of the new lock spring or hammer spring.. is lock spring the correct term? I hope it works.. I tell you making things by hand really makes one gain and appreciation for the skills that Craftsman had over the years before the industrial revolution.

I probably spent 8 hours making that spring. And actually the first one broke cuz I got in a hurry I'm stuck in my vise and didn't think about it being brittle and I squeezed on it too much but in my vice it didn't feel like much pressure at all but it just snapped it like a piece of glass. so I made the second one and I had to tweak and adjust it several times before it would operate correctly or at least what feels correct compared to the other spring. And the second one I did not squeeze in the vice at all unless I tempered it first. The carbon steel is like glass when it comes out of the fire and cools off. A tempered it by heating it up till it turned purple the same color that springs look like they're naturally are when they are tempered.
Cheers

 

[CyrusP]

Great work, great thread! Thanks for sharing the journey!

 

[david w]

I suggest buying a 5 lb. bag of 000 buckshot. It's 5x cheaper than buying swaged balls.

 

[deerstalkert]

nice work on that mainspring! those can be more frustrating than a wife. just when you think you have it right "snap". i have five trigger springs laying on my bench top. in ten pieces!
its best to start exercising a new spring by only going to half cock for about 10 sets.
that looks like it is going to be a fun piece!

 

[bstogsdill]

I have it together less the nipples, the barrel pin and the front sight.
I'm going to take a socket or piece of steel rod and modify it to install and remove the nipples. I had a hard time removing the nipples without scratching things up.
Last issue... I lost the itty bitty front sight bead while rebluing the barrel so I ordered a hi Viz shotgun front sight that will not be like original brass bead but I will be able to see it. I can always remove it and put a brass bead back on it.

I took pictures but lost them... Will send more. Friday my new sight and brass rods will arrive...

One more issue.. my trigger pull is way to high on the new spring feels like 20 pounds... ..the hammer felt about the same as the other hammer so it fooled me. I'm going to use a fine diamond wheel and do some thinning on the spring and try to get the trigger to feel similar to the other trigger pull.
Cheers thank you for the help.

 

[david w]

. I'm going to use a fine diamond wheel and do some thinning on the spring and try to get the trigger to feel similar to the other trigger pull.

I'm sure you already know, but be careful not to go too fast on the spring thinning. You will affect the temper if you get it too hot.

 

[Grimord]

What you have is a Intercontinental Arms pistol. I have the same gun in .36 and I believe they were also made in .32, .45 & .50. Mine shoots well at 15 yards with .15 grains of 3f, but the barrels do not shoot to the same point of impact. I'm still working to try to regulate the barrels. I also installed a rear sight on the tang for better sighting.

 

[bstogsdill]

Thanks for sharing the pictures. It's the same thing as I have judging by the looks.. mine says Corsair Jager on the barrel but they both look like they came down the same assembly line.

I was trying to think of what to do for a rear sight for mine if i can get it shooting somewhat accurate.

My bore is not as bad as what I thought it would be except I really can't see all the way down to the bottom but for the first several inches from the opening of the barrel.. there is some places where there is pitting but it's not extreme.

A peep sight might be ideal to match with the hi Viz sight I ordered for the front.

How do you go about regulating the barrels? Do you sight in for one barrel then memorize where the other hits? Or do you use a different charge in each barrel?

How did you attach your peep sight?

I don't really know but I think these barrels are silver soldered or brazed together. I don't think they are welded. Does any body out there know?

Because of the suspected soldering I am afraid if I solder any sights to on it the barrels may unsolder so I am planning to drill and tap. Maybe a low temp solder would work... But I don't want to learn the hard way..

Here is latest photos.. it has a bit of character but it will be a shooter for fun.

I don't know but I reckon this gun style is not for precision shooting but for close range. Not having a rear sight seems like it would be challenging to shoot anything small like a squirrel but I will cheat if needed and use a load of pellets.

What kind of groups can you get at 15yards and how far apart does each barrel group?

Thanks again.

 

[Grimord]

I drilled and tapped the tang for a peep sight that i made out of a 8X32 thumb screw. At 15 yards I get 1.5" groups out of the right barrel, and 2.25" groups out of the left barrel. The groups are about 4" apart horizontally, but OK vertically. I was told that if I lightly file the muzzle of the barrel that I want to move I can change the impact of the ball. Haven't tried it yet, cause i am going to see if I play with the powder charges I can get the groups closer first.

 

[bstogsdill]

Interesting... That is a great idea using a thumbscrew! I may copy your idea.

I got my hi vis front sight installed... It is a whole heck of a lot easier to see than the original brass bead.

The sight cost about 10 bucks on amazon...the screw that fit the original bead hole was 3mm x .5. The replacement sight had 5 different screw sizes to cover most applications.

I had to put a thin washer under it because the piece of steel between the barrels was not flat, it was sort of hollow ground so as I turn the side in when it was sideways it would hit the high spots on the metal and not want to turn in far enough. The thin washer sort of helped somewhat make a flat surface although it did curve a little bit but when I did get the bottom of the site filed a bit I got it where it pretty much wanted to lock in place in a correct orientation so I applied loctite and installed it and I think it'll be all right.

I also cut a brass barrel pin..using 5/32 brass rod. I think it will work as well.
Picture is hard to get to focus but the sight is bright and will be easy to see. I'm curious how it will group with ball ammo and how it will pattern with pellets. I've got a war going on with gray squirrels who invade my bird feeders and chew their way into my attic. A real shot gun is too loud and I have some neighbors not to far off so I don't want to shoot 22 long rifles in the air. Have you ever shot pellets out of your pistol? I'm wondering what it's effective range would be on squirrels using pellets.

Stay safe out there.

 

[Grimord]

I have only shot patched round ball out of my pistol. I don't think shot will pattern very well due to the rifled barrels. I base this on shot fired from a .22 handgun. Pattern is OK to kill a snake at 10'. Beyond that the pattern opens up enough to drive a truck thru. Good luck with you attempts.

 

[bstogsdill]

It will be interesting experiment.

I have the pistol finished.... The trigger ended up not being so bad after all...so I'm gonna leave the spring as is.

I made a barrel pin and a nipple tool.

I will print some squirrel targets and see how things turn out and will post on the accuracy from a bench to get a baseline.

Here is a before and after pic of the pistol. Rebluing and polishing it up made a huge difference in appearance. It was fun to work on.

 

[bstogsdill]

I managed to get the gun out and shoot it today...

Had a few kinks to work at being my first time and all but overall it was a real hoot to shoot.

The gun shoots and my hammer spring did not break so it was a great reward to shoot it

My high vis front side is about twice as tall as the original bead sight so I think that made me shoot low about 3 to 4 inches in general.

I was shooting at 15 yards with a gun rest but it was hard to see the shaded target as my front sight was in the sun and glowing too brightly.

I may be drill and tap the tang to mount a home made sight base and by trial and error file down a sort of express sight.

I'm kind of going with the idea this ain't a target pistol but a defense pistol by design. Especially since it had no rear sight. Precision sights are probly not going to gain much, but fast sights will let me do faster timed plate shooting.

I used 15gn of powder and I got one grouping of 3 shots at about 5 inches one time with the right barrel. The rest of the groups were no good. Still getting used to the heavy trigger pull. I tried a couple shots using 20 grains but they were off more than 8 inches from target so I decided in future I will start over at 7 yards and maybe try 10 gn and then 15 gn again.

I recorded the session to upload but it is not too impressive.. my first ball I forgot to put a patch on it and it fell in the barrel. Then I used a .010 patch put it was too loose...so I used double patches... Seemed to work but a bit tighter than needed I think.

I forgot to get cards so I did not try to shoot pellets.... Maybe next time.
Cheers.

 

[CyrusP]

That turned out nice!