Is this a derringer lock?

[LynnC]

I built one from a Dixie kit once.  Took enough wood off the stock to make another!  Cute lil thing.  I too had the rebounding ball  problem.  Just can't seem to get up enough velocity to even stick in the wooden back stop every time.  Sold it................Lynn

[camerl2009]

the problem is with the 12gr or so of powder and the ball there almost no barrel left to get any fps out of it i dont know how it killed lincoln

my boot pistol has a 3" barrel(antique) it gets about 600 fps with 12gr of 3f 

these derringers are more or less belly guns press it up to the person and pull the trigger 

[bob in the woods]

Back in the days before modern medicine,antibiotics etc,  getting shot with anything...no matter how low powered, was not a great idea !!!  As defensive weapons,they were still not to be taken lightly.

[blunderbuss]

Shooting a wood post and shooting folks is different we're just not made solid like a post or 2x4. The statistics from back then bear it out

[AeroE]

I assembled one of the CVA kits of a Philadelphia derringer in my dorm room at Lowry AFB way back in the 70's.

Quality was mixed.  The tumbler in the lock has a chip; I reckon that was included to reduce the friction and improve the trigger pull.

I "proofed" the gun by loading with some forgotten load of Pyrodex RS, a paper wad, and enough #8 shot to fill the barrel, topped off with more toilet paper, I mean wadding.  I clamped the gun to a rail on a low bridge over a creek, maybe 6 or 8 feet above the water, and pulled  the trigger with a piece of string.

The pattern was probably 20 feet in diameter!

I think I shot the pistol only a half dozen or so times after that.

[blunderbuss]

Back in my mis spent youth I decided to see how much powder a water pipe would hold. i went out to a stock pond and with a 3/8 pipe nipple,6" long and plug I loaded with 25/30? gr ffg and a firecracker fuse.For a back stop I had a 5gal bucket of putty behind that a sheet of 1/2 in ply wood . I lit the fuse and jumped behind the rim of the pond .When the smoke cleared I examined the damage  .I figured I'd extract the ball from the putty but to my supprise the ball had penetrated the 5 gal bucket,and the ply wood. The pipe was in good shape not even a bulge.

[JTR]

Ya probably hadn't heard of the term 'Pipe Bomb' yet!
Or like me, had a young and dumb 'What, me worry' attitude! 

John

[blunderbuss]

No a pipe bomb differed as it has a cap on each end. I wasn't into making bombs I was intrested in barrel strength and even back then gun making. Some of the hammered iron barrels weren't much stronger than water pipe that is pound for pound . I had  an original wrapped shotgun barrel scoped on the inside, I forget what they called it ,and it had several flaws in it.This barrel wasn't worn at all so probally the flaws were original ,just not harmful to the shooting of the gun. The flaws weren't corrosion but lines where the weld wasn't entirely complete. As experienced in the 1890's black powder is forgiving, Nitro isn't and these type barrels would pop open with nitro powder so they changed methods of barrel manufacture. I'll bet these little flaws were common in wrapped barrels .That would make a great study.