tingle BP pistol Questions

[ctriley1]

Can anyone give me an info on the Tingle BP pistol built in the '60s in INdiana? Caliber? POwer? Accuracy? Quality? How was it loaded? Pictures I've seen don't show a rod.  My old Gun Digest (1963) says it was available in different lengths and with a shoulder stock. It appears to have a massive breech, and may have been loaded from there. Thanks for any info.

[rio grande]

I don't know much about Tingle pistols but oddly enough I saw one for sale a month or two ago, new looking, at Fountain Firearms in Houston, Tx. (I guess I knew enough about 'em to know what it was)  I think its been sold. seems like the price was under $300.   

[Will Bison]

I had a Tingle when in High School in the early 60's. The bbl is mounted in the heavy breech section. The bbl has a normal breech block with the nipple mounted in the center. Very direct ignition. I don't recall the caliber but I think it may have been a .40???  They were well built with good sights.

The bbl was about 8 or 9 inches. I had to carry a loading rod in my bag. It was a darn accurate gun. I think the design was just too modern for most folks. I traded mine for a '51 Navy. The Tingle only had a few moving parts, hammer, trigger and two springs.

[longcaribiner]

I remember the tingle.  It was a target range gun, not really made for carrying around hence no ram rod thimbles.   As I recall, they were built on revolver frames with that heavy breech block and the barrel, as I recall, slide in and out of the breech block.  An italian company, Palmetto made some knock off in the late 1970's.  I have two of the Italian made ones.  One is a tight 44 (43?) caliber and the other is a tight 36 (35) caliber.     They are very accurate. and were made for target shooting.   They use a revolver hammer that falls againt a perc nipple that is screwed directly into the barrel breech and in line with the barrel.    On the Italian makes I have, they have a simple take down screw.  Take out the screw and the barrel slips right out of the breech block.   Similar to some of the old stevens  and rolling block take downs

Back in the late 1960's there were many experimental designs of target muzzleloaders.  Tingle was one, the underhammer pistol, even a modern gun with a left handed lock mounted backwards on the right side.  The sillohuette looked a bit like a Govt 45 auto. but with a flint hammer and frizzen  sticking up.  The advantage was that the grip could be moved forward under the barrel and gave better balance.   I belonged to a club that permitted all kinds of "space guns", sort of anything goes as long as they load from the muzzle.   

[Blackhawk44]

The Tingles were produced mainly for BP target work, hence no need for ramrod thimbles.  The true Tingles were all .40's.  As stated, the Italian copies were in .36 and .44. 

[Rustyinfla]

  I had a knock off in .44 that I used to shoot in our local club matches. It shot so high that at 25 yards I had to shoot a six O' clock hold on the bottom of the paper to get the rounds to hit in the black, but hit they did. With the rear sight filed down almost to the frame it just didn't have any more room to go without putting on a higher front sight.
  That pistol kept me in the number 1,2, or 3 position for over a year in our monthly shoots. It would outshoot a ROA all day long. IIRC they were also avalible in some kind of a smoothbore as well. Something like 28 gauge.