D. McCandless Pistol Set .50 Cal.

[Urban Coyote]

I've a matched pair of percussion single shot pistols marked on the bottom flats D. McCandless for H.E. Rogers 2002. They have L&R bar locks and are numbered 1 & 2. I don't believe these guns to have ever been fired.

I knew Ted Fellowes and he used to speak of a fellow named Dennis McCandless but I don't know if he, Dennis, built any guns. I did get the impression he, McCandless, did some machine work.

Any information would be appreciated.

Thank you

 

[Mark Sluka]

Dennis McCandless had a machine shop and built guns for nearly forty years, I know he specialized in making and installing custom breech plugs. I think he retired around 2010.
P.M. sent

 

[Urban Coyote]

Thanks for the information. I was able to contact Mr. McCandless, thank you, yesterday and got the history on these pistols which he did build. We also had a nice conversation about the late Ted Fellowes and shared a few laughs.

Since he'd once worked for Sharon Rifle Barrels I was also able to discuss another gun I have built by Ted using an early Sharon swamped barrel. When I bought this gun, a flint long rifle, through Ted from it's original owner he'd told me how this gun was built at Mr. Sharon's request as a display piece for our bicentennial to be shown at the NRA Convention that year. It was later sold to the original owner. While Mr. McCandless couldn't confirm this he did say Sharon made many swamped barrels.

The information that put me in contact was very much appreciated.