What is this called? Four barrel percussion gun part.

[Swingo]

Hi all!

Thought I'd draw on the epic knowledge here. Reason for me asking is I acquired two old percussion pistols meant to be a gift for my sons. They have filled their quota of air guns, and when the topic arose on buying yet another one, I said to them that the next gun has to be a real gun. So I placed a wanted ad in the local paper and it resulted in an old guy offering me two old percussion guns that are permit free in my country. One of the guns appears to be fully working, double barreled percussion one, think it is a german maker, not sure but is has an eagle stamped into it. But the other one has a revolving-type of construction, and it totally misses some components. To make a long story short, my goal is to restore the gun and make the missing parts.

But I fail to hit reasonable results when searching for some reference design on the Internet. Anyone know what search words to use to find plans for the mechanism used here? As you can see, the "cap stems" are not oriented up but rather horizontally.

 

[Sam squanch]

It’s a pepper box! Missing the hammer, I hope the main spring is still in it. The thing on the side keeps the barrels from rotating, but pull it out and you can turn them. You may need to find some old books on these types of guns to see what a hammer looks like, these guns , some handmade, varied a lot, which can work to your advantage. Kind of a inline setup, cheap self defense when a colt was too expensive to get.

 

[Swingo]

Thanks Sam! Any suggestions on relevant books?

The hammers on most percussion guns I see on the internet follow a trajectory ending mostly in a vertically downward blow on the cap. I really cannot imagine how the force needed to fire this gun is produced. I reckon the mechanism used here is different from the run-of-the-mill percussion guns, i.e. those where the hammer blow goes downward...

 

[Sam squanch]

Pepper box firearms by Lewis Winant may help. Looks like a simple hand turned barrel cluster, with a simple single action mechanism. The trigger doesn’t look conducive to double action use! You can make the hammer to any simple pattern you wish, as this looks like a one off anyway.

 

[Sam squanch]

Made a pattern out of wood and see if you like it before filing on a hunk of steel….

 

[hrt4me]

interesting 4-barrel pepperbox

the hammer sure does not have much room for its arc of travel through the length of that slot; I would be interested in a photo of its internals if you feel comfortable disassembling it further...

 

[Erzulis boat]

More than likely the hammer strike is linear. It slides forward along the top of the frame. The trigger more than likely is also the sear. Just like an open bolt MG.

It would be a very easy way to construct that pistol.

 

[Swingo]

Great feedback, thanks a bunch!

@hrt4me I confiscated the gun from the youngest son and disassembled it! There is a hefty thick steel spring in there. (Sorry for the painty fingers, renovating at home) Still wondering about the mechanism. Hmm.

 

[Swingo]

Well, it seems I kind of found a gun which has a similar mechanism - at a very nice site called littlegun.info (I have made a small contribution to the guy). Apparently, one could buy a kit to build a pistol "Snake Eyes", or "The Deadly Deuce".

http://www.littlegun.info/arme americaine/artisan c/a classic arms co gb.htm

Edit: Found a page on Dixie Gunworks with a *very* small image of the internals: