Pistols

[54ball]

Hello,
Well it looks like my longrifle will be pushed back until after Christmas. I think I will be able to swing a pistol purchase though. :thumbsup:
I have a Lyman Great Plains Rifle in 54. A Great Plains Pistol also in 54 will make :imo: a perfect combination. The TOW Hawken pistol in fullstock is one of the nicest looking percussion pistols I have ever seen. I may order the trigger guard and buttcap from them to go on my future Lyman.
I sometimes carry a pistol with me black powder hunting. The pistol I have carried is a CVA Tower in 45. It has no sights. Durring regular gun season I sometimes carry a cap and ball revolver. The reason I carry a pistol is more for protection than hunting. I dont haft to worry about grizzlies and indians but poachers,tresspassers,wild dogs,and heaven forbid crazy animal rights activists. It hasnt happened in my state yet but it might in the future. I just feel more secure with a quick second shot and I'm never quite unarmed even after firing the rifle. I think a pistol can provide a measure of safety of a different sort. If a person was disabled due to an accident, for distress shots a pistol would be a lot easier to manage. This is another reason to carry more powder and patches.
The Plains pistol being a great upgrade to pistols I have carried may allow me to take deer from under the treestand or real close range. How hot can you load them?

 

[tg]

You can load a pistol with a 10" barrel of a given cal. they same as a rifle with a 28" or 44" barrel, the recoil and accuracy may not be pleaseant/acceptable.

 

You can,,,,but I would suggest not to .the recoil in many cases with loads of 80 grains will take the palmal right off the pistol

 

[Deadeye]

I built a .54 pistol about 30 yrs. ago with a 1" octogon barrel 8" long. It's been shot hundreds of times with PRB
and 120 grs. 3F at over 1100 fps with no ill effects. Have also won some matches with it using 30 grs. If it's built same as a rifle it will handle the same loads. If not built that way it may not. :results:

 

I still must completely disagree.
So lets just say this shall we, this person should go get a TC, Lyman, CVA loading manual and load as recommended by those companies for their given product. That should give him a safe idea of a load without the chance of a horn growing out of his forehead.
Ultimately it

 

[flaming canvas]

Deadeye,

What kind of wood is that pistol stocked with?

 

I have a percussion Lyman GPP in .54. 30 grains of 3fg works very nicely.
However for protection from dangerous critters, humans bing far more dangerous than the largest griz and worth much less, a single shot ml pistol is better than a sharp stick but not a good as a fighting knie.
The knife won't run out of bullets.
If I really thort I'd be in danger from people critters I'd pack a 6 shot .357 or 7 shot .45 or...well you get the picture.

 

[54ball]

Hello,
I posted this post late at night. Sometimes my late at night thoughts are'nt the works of genius I thought they were at the time. :youcrazy: I have never had any problems hunting from man or beast. I do like the thought of having a pistol for coupe de grace and protection. Do any of you carry a pistol with your rifle? Do think a pistol has its place in the hunting woods? Realisticly I would never shoot a deer with one with my rifle close by. Also I would never carry it capped.
Is carring a pistol just accessorizing like women do :yakyak: with purses and shoes? My Plains rifle,powder horn and bag,knife and the addition of a pistol would'nt make my butt look too big, :shocking: would it?? :crackup: :crackup:

 

[Old Charlie]

In another post I talked about shooting my .54 plains pistol with 40 grains of Goex 3f and a 320 grain real bullet at 20 yards and it shot great. But I tried it at 50 yards and the bullet droped a good two and a half feet! So I woud not shoot at a deer with it at more than 20 Yards. Not eaven sure I would want to try that.
OLd Charlie

 

[roundball]

Might also be worth checking the hunting regs where you hunt...ie: in North Carolina it is unlawful to carry any kind of handgun during archery or blackpowder seasons, and in particular, blackpowder pistols cannot be used for deer hunting at any time...

 

i was going to say the same thing roundball . here in idaho its much the same . while you can carry a side arm it cannot be used for big game , IE you can hunt grouse .

 

[Tim]

How long is your barrel? Have you tested the powder charge over a white sheet or over snow to see how much unburnt powder is being expelled from the barrel? Heck my 28 inch .54 cal barrel doesn't burn all the powder if I load over 100 grains of ffg in her. Just a thought.

 

[Deadeye]

wood is birdseye maple.
Capchee, I wasn't suggesting anyone do this, I was mearly
stating what I had done and the fact that if the barrel and breech is the same as a rifle it will take the same pressures.
In Utah we're not allowed to shoot big game with any muzzleloader pistol, not even a coup de gras. We can carry a concealed carry handgun when archery or muzzleloader hunting but can't shoot big game with it either.

 

understood eace:

 

[RussB]

i was going to say the same thing roundball . here in idaho its much the same . while you can carry a side arm it cannot be used for big game , IE you can hunt grouse .

Ditto...same story for Washington State. You can "carry" it, but Grouse is the only thing you can "take" with it to the best of my knowledge.

Other than one particular feller I always run into, I don't see many people carrying a side arm during ML season, but OTH, every camp seems to have plenty enough to go around if you stop in for a cup of joe.
Russ

 

[tg]

I agree Capt. my point was to dismiss the notion that a large load in a pistol (80gr) would blow (damage)the barrel as is a concern with a large (300 gr) load in a longer barreled rifle, this is often mentioned as a safety concern and logic and physics does not support it.BTW no attempt to educate here.

 

[54ball]

Ahh legal issues
In Alabama you will get a if ticket you have any modern firearm concealed or not. The law is vauge about percussion revolvers.It simply deines muzzleloaders as being loaded from the front into the muzzle. Is the front of the cylinder the muzzle of the cylinder? In every catolog percussion revolvers are in the muzzleloading section. I know folks who carry them and they have not been harrassed by the game warden. I guess it depends on the warden's interpretation of the law.
Alabama is a concealed right to carry state and the pistol license states it is legal for you to carry a weapon concealed in public. By definition an unconcealed weapon is still legal to carry in public.

 

[Maynerd62411]

In Illinois, last year was the first year that handguns were allowed during regular "shotgun" deer season. Revolvers only in modern handguns able to produce 500fps @ the muzzle. Black powder revolvers are NOT allowed. Only muzzle loaded, not capable of firing a second shot without reloading.
This is for regular season. No handguns are allowed during "muzzle loader" season, which is the last weekend of regular season and the weekend after.
So, if you have a permit for regular season/second weekend, you can carry a handgun, but if you have a muzzle loader permit ( on the same day) you can't carry a handgun. :hmm:

 

IMO its not a mater as to if a give barrel will hold the pressure of a given rifle load. I agree it should as in most case the barrels and breaches are identical in construction. What however is not is the stock, not only in weight but strength in the grip, tang and for stock. In many if not most cases pistol stocks are much light in construction in these areas not only to keep the weight down but also to keep the light slim lines of a pistol. There are exceptions in pistols like the tower and other officers or Calvary saddle pistols, which are in many cases of heavy design. This however gives little consolation if the grain of the would is not right and thus weakening even the heavy designs and thus making any pistol unable to contain a heavy rifle or musket load safely

 

[tg]

I'm not sure I can go with that one...I think one would not be able to hold the pistol firm enough to allow the force of a heavy load to do any damage....anyhows most of the powder would become a projectile at any rate and be of no ballistic value.