elgin cutlass

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

David Snellen

40 Cal.
Joined
Jan 28, 2008
Messages
315
Reaction score
17
Gentlemen,
I was wondering about the elgin cutlass offered by deer creek (I think). I don't plan to buy one, but the elgin cutlass that I look at in Fladermans are side locks. Are you all familiar with anything authentic that looks like the center hammer replica?
Thanks,
David
 
The Deer Creek (Classic Arms) cutless is just a New Orleans Ace with a blade on it. The one you saw in Fladermans was the real deal and I am not aware of any replicas that would be accurate to the original. The N.O. Ace is supposed to be a replical of a real 19th century box lock boot pistol. I own one I built from a kit. Not very accurate but fun to shoot.

Don
 
Good morning. I owned a couple of the Classic Arms pieces. I only kept one, that was a Bowie styled knife they offered many years ago. It was made in the U.S. I think. I had one of their pepperbox offerings and a New Orleans Ace. Both were a waste of time and money. I waited well over a year for the pepperbox to be delivered, and at the time it was not cheap. Talk about disappointment when I received the pistol kit... A friend gave me a New Orleans Ace because he was so disappointed in the quality of the kit. I noticed it was made in Korea, and was probably produced by drug hazed monkeys using dull rocks. After fiddling for almost a year with the pieces, and passing them on to someone else to try their luck and patience on, they both went into the scrape bin. I wouldn't cross the street for a truck load of those even if they were giving them away. Complaints to the company never got a response. I did get a one time notice there was going to be a delay in delivering the pepperbox. No explanation was given and no offer of a refund (the thing was pre-paid). I'd like to think those pieces of absolute junk have been re-incarnated as maybe a bumper on a Toyota or something useful like that. I would never even in my most desperate moments, consider spending anything on their products again. :barf:
 
:thumbsup:
Gentlemen,
My father has one, and I was looking at it the other day. I had a pepperbox years ago, and due to the short nipples - I could only use CVA caps on it. That didn't fire regularly. Still, it was a close copy of an English made PPRBox. The "ace" is a copy of one made in 1860 called the poor man's derringer.
I didn't think the elgin cutlass was correct due to the box instead of side lock.....
 
I think the "Poor mans derringer" is a good name for the reproduction too, as in, "The poor man actually spent some money to get that pistol from Classic Arms."
 
I've had the same bad experiences with Classic Arms kits as you had. I actually built their Elgin Cutlass kit about 20 some years ago. Nothing fit, there was much reengineering to get it together, and the final product was just horrid. The back of the blade had to be ground down and reshaped also, or a ball would have struck it if the gun was fired. I never got up the guts to shoot the thing after seeing how shoddily it was made.

Being young and dumb (as opposed to being older and dumb now), I actually tried three of their kits. I also built the Snake Eyes and Pepperbox. Their quality was horrid too. I actually shot the pepperbox a few times, because I thought the chainfires were fun. :redface:
 
FYI, Here is the patent drawing for the Elgin "Pistol Sword." No. 254, pat'd july 5, 1837.

elgin.jpg


Old Coot
 
it looks like dixie gun works is still selling those elgin cutlas kits, and it looks like the blade is still the wrong shape. :youcrazy:

craptastick!!!!

I still might get one, heck, I love a challenge. :shake: and it looks like the only thing on the market. I have a sidelock 50 cal derringer I have been planning on mating to a bowie knife. But it might be quite a while before I get allt he pices to make it work.

till then, that elgin kit is mighty tempting. Anything about it making it totaly FUBAR? I don't mind reshaping the blade.
 
Well, there is the sad fact that the pistol part looks nothing like the original pistol. Then, as you say, the knife blade isn't correct. And the quality is quite poor. In the end, you wind up with a useless knife and an awful pistol which is why the idea didn't catch on in the first place. Oh, and all this inferiority will only set you back $120.00 plus shipping and handling. And to add insult to injury, you then have to assemble the clunker. I seems to me that FUBAR does apply in this case to some degree.
 
I remember when these guns came out--maybe twenty or so years ago. If you just have to have one of these guns then this would be the way to go. At least it looks right and will probably go bang when you squeeze the trigger. It still is a poor gun and a poor knife but no one will fault the quality of the thing. Or you could buy a nice pistol kit from Track and a really nice knife and still have some money left over for powder and shot...
 

Latest posts

Back
Top