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Got the antique German pistol out shooting today

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Justin Urbantas:
For those of you that didn't see my post in gunbuilding, this is the antique German pistol I picked up from an online auction in broken condition for $250.
To bring it up to shooting condition I had to clean up and glue the break, and run a dowel up through the grip.
The nipple was frozen in place, so I used some penetrating oil and a screw extractor to get it out. The threads were good and I ordered a .01 oversized nipple from Track of the Wolf, and it worked perfectly.
I also had to make a new sear spring, replace a couple screws and polish up the bore. It was a bit pitted, but not awful.

Best I can figure, the pistol was made in Widdern Germany around 1830-1850.
It is a .50 cal smoothbore with no rear sight.
I like to think that I am the first person to shoot it in the last 180 ish years.

It was cold out (15 F) so I didn't do too much shooting.
The pistol worked flawlessly and I was surprised how well it shot. I shot 7 shots at 10 meters and then backed it up to 15 for another 3 shots.
Load was 25gr Goex fffg, .490 ball, .018 ticking patch and bear grease lube. It shoots a bit high and left, so I may make a new sight for it to bring it right to point of aim. 
I will take some time to try some different loads and experiment with it more later, but today was a great initial success.

Bob Roller:
Good looking old gun and we are glad you could revive it.Very good and simple lock'with a good looking mainspring.
Bob Roller

Daryl:
Not bad atall, Justin.

I would try some buck and ball loads. Some say to load the balls on the powder first, then the patched ball.
If so, I would put the balls in a patch. In my .54, I loaded 3 00 buck on top of the patched ball with a card
holding them there.
At 12 yards, the single ball always hit in the 10 ring of a B27 silhouette, with the 3 balls radiating in a perfect
circle, just  inside the 8 ring.  With 5 shots fired, the centre 10 ring had 5 shots, with the 15 buck, scattered
around radially in the 8 ring. Pretty cool, I thought.

Curtis:
It's good to see you shooting it, Justin!


Curtis

Dphariss:
Good work Jason. Old breaks are a pain to fix. Nice shooting too.
Dan

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