Project Idea: Wheel lock long pistol

[Sharpie44]

I really want a project gun. I just finished refurbishing my .45 Kentucky long rifle and I had a good time doing it but as soon as I get the barrel browned it will be finished. I’d like a long term project to occupy myself and keep me from boredom during the week.

I remember as a kid looking at pictures of those long wheel lock pistols and I really wanted one. Now I’d like to build one or something similar.

I want it to have a 24” smooth bore barrel that I can load shot or round ball in. I think it would be fun to go hunt bunnies and squirrels with it.

I would love to have a wheel lock but the only ones I could find were about $300 for the lock. So I might have to go with a flintlock.

The stock is going to take the most work and since I don’t know of any place that I could have one made for a reasonable price I’ll have to make it myself. I have done quite a bit of wood working in the past and I have some Oak and cherry on hand so I should be ok.

I would like it to look like a very simplified version of these. Link

If I buy a few parts at a time I think I can do it on my budget and it would cost me about as much as buying a fowler.

Any suggestions, places to buy parts (Especially lock and barrel), or criticism would be appreciated. I’m going to start drawing up plans and pricing things soon.

 

[Lostrifle]

A 24" barrel? Sounds more like a canoe gun than a pistol. I think you'd have a heck of a time trying to hold that on target with just a pistol-type grip.
In my opinion(take it for what it's worth), maybe you ought to think of going shorter on the barrel; 12-14 inches max.
I think I've heard of wheellock horse pistols with 18 inch barrels, but it sems to me that that would still present problems with aiming, unless the barrel was *very* thin and light; definitely a smoothbore.
As I said, my opinon.

 

[Sharpie44]

yes i think an 18 inch barrel would be fine for what I'm looking to do.

 

[bioprof]

The Rifle Shoppe and Blackley and Sons sells castings to build your own wheel-lock. Search the Pre-flintlock thread. I'm in the process of building one right now. The locks are really finicky.

For the amount of work that goes into building one, $300 would be a bargain for a completed lock, especially if it worked.

There is also a book by Lauber that has been published on how to build your own wheel-lock (there used to be a pdf file of the book on the internet). The plans aren't perfect, as a lot of the measurements for the holes are off. Many have tried and few have succeeded. It would be a good 3-year project though for someone skilled as a machinist.

 

[Sharpie44]

Well my dad is a welder and a mechanist so i could see what he could do.

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

Some of these early pistols had long barrels--certainly 20" wasn't unknown. Adriano Sala's book "Pistols" has some great photographs of early pistols including a 1595 Puffer with a 20" barrel. There are pistols in this book that aren't normally encountered in the States. Barnes and Noble might have it.

 

[Rolfkt]

If you follow this thread you'll get to a norwegain blackpowder site. The thread shows a wheellock pistol being buildt from scrath using Laubers book. It took this guy 5 months on his spare time (I think he is a school teacher). he showed us the lock at a shooting match and it works. He has also just finished a new wheellock for a carbine based on laubers book.
He glued the designs on the sheet metal and drilled the holes as shown. http://www.forum.svartkrutt.net/index.php?mode=thread&id=5206

You can download the plans here: http://www.tiropratico.com/manuali-pdf/W/Wheellock_Plans.pdf

Best regards
Rolfkt

 

[bioprof]

Rolf,

Just for posterity sake, could you post these links over in the pre-flintlock thread? I think there are a number of members over there that would be interested in the wonderful pictures of the wheel-lock build from Lauber's plans.

Thanks for the post. I hadn't seen that thread. Might even inspire me to start a project from those plans.

 

[Rolfkt]

I've copied the post over to the pre-flintlock thread as suggested. Hope it helps wheelock enthusiasts.

Best regards

Rolf

 

[bioprof]

Thanks Rolf. I know it will be appreciated there. :hatsoff:

 

[Cosmoline]

I recently picked up a tome on early guns of this sort. Some had exceptionally long barrels for a hand gun. I'll take another look tonight to see if they give measurements. They're sort of hand and a half guns, I suspect. Pretty cool looking though.

I don't think they made it to this side of the Atlantic.

 

[benvenuto]

"He {a Cuirassier} ought to be mounted upon a strong, and a lustie horse or a Gelding, which is fiveteene palmes high... and likewise to be provided with a good Sadle and Bridle, with two good pistolls hanging at his sadle bowe, in two strong pistoll Cases, the length of the pistoll barrils, being at the least foure and twenty ynches long, carrying a bullet of twentie in the pound, and of 24 which will roule in to his pistoll..."

-Henry Hexham, Principes, 1642

Thats the original spelling BTW...

An order of the Council of War in 1630 specified pistols of 26 inches overall, and 18 inch barrels, of the sane calibre. By about 1650 14 or 15 inch pistol barrels were more usual.

 

[44-henry]

I have a copy of Lauber's book and this summer I started working out his drawings in AutoCAD and found a number of serious errors in the dimensions. I suspect that most of these were the results of the translation from metric to inch, but it is something to watch out for if you try to build it. As soon as I get my dissertation wrapped up I will finish the drawings and hopefully build the lock, I just plain ran out of time.