Building a Scottish Pistol

[Monty59]

Hello Justin, sorry I don't remember the maker but it was a Italian made one !

Monty

[Dennis Glazener]

Monty that is one good looking replica (not to take anything anyway from Runar's excellent scratch build).  Apparently the Italian's knew something more than the current crop of India cartoon replicas.

I found a nice original Isaac Bissell used by the Royal Highlands Regiment (later to become known as the Black Watch) at this location - https://www.gunsinternational.com/guns-for-sale-online/pistols/antique-pistols---1500-1850/scottish-royal-highlands-regiment-flintlock-pistol-revolutionary-war-era-pistol.cfm?gun_id=100805793

It would be a nice one to copy - there are 14 photos for future reference.



Nice work Runar and you also Monty.
Mike

I am curious about 2 things. The barrel on the Guns International pistol appears to be elevated at the breech. Why is this?

What did Scottish rifles of this period look like?
Dennis
 

[smart dog]

Hi Dennis,
Scottish iron or steel mounted pistols generally had breeches that flared and extended above the stock at the breech. 


I believe this was done because it allowed a rear sighting notch to be filed into the breech but more because it allowed a strong heavy breech without having to make a steel brazed stock to fully encase it.  Making those stocks was hard and expensive so they were made sufficiently large to encase the lock mechanism but not the thick breech.  Eventually, those "design" or "engineering" considerations were adopted as fashion.  Many flared breeches were decorated with attractive fluting. Even the earliest Scottish pistols with wood and brass stocks usually had a elevated flare or boss at the breech that could be notched for a rear sight.  Scottish highlander long guns are extremely rare today because so many were destroyed by the British after Culloden in 1746.  They were well made and often had beautifully carved curved butt stocks somewhat like what some call central Asian "camel" guns today.  They retained snaphaunce locks longer than their English neighbors.   

dave

[Dennis Glazener]

Hi Dennis,
Scottish iron or steel mounted pistols generally had breeches that flared and extended above the stock at the breech. 


I believe this was done because it allowed a rear sighting notch to be filed into the breech but more because it allowed a strong heavy breech without having to make a steel brazed stock to fully encase it.  Making those stocks was hard and expensive so they were made sufficiently large to encase the lock mechanism but not the thick breech.  Eventually, those "design" or "engineering" considerations were adopted as fashion.  Many flared breeches were decorated with attractive fluting. Even the earliest Scottish pistols with wood and brass stocks usually had a elevated flare or boss at the breech that could be notched for a rear sight.  Scottish highlander long guns are extremely rare today because so many were destroyed by the British after Culloden in 1746.  They were well made and often had beautifully carved curved butt stocks somewhat like what some call central Asian "camel" guns today.  They retained snaphaunce locks longer than their English neighbors.   

dave

Thanks Dave, interesting. One of the reasons I asked about the Scottish rifles was I do not remember seeing any displayed in the visitor center/museum at Culloden when we visited 15-20 years ago. I remember seeing a few pistols but no rifles. Just curious about them.
Dennis

[smart dog]

Hi Dennis,
Scottish long guns made before 1746 are some of the rarest firearms to be found.  According to Claude Blair's publication on Scottish firearms (1995) only 28 examples are known to survive.  Hundreds were made between the late 16th century and Culloden but only 28 survived the English. After 1746, Scottish gun makers generally adopted English styles with the exception of the pistol makers.  They kept making the steel and iron stocked pistols well into the 19th century, which is why so many still exist compared with the early long guns. According to Blair 17 are in the Royal Collections in Edinburgh, 5 are in the Tower Armories, 2 are in Glasgow museums, and 4 are in private collections. 

dave

[Gunnermike]

Here's a better view of the Bissell pistol breech area -






You can see the barrel breech area is raised and the breechplug slides under the stock tang area with the tang bolt in the normal place. Runar shows the breechplug mounting on Page 1 Reply #15.  And thanks for fixing all those photos Dennis!

Mike

[Dennis Glazener]

Hi Dennis,
Scottish long guns made before 1746 are some of the rarest firearms to be found.  According to Claude Blair's publication on Scottish firearms (1995) only 28 examples are known to survive.  Hundreds were made between the late 16th century and Culloden but only 28 survived the English. After 1746, Scottish gun makers generally adopted English styles with the exception of the pistol makers.  They kept making the steel and iron stocked pistols well into the 19th century, which is why so many still exist compared with the early long guns. According to Blair 17 are in the Royal Collections in Edinburgh, 5 are in the Tower Armories, 2 are in Glasgow museums, and 4 are in private collections. 

dave

I can see why I have never seen any! Had never thought about it.
Dennis

[Gunnermike]

Here are some photos from the Royal Armouries -







Mike

[smart dog]

Hi Dennis,
Some of the surviving long guns are exceedingly beautiful stocked in Brazilian rosewood and gloriously carved. The long graceful Scottish snaphaunce locks on the early long guns and pistols were the most beautiful and elegant snaphaunces ever made. Italian, Dutch, and French gun makers made more ornate locks with exceptional engraving and chiseling but they mostly all lack the slim grace of those Scottish locks. It is ironic that Scottish gun makers were producing much more sophisticated and decorated guns than the English during the first half of the 17th century largely because they celebrated and learned from their European connections.  The English gun makers were retarded by the civil war and a chauvinistic "not made here" mentality.  That all changed during the reign of Charles II (1660-1685) when European connections resumed, a market for luxury firearms commenced, and highly skilled artisans like Dolep, Ermendinger, Gorgo, Barbar, and others migrated to England.  They put the locals to shame and initiated a dramatic improvement in English firearms.  What is remarkable, is that between about 1700 and 1800, English (and subsequently British) gun making went from a mediocre backwater to the best in the world.

dave