REAL hunting Traditional BP handgun.

[M. De Land]

Other side and bottom of the same pistol. Happen to have lots of brass at the time I guess. Made the trigger guard and loading rod feral of it as well.Now you know why it weighs over 4 pounds.
Probably should checker the grip one of these days as it's getting pretty smooth and slick with use.

 

[Waterboyark]

THAT looks like something you could use. The fact you made it yourself is gravy. I have a piece of .58 barrel 1-1/8" on my desk. Old H&H 1:66 or so I think. Ordered a breach plug with tang. Who knows what will come from it.

What you built is very close to the Lyman's Plains Pistol I have in .54. Got to admit that it's a pretty good out of the box shooter (best for $$$ ?). Making it a flinter would be fun as I don't think they ever made one. I have a 20 ga. Howdah which weighs 4.5 lbs. The grip and balance is horrible but it's not too bad even with a 1 0z. projectile and 100 grs. powder. Barrels cross wildly though. I hear the .58 SXS is pretty good, see some guys have taken game with them.

A .62 rifled would be a cannon and fun build. A .58 probably more practical, and the .54 probably the best all round since it's pretty popular. But then, I've never been very practical...

 

[Waterboyark]

I can find reference to some old guns that had interesting provision for very precise sighting and precision shooting. This old German rig has folding sights that show it was designed for more than close range. It's rifled and about .50 I think. Was this for replacing the long gun in pursuit of game or shooting at bad men, perhaps both?

Either way it shows that a long time ago the handgun was seen as a possible longer range tool than what most folks think.

 

[pab1]

I have done the majority of my hunting with centerfire/rimfire handguns. So far I have only taken small game with my Lyman Plains Pistol though. Mine likes 20 gr of 3F (655fps) which is a great small game load. Thats a fun load to shoot clays with at 100 yards since there is enough delay and little smoke so you can see the impact. I mark my front sight like Elmer Keith did to make this shot since it has a rainbow trajectory. Its also accurate with 45 gr of 3F (890fps) but hits about 3" to the right of the 20 gr load at 50 yards. I shoot the 20 gr load more often so I'm not adjusting the sights. These are actual velocities off my chronograph. Both loads use a .530 ball and .018 pillow ticking patch. I have confidence in the 45 gr load for deer sized game to about 35 yards. Basically about the same limits I have hunting with traditional archery gear. Its accurate enough to shoot targets well past that distance but IMO it starts losing too much velocity for big game beyond that.