Scots Pistol, by way of India

[colmoultrie]

Well,Santa (read: my loving wife)was good to me this year. There was a pistol under the tree... :grin: :grin:

Even nicer, she let me go out that afternoon to shoot it! Well, it's a .52 cal smoothbore, and I had some .490 balls and some thick patches, and at 7 yds. I got the balls on the target frame. With 25 gr. of FFFg the ball was bouncing off the cardboard backing, but it penetrated with 35gr.

Fit/finish are a bit rough, but it's functional, and since it's not a target pistol I'll see if I can do a few small things to make it fit better, but I don't know that there's too much I can do to a metal pistol.

Has anyone else fooled around with one of these, and do you have any suggestions for me for starting loads, where to get .505 or .510 caliber RBs? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Hey Buddy,

Nice Christmas gift! My Wife got me a revolver for the Big Gift this year!

Just one more reason to get together some time in the near future!

The emails of The Shooters' Gazette that I sent you a while ago have sort of an add in them for a member who casts his own lead...quite a nice guy too! Maybe give him a call and see if he has some bore-size balls to sell.

Also remember that you can double-up on the patching, especially with a short-barreled smoothie . Like a .020 and a .015 for instance.

Have a great New Year and the best to you & yours!

Dave

 

[PitchyPine]

Very nice, is the frame a aluminum or steel casting?

 

[rsblack]

very nice pistol.I think that I need it too
:v

 

[colmoultrie]

The frame is hollow steel. The tang for the barrel fits under the top of the frame. I haven't figured out yet how the barrel is attached at the front, but I guess I may just take off the lock and dunk the whole pistol next time, and just use alcohol and/or ballistol to capture any remaining water and make sure the frame doesn't rust. I suppose I could get sneaky and spray some clear lacquer into the grip area. We'll see.

 

[colmoultrie]

I have a bit of thick patching, but I'm not sure that it's giving me the seal that I want. I'll look again in those emails you sent me to see about gettting some larger balls cast. Thanks for the suggestions, Dave, and Happy New Year!

 

[chuckpa]

Col.
Are you going to try an over the powder wad and then the PRB? I think you might be pleased with the results.

 

[colmoultrie]

That's certainly something to try. I wonderif a .50 wad would work, or if I'd have to get .52 ca.? I suppose I could just upset .50 cal. wads enough to squeeze them out to .52, or there may be enough variance in the wads themselves.

 

[Rebel]

A .54 wad should work fine in a .52.

 

[colmoultrie]

Hey Pitchey,
Here are some photos for your perusal/pleasure. Hope they help if you do decide to try building one. If so, make it .50 cal, put sights on it, and rifle the barrel! :grin:

The button in the center of the ram's horn unscrews to form a vent pick.

 

[colmoultrie]

Once you make one, be sure to send it to me for a few years for "evaluation" and product testing! :grin:

 

[chuckpa]

Col.
Another trick that I used on the 1756 navel pistol from MTV was to get a turtle sight from North Star West and epoxy it on the barrel. I know it may not be p/c or h/c but it does increase you chances of hitting the target. I think of these guns as fun guns and don't try to make target weapons out of them, but for me adding a front sight and hitting a little better adds to my pleasure.

 

[colmoultrie]

Thanks. I had been thinking of a bead, and epoxy is an easy "temporary" solution that's easy enough to remove if I want to change it.

 

[PitchyPine]

Thanks for the pics, very interesting. I can see the plasma cutter would come in handy for inleting the frame which appears to be cut through with side plates on both sides.
I`m so far behind on projects now i don`t know if i`ll ever get caught up.
Thanks again. :thumbsup:

After looking again i see it doesn`t have side plates on both sides, but it sure could have on my model. :grin:

 

[arquebus]

Coulmotrie,

Another trick you might try to get a tighter fit with your RBs is to roll them between a couple of mill ******* cut files. This will give them a slightly roughened surface & will increase the diameter. I do this with .433 RBs for use in my Mortimer .44 SB pistol, & find I get an increase in diameter of about .008". I don't use a patch as the balls a thumb-press fit into the bore, but do use a slightly dampened felt wad over the powder & get very good accuracy at 25yds.

 

[PitchyPine]

We used to put two files in a vice and knurl pistons that way, worked good. :thumbsup:

 

[XXX]

I picked up one of these from Middlesex about 5 years ago and have been looking for a .52 mold ever since. I find the double patched .50 ball or .50 ball that is sold in the plastic sabot cup to be acceptably accurate for pistol range.