Wogdon's bent barrels

[Bill Baldock]

Robert Wogdon, one of the most famous of the makers of English dueling pistols, bent his barrels down slightly so the flight path of the ball would be parallel to the line of sight.  He was very successful, retiring as a wealthy man, a rare thing among gunmakers of the day.
I would like to know (to supply input for a forthcoming book on Wogdon), if anyone has test fired a Wogdon dueler alongside a conventional pistol of the day (tapered barrel and conventional sights or no sights) to see just how well his pistols worked.

- Bill

[rich pierce]

Interesting but I am not sure how that works on a tapered pistol barrel.  Bending it down would seem to change the line of sight?

[hammer]

Do you have a source, Bill?

[smart dog]

Hi,
Hammer one source comes from a document by John Rigby read to the Royal Dublin Society in 1838 describing how Wogdon, Manton, and Rigby made tapered and swamped pistol barrels shoot at the point of aim at 12 yards.  He claimed Wogdon bent his barrels downward so the flight of the ball was parallel to the line of sight rather than shooting high at that distance.  I never understood this because why not just raise the front sight?  It is as if the makers made sights of a standard height above the barrels and then adjusted the barrel to the point of aim rather than the point of aim to the barrel.

dave

[smart dog]

Hi,
I pondered this as I was engraving this morning.  The sights on English dueling pistols I have handled were very low, particularly the front sight.  You almost aim down the plane of the barrel.  Dueling protocol called for snap shooting without taking deliberate slow aim.  Possibly the sights (the rear having a wide "U" notch) were meant to serve the same purpose as the sighting grooves and low front sights on fowling guns.  Simply a guide for a quick shot which mainly depends on aiming down the barrel.  That might be a reason for altering the bores of barrels to bring that sighting plane parallel with the bore.

dave

[smart dog]

Hi Bill,
I built a cased pair of Wogdon pistols scaled from a photo in John Atkinson's book on English dueling pistols:

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=8046.0

Over the years, I examined half a dozen English duelers, most from the early 19th century when the barrels became heavy.  However, I had the privilege of handling a pair of severely plain but beautiful Wogdon duelers.  It was love at first sight.  I've seen and built American "Kentucky" pistols and some British military pistols.  None comes close to the feel of those Wogdons.  I used lock casting sets from Kevin Blackley copied from original Wogdons to build the locks for my pistols.  My barrels were rifled swamped tubes from Ed Rayl.  They seemed to closely match my measurements from Atkinson's book but they were rifled of course.  I can say nothing about how Wogdon's barrels performed.  Suffice to say my pistols are superbly accurate out to 30 yards.  However, I think I can say something about Wogdon's locks.  The design of my Wogdon locks is the best I have ever experienced with respect to performance.  Later locks with 3 or more screws in the bridle may be stronger, but I cannot imagine any locks working better.  They are extremely fast and never, ever fail even when the flint is worn to a nub and the frizzen coated with fouling.  They function like sturdy but fine watches.  I built them right but it is the geometry of those locks that really mattered, not my construction.  I have more dueling pistols to build.  I have a pair of superb rifled barrels from Hugh Toenjes that are octagon to round.  I will build an early cased set of Twigg pistols from them representing a style before all duelers were made with full octagon barrels.  I also have a nice pair of swamped smooth bored barrels by Hoyt from which I will build another cased set of Wogdons incorporating everything I learned from my previous dueling pistol project.

dave   

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Great projects to look forward to Dave...be sure to share as you go, please.