Anyone shoot a single shot muzzleloader pistol?

[His lordship.]

Back in the day I used to have a CVA Kentucky pistol in .45 (.440 ball) caliber percussion.  It is what I learned to shoot with, and it was also easy on ammo, it was really a fun shooter.  I have been looking at some at Dixie Gun Works, the Traditions are a low end Spanish made gun, there is the Pedersoli's and the Lyman plains pistol.

I would like to get a quality made gun, and remember that the steel on the CVA (Juker) Spanish made guns were on the soft side.  I never had flintlock before, but do know that the percussion is easier to work with.  Does anyone shoot the Lyman or Pedersoli pistols?  Would you recommend I stay with percussion over flintlock?  I read somewhere that the frizen striker plate on flintlocks use a thin hardening finish and that the part wears quickly due to soft steel on the reproductions when the flint hits it, has anyone else heard that?   

I used to shoot at short pistol ranges, around 25 yards as I recall, can these things hit anything at 100 yards?  You might be thinking that I should get a rifle, used to have a CVA Kentucky rifle, good shooter, but I am pressed for room in my apartment right now.

Thanks.

[Draxx]

 I have a Traditions Kentucky pistol I built from a kit a number of years ago. Mostly it looks good on my bookcase, but it does actually shoot pretty well. About 3" high at 25 feet or so, but keeps a nice group with a charge of 35 fffg behind a .490 rb.

 A pal of mine is in the midst of building a Track of the Wolf Issac Haines flinter rifle, so that should be fun to play with.

 

[stewswanson]

I have a Lyman and have found it to be a quality product with an excellent lock design which can easily be reworked down to about a 2# trigger. I find the accuracy to be good at 25 yds. but doubt if the stock sights will allow you much accuracy at 100 yds.
Stew

[Hairy]

I have an old T/C Patriot in .45...it has double set trggers and shoots very well!  Good target sights and a hook on the trigger guard helps stabilize it when sighting.  I wish I had two of them.

[coyotejoe]

Muzzleloading pistols can be about as accurate as the shooter can hold. They are just a shorter version of a ML rifle. It can be a bit difficult to ram a tight fitting patched ball but otherwise they are about the same as a rifle. Unless of course you go with a smoothbore. Most military pistols were smoothbores.
The Lyman is a well made pistol but it is very heavy to carry and to shoot one handed. Most ML pistols are weak in the grip area, the wood there is all cross grain and being dropped or stood on it's butt while ramming a tight patched ball will often break the grip, even heavy recoil has been know to break the grip. I can't say any one is better than any other in that regard, except for the all metal pistols.

[P.A. Myers]

The T/C Patriot is a real gun, I find the rest to be toys.

[Odinbreaker]

I shoot a Lyman Plainsman 54 cal with 8 inch barrel.  It is percussion I did remove the front sight an put in a narrow blade.

[longcaribiner]

I have a dozen or more single shot muzzleloader pistols.   On the later CVA pistols the flint locks were actually better quality than on the TC rifles.  Percussion locks don't make near the difference, although a well tuned lock is a joy no matter.  I have side locks, box locks and in-line pistols.  Good quality rifling is ok, but at 25 yds a good shooter with a smoothbore can do as well as he can with a rifled barrel.  Most side lock guns are badly front heavy.  Add a heavy trigger pull and the guns are nearly impossible to get accuracy with.   Between lack of balance and bad trigger pull, many of the guns are just wall pieces.  I'm not suggesting that Traditions is a bad quality, but the guns seem to have more difference in quality control.  One may shoot like a dream and the next off the production line is terrible. 

For instance, the Crocket pistol, would make a good target gun, except that the company skimped and put the cheapest lock it could make on the gun.  If it had a lock with a fly in the tumbler and a single set trigger, it would be a good target gun. 

I have heard a few bad things about some lower end Pedersoli guns, which in general are a bit more consistent in quality. 

If you are going to seriously shoot targets, the gun lock will be stripped, polished and tuned anyway.  Often that service costs as much as the gun. 

The days of the reasonably priced import gun are long gone.  wish you luck in your search.

[longcaribiner]

The TV Patriot is a pretty fair gun, although even it could be improved.  The Traditions trapper looks nearly identical, but probably weighs twice as much and isn't nearly as well balanced.

I personally dislike the Patriot trigger.  It seems too hard to hold and squeeze the trigger.  Although the same is true for the Trapper, only worse. 

One guy I compete against, uses an old CVA Colonial pistol, with a 40 caliber Green Mtn barrel and a L&R lock. He shoots great targets with it, but he paid 60 dollars for the gun and 50 for the new barrel and 100 for the replacement lock. He keeps sayin he will put a single set trigger on it, but it has a reasonably light trigger pull anyway. 

[smokeater]

I just became the owner of a Traditions Buckskinner 50 cal single shot pistol, on sale for $149 plus shipping.  Still working on an accuracy load, first ever single shot muzzleloading pistol.  Have a Pietta 44 cap and ball,  brass frame, cheap but good entry level to see if I would enjoy.  I shoot either black ffg or T7 in ffg.  I must say either one is a complete hoot to play with and hope to try my luck at some tree rats this fall.

[simonkenton]

I had one of those CVA pistols, long time ago.
Your post just reminded me how much fun that thing was. I really enjoyed the heft of that gun and I liked shooting it. Lots easier to clean than a revolver.
Come to think of it, I can't remember what happened to that gun.

I need to buy a good one, they really are good looking guns.
I will stick to the percussion lock.

[shakey]

It was not a traditional ML pistol but, for several years, I used a T/C Scout Pistol as my primary deer hunting gun.  It was completely reliable, very accurate, had a good trigger and great sights, but it was a big ol' cumbersome sucker and I wound up trading it for a ROA.

Oh yes, got to mention that, heavy as it was, it still kicked ...HARD ...at least with my heavy hunting loads of 100gr of BP and a 370gr maxiball. With these, I had to limit my practice to 5 or so shots per session. I could hit very well with it up to a point but, if I continued, hand tremors would set in. Others may not find it so punishing but, my old bony hands couldn't take the beating. Or, maybe, I am just a wuss.  With lighter powder charges and either round ball or 240gr sabots though, it was a real joy to shoot.

For me, it was kind of too much of a good thing. Even so, I wish I had it back.

[madcratebuilder]

I've got a pair of old Miroku sparkers.  I don't shoot them often but they are a fun toy.

[guzzijohn]

What is the cleaning procedure on the single shots?
GuzziJohn

[His lordship.]

I used to clean my Kentucky pistol by swabbing the bore, removing the nipple and screw, then using several cue tips dipped in water or black powder solvent to clean out the drum area.  Dry and oil. 

I bought a reprint of the US Army manual of rifle maintenance for the 1863 Springfield years ago, don't have it anymore.  But, in the manual it said to run water down the barrel and flush out the breach and percussion drum that way, scrub, dry and oil.  With my new plains pistol, I run water down the barrel with the nipple screwed in.  Then remove the nipple and clean separately.  I use cue tips and pipe cleaners (Cabela's muzzleloader breech cleaners) on the breech area.  The pipe cleaners have a metal core and will bend to get into the drum area.  This pistol does not have a screw like the Kentucky pistols have. 

I also barely torque the nipple back in to preserve the threads, and they are greased too.  I figure with the taking on and off of the nipple I should be careful to avoid thread wear.  I do not take the gun apart from the stock.

[Rock Home Isle]

I would like to get a quality made gun, and remember that the steel on the CVA (Juker) Spanish made guns were on the soft side.  I never had flintlock before, but do know that the percussion is easier to work with.  Does anyone shoot the Lyman or Pedersoli pistols?  Would you recommend I stay with percussion over flintlock?  I read somewhere that the frizen striker plate on flintlocks use a thin hardening finish and that the part wears quickly due to soft steel on the reproductions when the flint hits it, has anyone else heard that?   

I used to shoot at short pistol ranges, around 25 yards as I recall, can these things hit anything at 100 yards?  You might be thinking that I should get a rifle, used to have a CVA Kentucky rifle, good shooter, but I am pressed for room in my apartment right now.

I’m in the same boat as you. So I thank you for asking this question.
From what I understand of your situation, just from ease of use and simplicity, maybe consider a nice well made percussion…but for history and just plain coolness…wow, a flintlock is hard to beat. 

As for me…I just purchased a .45 calibre Flint from TVM. A beautiful gun, simply amazing, and I’m considering a pistol as a carry-along to go with it.

Years ago, I picked up a .45 calibre Spanish Jukar in Ft Collins. It was a kit that someone slapped together, and at $24.00 I couldn’t pass it up.  I re-worked the kit and it came out  fairly nice considering what I had to work with from the start. I sighted it in at 25 yards and a 28 grain charge behind a patched roundy. Very accurate pistol…surpisingly accurate actually.  I took many rabbits with it over the years.

It’s a nice gun, I can’t complain about its functionality, but it’s not a flintlock.

[Skillet]

Got exactly six. Most are older CVA kit guns and all are .45s.

From derringers up to Kentucky Pistol size.

Excellent shooters with a little experimenting.

Most shoot very well with 15 gns FFF/Trip-7 and .445 PRB. Some shoot Maxie-Balls surprisingly well with a little more powder...

Fun to shoot and the barrels clean-up easy right in the kitchen sink!
BP

[skarke]

Love my Encore. I use xtp sabots, 2 50 gr pyrodex pellets and it shhots GREAT!

[Tom H.]

Put together a 58 caplock a few years back and it really worked out well.  Not terribly difficult to build, although the stock took practically as much work as inleting for a rifle.
Used a stub from a Jeager rifle and an old CVA lock w/o a fly.

The group behind the pistol was fired at 50yards. 50gr FFF and a .570 round ball.



Still waiting to take a deer with it.  May have to go to Vermont and take a pig at Wild Hill in the meantime.

Cheers

Tom

[rdstrain49]

If you can find one the P. Bondini "LePage" is outstanding.  This is one of the first groups I shot with the LePage.  3 rounds, 25 yards, standing (one hand) group measures .466" center to center.  This was before rather extensive sight work.  Now it shoots to point of aim at 50 yards.

[P.A. Myers]

That is a nice looking pistol, nice looking group too.

P.A.

[rdstrain49]

Thanks, didn't know what it was when I got, just knew I liked it.  I'd rather be lucky than good

[darkgael]

I have a CVA Trapper - a flint gun.
And I have this  underhammer pistol made for me by Bob Worthington at Greyhaven Arms:


.50 Cal, twelve inch fire blued barrel.

Pete

[Nobade]

Nice underhammer! I have a Hopkins & Allen underhammer and a Patriot. Both are great fun, but far from perfect. One of these days I need to make up something really slick, but other projects always seem to be more important...

[curator]

I love my single-shot percussion pistols. Both the Eathan Allan replica and my home-made kentucky cap-lock hand gun can shoot 5-shot groups of one ragged hole at 25 yards if I am careful when loading. A loading stand and good loading tools is necessary for this kind of accuracy as tight ball/patch combinations is required.

[Longknife 76]

Back in the day I used to have a CVA Kentucky pistol in .45 (.440 ball) caliber percussion.  It is what I learned to shoot with, and it was also easy on ammo, it was really a fun shooter.  I have been looking at some at Dixie Gun Works, the Traditions are a low end Spanish made gun, there is the Pedersoli's and the Lyman plains pistol.

I would like to get a quality made gun, and remember that the steel on the CVA (Juker) Spanish made guns were on the soft side.  I never had flintlock before, but do know that the percussion is easier to work with.  Does anyone shoot the Lyman or Pedersoli pistols?  Would you recommend I stay with percussion over flintlock?  I read somewhere that the frizen striker plate on flintlocks use a thin hardening finish and that the part wears quickly due to soft steel on the reproductions when the flint hits it, has anyone else heard that?   

I used to shoot at short pistol ranges, around 25 yards as I recall, can these things hit anything at 100 yards?  You might be thinking that I should get a rifle, used to have a CVA Kentucky rifle, good shooter, but I am pressed for room in my apartment right now.

Thanks.

QUOTE--- I never had flintlock before, but do know that the percussion is easier to work with.-----
 
ANSWER   I don't know why you think percussion is easier to work with, I have been shooting flints since '79 and thet are VERY easy to work with, if YOU know how to operate them....

QUOTE---I would like to get a quality made gun"------"  I read somewhere that the frizen striker plate on flintlocks use a thin hardening finish and that the part wears quickly due to soft steel on the reproductions when the flint hits it, has anyone else heard that?

ANSWER, If you get a quality made flintlock, with a quality made lock you will have no problems with the frizzen hardness, as a quality made lock will have the frizzen made out or high carbon steel and hardened all the way through....Foreign made flintlocks use "case hardening" which is low carbon steel that is baked in an oven  with carbon which gives the piece a hard finish that will wear off overtime and will need to be re-hardened...


QUOTE---I used to shoot at short pistol ranges, around 25 yards as I recall, can these things hit anything at 100 yards?


ANSWER---100 yard pistol??That is a rifle range,,,but I suppose you could hit SOMETHING??