Underhammer

[11th corps]

Got this out to the range for the first time. It had been sitting in my gun safe. For years I didn't have a grip for it, but Mrs 11th corps ordered one for me as a gift last year. I finally got to the range with it.
I had two r/b's I thought might fit. the Barrel is not marked in any way.
.350 was too large.
.315 seemed too small but I went ahead and patched one and rammed it down the barrel over 20 grains of FF Goex. I forgot my 3F powder.
It popped #11 caps just fine, even with the very heavy trigger pull.
But the charge just would not ignite.
After about 7 cap pops it finally went off.
So I then put 10 grains of FFFF Goex and 10 more of FF and it went off with just a couple of tries.
Tried the same charge again, another half dozen or so cap pops before it fired.
Each time I cleaned the nipple, and even pulled it a couple of times to check for obstructions, but didn't notice any.
I did manage to put one shot on paper at approx 10 yards pretty close to POA.

 

[Nobade]

I have one of those, they drilled the barrel pretty deep for the nipple. You have to use a nipple with very short threads or it will be almost all the way across the bore. Take a look in the muzzle with a flashlight and see what you find. Something is not right there, it should be very reliable.

 

[desi23]

The one I used to have (and regret selling) was very reliable. I would agree something is wrong as ignition on these is pretty much directly into the chamber. If the caps are firing but the charge isn't I would also suspect the wrong nipple has been installed first.

 

[11th corps]

Thanks for the tip guys. I will check and report back.

 

[dave61965]

I have a similar Bondini pistol in .36 caliber, I shoot a .350 patched ball, I have found that my particular pistol has a very deep powder chamber, meaning with a very small load of powder the ball and patch will almost seat past the nipple opening resulting in a failure to fire, mine will fire with 30 grains of 3f reliably, just something to check.

 

[M. De Land]

Thanks for the tip guys. I will check and report back.

Might try a brass scraper on the breech plug face to get off carbon fouling residue. Some times it builds up enough to block the nipple hole .