No muzzleloading pepperbox reproductions?

[BadDaditood]

A friend of mine has a original Allen and Thurber he bought at the Vegas gun show.
It’s in pretty good condition and functions flawlessly.
I have NO idea why I find it so fascinating… maybe I’ll see if he wants to sell it ;-)

 

[Tacitus]

I would love to have a faithful quality repo of an Ethan Allen Pepperbox. They look like fun little "rib ticklers".
When used as intended they were probably quite serviceable, at say riverboat card table distances.

 

[John May]

There's a .36 cal Hoppes Pepperbox for sale on a Gun Sale web-site here in the UK, apart from being expensive ($425) it also needs to be registered and only sold to a licensed firearms certificate holder with a correct variation (UK Rules).
Just out of Interest, I bought an original, workable Coopers Patent pepperbox for around the same money a couple of years ago. Section 58/2 so no paperwork needed!

 

[user 56333]

There's a .36 cal Hoppes Pepperbox for sale on a Gun Sale web-site here in the UK, apart from being expensive ($425) it also needs to be registered and only sold to a licensed firearms certificate holder with a correct variation (UK Rules).
Just out of Interest, I bought an original, workable Coopers Patent pepperbox for around the same money a couple of years ago. Section 58/2 so no paperwork needed!

Fortunately you guys in the UK are lucky in that original antiques don't require any paperwork. Not the same story on the island next to you...

A friend of mine has a original Allen and Thurber he bought at the Vegas gun show.
It’s in pretty good condition and functions flawlessly.
I have NO idea why I find it so fascinating… maybe I’ll see if he wants to sell it ;-)
View attachment 197250

I also own an original Allen and Thurber gun, it's in good working order but I hate the idea of using a genuine antique as a regular shooter on the range, which is why I'm desperate for a modern reproduction.

 

[JT1200R]

My uncle gave me this one

 

[John May]

My uncle gave me this one

This looks like the kit that Dixie Gun Works used to sell? If I remember rightly the barrels were hand rotated?

 

[JT1200R]

This looks like the kit that Dixie Gun Works used to sell? If I remember rightly the barrels were hand rotated?

Yep that's how you do it

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

Used to own an original Ethan Allen .36 caliber pepperbox. My grandfather acquired it in lieu of a debt he would otherwise have never collected. He had a choice between the pepperbox missing parts and with a broken hammer or a Colt SAA revolver in good condition. Grampa chose the pepperbox because he didn't want a gun in his house that could be fired... or so the story goes. I gave it to my son who has it on display in his appartment... still missing parts and with broken hammer.

I remember playing with it as a "pirate pistol" back in the day. As I remember, it was actually a nice handling handgun, all things considered. It wouldn't have been all that accurate, but then it was never meant to be a target pistol.

 

[springfield art]

Cabelas sells a Pietta 1851 Navy Yank .36 pepperbox.

Yeah, but that's the hokey thing where the cylinder just doesn't mate with a barrel; a real pepperbox is a longer barreled thing; I had one of the old plastic model ones back in the 1950's, maybe by Lindberg Models?

 

[hrt4me]

there are plenty of original Pepperbox pistols available for sale, and many can still be fired

I regularly fire a few of my own original Allen & Thurber 1837 and 1845 Pepperbox pistols with light loads

a buddy with a lathe helped me turn some round aluminum bar stock which I use as a ramrod, per se

 

[user 56333]

there are plenty of original Pepperbox pistols available for sale, and many can still be fired

It depends on the person I guess. I own an original in shooting condition but I wouldn't want to use it regularly on the range. I don't like the idea of wearing out a 170 year old antique when it's going to get harder and harder to find ones in good condition as time goes on. That's why, for range use, I prefer accurate reproductions when they're available.

 

[TFoley]

having given this about a three second thought this contraption seems to be an answer looking for a question.
watch

If I'm going to go to the trouble and expense of buying a handgun here in UK and putting it on my FAC it had better do something other than part the air with a few shots. To me that item is about as pointless [pun in there, BTW] as a rubber trumpet.

 

[Bunk]

If I'm going to go to the trouble and expense of buying a handgun here in UK and putting it on my FAC it had better do something other than part the air with a few shots. To me that item is about as pointless [pun in there, BTW] as a rubber trumpet.

exactly so sir. i live in central Texas and could get the thing through the mail.
Nice pun may I swipe the "rubber trumpet" that is good
Bunk

 

[John May]

Or even a chocolate teapot...

Incidentally the Hoppes Pepperbox has been on the UK web-site for well over a year and shows no sign of moving on. I wonder why??

 

[John May]

Fortunately you guys in the UK are lucky in that original antiques don't require any paperwork. Not the same story on the island next to you...



I also own an original Allen and Thurber gun, it's in good working order but I hate the idea of using a genuine antique as a regular shooter on the range, which is why I'm desperate for a modern reproduction.

If it's the same Island I am thinking of at least you can still have pistols, albeit registered and recorded as per anything much in the UK. If it's where I think it is, I didn't know that section 58/2's needed registering? Ouch! I wonder how long it will be before they come under the same 'umbrella' here in the UK?
As an aside, I wonder how the 'proposed' lead ban (UK & EU) will affect criminals? Probably not that much...

 

[user 56333]

If it's the same Island I am thinking of at least you can still have pistols, albeit registered and recorded as per anything much in the UK. If it's where I think it is, I didn't know that section 58/2's needed registering? Ouch! I wonder how long it will be before they come under the same 'umbrella' here in the UK?
As an aside, I wonder how the 'proposed' lead ban (UK & EU) will affect criminals? Probably not that much...

Modern handguns (including modern reproductions of historical muzzle-loaders) need a gun license and are restricted to anything with five or less shots, and frankly getting a license for any handgun above .22 LR ... good luck! As for original antiques, the definition of antique is "pre-unitary cartridge", meaning that only original guns which were meant to be loaded with separate bullet, powder, and primer are considered "antique". They don't technically require a gun license, but they do require a letter of permission to own from your local police superintendent, as well as a firearms import license if you're trying to bring one in from overseas. And depending on the superintendent in question, even the original antique may be required to be "deacitvated" before he'll give you a permission letter for it.

Additionally, black powder (and any substitutes like pyrodex) are treated as controlled explosives, which means you need a special explosives license to own even a powder-horns worth of BP, pyrodex, etc.

There's a reason why there's no Irish equivalent to the MLAGB

 

[TFoley]

Modern handguns (including modern reproductions of historical muzzle-loaders) need a gun license and are restricted to anything with five or less shots, and frankly getting a license for any handgun above .22 LR ... good luck! As for original antiques, the definition of antique is "pre-unitary cartridge", meaning that only original guns which were meant to be loaded with separate bullet, powder, and primer are considered "antique". They don't technically require a gun license, but they do require a letter of permission to own from your local police superintendent, as well as a firearms import license if you're trying to bring one in from overseas. And depending on the superintendent in question, even the original antique may be required to be "deacitvated" before he'll give you a permission letter for it.

Additionally, black powder (and any substitutes like pyrodex) are treated as controlled explosives, which means you need a special explosives license to own even a powder-horns worth of BP, pyrodex, etc.

There's a reason why there's no Irish equivalent to the MLAGB

For the last twelve years I've been the president of the Vintage Classic Rifle Association of Ireland, a small group of shooters of unmentionables who usually traipse over to An Rioch ranges in Co. Kildare, regardless to the weather. Of course, nobody has any kind of muzzleloader, long or short, nor does anybody except for the bunch at Tullaghmore do any reloading. Every now and then a few pals from the VCRAI and I get together at one of our guest days here in UK to shoot stuff that is either prohibited or unfeasable - like BP muzzleloaders or cartridge-shooters like a Snider, seen by one particular police officer in the SW of Ireland as a 'weapon of mass destruction that you could use to hold up an armoured car full of cash....' Riiiiiight.

Meself and two Micheals - the other two are busy on the shootingline.

FYI, there have been NO renewals of centre-fire handgun licenses since 2009. And with a license lasting just three years that means, more or less, none are now legal.

 

[TFoley]

If it's the same Island I am thinking of at least you can still have pistols, albeit registered and recorded as per anything much in the UK. If it's where I think it is, I didn't know that section 58/2's needed registering? Ouch! I wonder how long it will be before they come under the same 'umbrella' here in the UK?
As an aside, I wonder how the 'proposed' lead ban (UK & EU) will affect criminals? Probably not that much...

It depends which island you are thinking of. The Isle of Man still does it's own thing - not being part of the UK helps. Same goes for the Channel Islands. If you mean Ireland, then the North, still part of of the UK, still has ordinary handguns of any kind, and a thriving new pistol-shooting only centre to show for it. BP firearms are also regulated as per the rest of UK. I was unaware of the need to register ANY kind of Section 58 - obsolete calibre - firearm. I'll have to look that one up.

The Republic of Ireland, as I've mentioned here a number of times, while having draconian and archaic gun laws that are open to interpretation by anybody who may at one time has seen a gun, in spite of clear delineations as to what is and what is not legal - is a 'nope, ain't never goin' to happen' for us muzzleloaders. With the 1888 Explosives Act STILL on the stature books, and STILL enforceable to the extent that there is no mention in it of ANY other propellant other than black powder, and with the Prevention of Terrorism Act still being used with a heavy hand to ensure that less than fifty people in the country are allowed to reload, under the most rigorous strictures, we will never see even the return of blank-firing musket-using re-enactors.

 

[springfield art]

there are plenty of original Pepperbox pistols available for sale, and many can still be fired

I regularly fire a few of my own original Allen & Thurber 1837 and 1845 Pepperbox pistols with light loads

View attachment 197725
a buddy with a lathe helped me turn some round aluminum bar stock which I use as a ramrod, per se

Amazing! Didn't know anyone actually shot these nowadays!

 

[springfield art]

A friend of mine has a original Allen and Thurber he bought at the Vegas gun show.
It’s in pretty good condition and functions flawlessly.
I have NO idea why I find it so fascinating… maybe I’ll see if he wants to sell it ;-)
View attachment 197250

Geez, you may start a whole new 'fad' here! All of a sudden they'll be a big demand and skyrocket prices for shootable ones! No joke, as Joe likes to say!