Pedersoli kentucky pistol

[dlocke]

I bought a Pedersoli .45 cal flintlock Kentucky pistol a couple months ago. I work on it a little bit from time to time. I bought a Kentucky style brass buttcap for it. I'm sure that will be a joy to inlet, so I was wondering of anyone had any little tricks about where to start when fitting the thing?
I noticed that the pistol has an ugly nosecap and the barrel is held on (up front) with a setscrew. I didn't like that arrangement, so I dovetailed a barel lug in to fit in a slot I'll cut in between the rod pipe lugs, then I'll pin it. I think I can make the provided nosecap look presentable by working it further back and blending the wood into it. Other than that, it is a nice kit.
DJL

 

[jdixon]

The butt cap on those pistols are tricky. I have done two, both came out alright. Not an expert but here was my system. The biggest problem I had is getting the sucker on the gun square. To get it on straight I scored a straight line around the end of the butt as far down as I could justify putting it. You don't have to fill the cup of the end cap with wood so put it all the way down, this will give you some slack if you screw up the first inlet attempt. Then I mic'd the ID of the cap at it largest point and the end of the butt of the stock at its largest point. Substract one from the other and you get about how deep you should cut into the stock at this point. Then start removing wood to that depth all the way around. Then start working carefully on those points that must be deeper until finally you can get the cap onto the stock. From this point it is fairly easy to carve out the wave on the edge of the cap if there is one, or pencil in the tang that runs up the back of the handle and inlet it. When done the cap may be a full 1/8" embedded into the stock. With the cap in place, carve, rasp and sand the stock down to the metal and you should have 'er done! :hatsoff: Secure in place with an old style #10 slot head steel wood screw in the end center cap.

 

[MikeChapin]

I did that on a pair of CVA Kentuckys. My wife got the kits for me one Christmas many years ago. They are the top two in the image

I didn't like the heavy cast nosecaps that came with the pistols and used crescent nose caps trimmed to size. The pistols still look a little clubby but better than they did.