Author Topic: Target Pistol  (Read 4595 times)

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Target Pistol
« on: March 26, 2019, 08:22:49 PM »
I have just finished a target pistol for a friend.  It features a Green Mt. .50 cal fast twist bbl 10" long x 15/16" AF, a 1" Hawken hooked breech and tang, filed down to mate with the barrel, and the tang straightened.  The triggers I had in inventory, and they are the same as the ones formerly sold by MBS.  the guard came from TOW.  The stock is a dense and heavy piece of American Walnut provided by the client, finished with Circa 1850 Tung Oil Finish, and chequered (16 tpi).  The grip cap is a piece of walrus ivory, again, provided by the client.  The rod pipes are from TOW.  The pure silver nose piece I made.  I engraved some borders on things just to smarten it up, and also did all the screw heads.  The lock is a Hawken lock by L & R but much altered and filed to reduce the size and improve the mechanism.  Rear sight is a casting from TOW - front one hand schmieded in my shop.
All steel is rust blued  using Laurel Mt. Forge's reagent, browned in cabinet for two days with two hour interval applications...boiled in distilled water for fifteen minutes, carded on Brownell's wire wheel, killed with ammonia, and lightly oiled.

Happy to answer questions and receive critique...















« Last Edit: March 26, 2019, 08:26:10 PM by D. Taylor Sapergia »
D. Taylor Sapergia
www.sapergia.blogspot.com

Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline rich pierce

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2019, 08:24:55 PM »
Heck, Taylor, evening he can’t shoot well he will be the envy of everyone else in the line.
Andover, Vermont

Offline runastav

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2019, 10:14:41 PM »
Beautiful :)
Helsing Runar

Offline smylee grouch

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #3 on: March 26, 2019, 10:25:54 PM »
GM barrel and long sight radius should make it a great shooter. Very nice work BTW.  :)

Offline Pukka Bundook

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2019, 10:59:08 PM »
Very neat, clean and Beautiful work, Taylor!!

I Do like your lovely clean engraving!

R.

Offline Gun_Nut_73

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2019, 12:46:48 AM »
Beautiful work, and I really like the pistol.

Offline smart dog

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2019, 12:49:53 AM »
Hi Taylor,
Nice saw handle pistol!!

dave
"The main accomplishment of modern economics is to make astrology look good."

Offline Daryl

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #7 on: March 27, 2019, 02:17:37 AM »
Nice fit lock to bolster - as always. Set- trigger - dang - think I need one of those on my old pistol.
Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a spaniel without ears" King George V

Offline Rolf

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #8 on: March 27, 2019, 09:46:41 AM »
Beautiful work. I love the engraving.

Best regards
Rolf

Offline shifty

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #9 on: March 27, 2019, 12:16:06 PM »
   Hi, looks like a adjustable trigger,do you have pictures of the trigger out of the stock ?

Online bob in the woods

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #10 on: March 27, 2019, 02:56:23 PM »
That is a really nice pistol , Taylor.  It looks similar to the pistols I recently saw at a museum in Perth, Ont. which were used in Canada's " Last duel "   

Offline Bob Roller

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #11 on: March 27, 2019, 03:09:59 PM »
Like the bag grip Hawken you made,this pistol stands out like a goose egg in a bucket of coal.
This is also proof of what you think of yourself as the maker of this pistol and also your opinion
of the new owner.

Bob Roller

Offline Tim Crosby

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #12 on: March 27, 2019, 03:10:49 PM »
 Beautifully done. Have you shot it? Just wondering how it does.

   Tim

Offline David Rase

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #13 on: March 27, 2019, 04:09:28 PM »
Nicely done!  The more I look at the pictures the more subtle details I see.  Wonderful pistol. 
David

Offline redheart

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #14 on: March 27, 2019, 06:17:30 PM »
I need to find a few friends like you Taylor. :)

Offline Daryl

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #15 on: March 27, 2019, 10:21:20 PM »
LOL - My old goat skin - good back-drop, as always.
Don't show them the other side.
Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a spaniel without ears" King George V

Offline bama

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #16 on: March 27, 2019, 11:44:23 PM »
Man if that thing shoots as good as it looks then it will be unbeatable. ;D I have always wanted a saw handled pistol and that one just makes me want one more. To bad you can not shoot these in the traditional matches at Friendship, only plow handled pistols are allowed. Great work all the way around.
Jim Parker

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Offline Craig Wilcox

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #17 on: March 28, 2019, 01:19:41 AM »
Looks like it was done in the 1850's by one of London's finest gunsmiths - splendid.  Reminiscent of a pistol by Mortimer of that period.
If you should happen to lose your client's address......
Craig Wilcox
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Offline sdilts

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #18 on: March 28, 2019, 03:25:05 AM »
Taylor,

What's the purpose of the notch cut into the left side of the breech plug?

Offline One Shot

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #19 on: March 28, 2019, 09:39:26 AM »
Taylor, very nice work indeed.....

Offline alacran

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #20 on: March 28, 2019, 04:28:37 PM »
Man if that thing shoots as good as it looks then it will be unbeatable. ;D I have always wanted a saw handled pistol and that one just makes me want one more. To bad you can not shoot these in the traditional matches at Friendship, only plow handled pistols are allowed. Great work all the way around.
You can shoot it at Friendship, just not in the kentucky pistol category. You would have to compete in the unlimited caplock category. Good luck with that.
That is really a beautiful pistol Taylor. I have looked at the photos over and over and all I can say is Elegant!
A man's rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.  Frederick Douglass

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #21 on: March 28, 2019, 07:27:03 PM »
Thanks everyone for your nice comments.  I finished up the pistol and took a few pictures for this site on the morning I was leaving town for a week away.  So it has not been shot yet, but I anticipate a take driving easy to shoot pistol.
The breech plug was relieved on the left side to help reinforce the stock at the lock bolt.  Muzzleloading stocks are notoriously weak there, and are often cracked down through the bolt into the wrist.  Not my idea...I have an English rook rifle with that feature, and it made such good sense, I often do this to guns that have a hooked or patent breech, especially if they have an English flavour.
You will recognize John Schippers in the engraving style.  Until I bought and read his great book on engraving historic firearms, I was at a loss to come up with designs that filled the ground available, and that were pleasing to my eye.  Now I need to do more than one of these a year so that I can improve.  I never start with a practice plate...just go straight to the gun and have at it.  One thing I learned doing this one...when cutting a line, it is easy to accidentally leave the layout line and diverge.  To avoid that, stop cutting, and back up the graver in the cut to see where you are, about every 1/8".  That way, you are in better control of where the point is taking you.  It worked for me anyway, after I noticed I was in trouble.
When I get back home, I intend to get out to the range and give this thing a go.  I left the front sight crazy high, so I could file it down to zero it, after we've found it's optimum load.  I spent a lot of time making sure that long tang was dead straight behind the breech so that I didn't have to have the sights kittywonkus on the barrel and tang.
D. Taylor Sapergia
www.sapergia.blogspot.com

Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline smylee grouch

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #22 on: March 28, 2019, 08:17:15 PM »
I really like the pistol Taylor and love the engraving. Can you tell me how wide the two parallel lines are on the border of the trigger guard? To me that border has an English feel to it and I will have one somewhat like it on a rifle in the future.  :)

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #23 on: March 28, 2019, 10:58:08 PM »
I cut the three parallel lines a little less than 1/16" apart, and in from the outside edge. 
D. Taylor Sapergia
www.sapergia.blogspot.com

Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline smylee grouch

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Re: Target Pistol
« Reply #24 on: March 28, 2019, 11:35:39 PM »
OK thanks. On looking closer I now see the three lines not just two. Straight and parallel lines tax my skill quite a bit so looking at yours gives me something to strive for.  ;D   :)