Harper's Ferry Pistol

[frogwalking]

Some  years ago, before I really got into flint, I bought a kit to assemble into someting like a Harper's Ferry .58 flint pistol.  I had always loved the way these things look.

While Chuck and I shot it before it was finished, I shot it again last week.  It did pretty well considering there is no rear sight.  That sort of makes me wonder why they bothered to rifle it.  It has a terrible lag when you pull the trigger before it fires.  I looked at the flash hole and it is huge.  I later determined it is 3/32 inch by finding what size drill bit fits it.  It came this way, I did not drill it.  It also fired 9  times out of 10 with the same flint we put in it years ago to test.  I broke it trying to sharpen, but that is ok. 

My question is this:  In looking at the lock, the angle of the hammer jaws to the frizzen is nearly 90 degrees.  My other flint firearms carry Chambers locks, and the flint hits the frizzen at quite a shallow angle, pointing downward toward the pan.  I am wondering how in the $#*! this thing shoots at all?  Were the originals made like this?     

[moose3840]

Supprised no one has responded yet. One of the defining traits of the Harper's Ferry pistol is poor lock geometry.  Mine seems to need a very short flint to work properly.  Some people have modified the cock by cutting the front of the double throat bending the jaws down and welding it up.  Mine sparks well enough with a proper sized flint.  But I confess I do not shoot it much. But it looks good on the mantelpiece. 

[frogwalking]

Thanks Moose,

I did indeed buy it because of it's looks.  I had wondered if the Italians had lost the original lock geometry of if the originals were poor also.  I take it that the copy is reasonably accurate.   It does shoot with a tiny flint but eats them.

[Daryl]

For the most part, the Italians are very good at duplicating what they are copying. Many times, the parts won't have the smae quality as originals, but the geometry is usually the same.  I bought an Italian Sharps action in-the-white years ago; a copy of a M1868 and very close copy it was, only much better steel.